I. W. Gregorio

A meet-cute YA romance that takes a somewhat somber turn as Will and Jocelyn battle the personal mental demons that are impacting their relationship. Jocelyn hires Will to boost marketing of her family's Chinese restaurant and it's attraction at first sight during the interview. Will is experienced at managing his panic attacks and other issues thanks to the help of a therapist. Jocelyn doesn't recognize her depression until Will suggests it, and still she doesn't fully recognize it. I liked show more the give and take between Will and Jocelyn but like depression, the novel kind of bogged down for me when their emotional/mental states suffered. I do appreciate that this book provides a lens on mental illness in young people. show less

I'm going to start by saying that I think this is an important book, and I'm glad it exists. Being intersex isn't something a lot of people know very much about, particularly teens. Intersex teens certainly don't get much, if any representation in literature. Kristin goes through a personal journey that feels relatively realistic, if a little rushed. I'm glad I read it.

However, there's not much else to this book. It's about a character's experience of being intersex, not about a character show more who happens to be intersex, and it reminds me a lot of novels I read about gay and lesbian teens twenty years ago. I got a little frustrated with the pacing at times, and at the flatness of many secondary characters. It felt like many of them were just mouthpieces for various interesting and useful information about being intersex, or were the standard villains you'd expect to meet in a teen novel about someone who's different.

I was also really frustrated with Kristin's decision to remove her testicles. What doctor would let someone do that when she was still freaking out about her diagnosis? Who wouldn't make sure she took her hormone pills once she made that decision? In the author's note, Gregorio states that she feels OK about Kristin making this decision because she made it in an informed way. I didn't think Kristin seemed informed at all; she made the decision because she was scared and wanted some control.

That said, this is the kind of book where almost everything works out in the end, so I'm sure that will be fine too. show less

Dr. Gregorio is a urologist by day, turned YA author by night. She set out to write a book inspired by her first patient with a disorder of sexual differentiation. It's a cute book that clearly thinks of itself as An Important Lesson On Tolerance, and as such comes off a little on-the-nose. There's "flavor" added to try to flesh out the book, but a lot of it is pretty shallow, and of course the happy ending includes the main character finding (heterosexual) romance, because it's not a book show more to challenge the status quo of 17-year-olds-must-have-boy-friends-to-be-happy. But it is a cute YA novel in which both the adults and teens are ultimately well-meaning. So if feel-good YA romance is your thing, cool! I wanted a little more nuance.

P.S. Ahhhh, why did no one offer the protagonist herniorraphy without gonadectomy? She was freaking out about having visible hernias. Those can be repaired before you make a decision about gonads. I'm pretty sure a urologist knows this better than I do. I got very distracted about this. show less

NONE OF THE ABOVE is about Kristin, a track star with a boyfriend she loves and a bright future, including a track scholarship. Her life veers onto a different path the night of Homecoming, when she and Sam have sex for the first time and things don't go well. Kristin goes to the doctor and finds out that she's intersex, a condition she doesn't fully understand - and before she can wrap her head around it, the whole school finds out, her boyfriend breaks up with her, and she has to stop show more running track (temporarily, it turns out).

NONE OF THE ABOVE rings true when it is about gender identity, and Kristin's character seems authentic; Kristin finds the support she needs in her doctors and other intersex (AIS) people, and she finds strength in herself as well. However, a few of the plot points and other characters seemed a little weak, particularly Kristin's two best friends, Faith and Vee, and her boyfriend Sam.

Quotes

"It may not sound exotic, but it's the best thing to be." (Kristin's mom on being the "steady" one in a group of friends, chapter 1)

Say something often enough and you'll believe it. (chapter 5)

But once you understood what you were...how could someone not want to be fixed?
I couldn't conceive of a world in which I wasn't broken. (chapter 18)

"How could I forgive her for something like that when she doesn't even think she's done anything wrong?" (Kristin to Faith, chapter 22)

You had to be strong in ways that I'd never thought of back when I believed that not being surrounded by a bunch of friends meant that you were weak. (chapter 22)

Everyone seemed to understand that strength came in numbers and identity came as part of a group. (chapter 22)

"The biggest difference between boys and girls is how people treat them" (Gretchen to Kristin, chapter 29)

"Be careful of letting other people define who - and what - you are." (Gretchen to Kristin, chapter 29)

I knew that the person I loved wasn't there anymore, yet I still felt the hope for him... (chapter 36)

One day I would find my own place. I couldn't run there, though, because it didn't exist yet; I had to build it myself... (chapter 40) show less