This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Gary Stout for Readers' Favorite
So many adjectives come to mind while reading Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite by Lianne Simon. Yet when you speak them aloud, they all seem so inadequate. Poetic, cautionary, bittersweet, eloquent, and even tearjerker just don’t accurately convey the essence of the story. Yet, it is a cautionary tale, a serious one about the weight of societal expectations with little regard for the individual. Ms. Simon has very competently woven a wonderful tale around a not often discussed subject - anatomical genetic cross wiring.
However, Confessions isn’t a dry medical thesis. Indeed, it is far from it. Confessions is a coming of age tale of a youth with special issues journeying through society’s definition of what defines a girl and what defines a boy, yet with little idea of what makes up a unique individual. With a bewildered mind full of conflict, Jameson/Jamie struggles to conform to parental aspirations while agonizing over what the inner soul sees juxtaposed with what the outer framework exhibits. Adolescence is seldom easy, but with a medical condition that mismatched a few anatomical parts, it becomes far more difficult and emotional. Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite depicts society's resistance to accepting differences; a society that relies more on which gender box is checked on the birth certificate rather than what the person’s genetic makeup determines. Confessions may also expose the darker side of familial dysfunction by showing how love might depend on blind adherence to accepted definitions of normal. Even so, the book is always very touching, and the reader will likely give the protagonist a piece of his or her own heart, always encouraging her to persevere.
I recommend this book to all families and friends who know someone a little different. See what it might be like to live within another person’s body, a person struggling to fit in while nature has given him or her a very different recipe for life. I shall long remember the little elfin princess who yearns to become a real girl. Well done, Ms. Simon.
