Review by Booklist Review
This may be a small book, but it packs a huge punch. In this graphic memoir, as De La Cruz explores what true freedom looks like and how she overcame societal obstacles, she touches on many nuanced and complicated topics. Race, sexuality, gender expression, and spirituality can all have prevailing negative stereotypes and be used to marginalize people, but as is shown here, they also can provide paths for self-exploration and love. Navigating the different facets of one's identity can be remarkably complex--which explains the additional reading list in the back matter--but the author tackles her history and these larger issues with plenty of humor, as well. The art style feels intentionally colorful and cartoonish, lending a bit of levity to scenes where friends make transphobic comments or the story of the Stonewall riots is told. Anyone out there feeling like they are alone in their struggle may find a kindred spirit in De La Cruz's telling of her own journey.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
De La Cruz's limber, playful debut collection takes on intersectional identity and is informed by her experiences growing up as an androgynous, Xena-loving, Puerto Rican--Dominican Black girl. She pulls from sources ranging from Stonewall history to the writings of Melissa Harris-Perry and Kimberlé Crenshaw, but also taps into current conversations about race, gender, and sexuality. For example, she redraws the much-circulated meme of a guy's head turning at the sight of a cute young woman, to the dismay of the woman whose hand he's holding; in De La Cruz's version, she's the "guy," and her boyfriend is perplexed by a female passerby's ability to distract her. De La Cruz states her thesis in nearly academic terms--"Patriarchy thrives under strict gender norms, and toxic masculinity stems from patriarchy.... Gender and sex are not interchangeable and anyway, WE'VE MADE IT ALL UP!"--which she offsets with a cartoony style, bright colors, and silly details (her avatar does yoga in the table of contents, and farts in downward dog). The stronger sections are the most personal, as when she mines her experience of coming out to her self-absorbed mother. De La Cruz may still be finding her voice in this patchwork assortment, but the wit and exuberance found here marks her as a worthy new artist. (Feb.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up--A powerful coming out story done in the graphic memoir format. As a queer Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Black woman, De La Cruz came to embrace her identity not just by claiming it but by decolonizing it, which required an understanding that her shame arose from internalizing racist and sexist social norms. She explains this through Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry's discussion of an experiment in which participants sitting in a chair that was off-balance in a crooked room didn't notice anything wrong--a metaphor that explains many Black women's experience. The memoirist realized that she was aligning herself with wrong ideas--capitalism and white feminism. It was not an easy journey, but once she "left the room," she cast aside shame and could experience her queerness and culture fully. De La Cruz's art is colorful and engaging. Her images, though generally soft-edged and rounded, express a range of emotion: confusion, anger, and happiness. The handwritten appearance of the text adds intimacy to her story. Back matter with resources for readers on their own journey is a plus. VERDICT De La Cruz's work distinguishes itself from other memoirs in her recognition of how internalized stereotypes can stand in the way of self-acceptance.--Carla Riemer, Berkeley, CA
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A graphic memoir about the forming of one woman's queer identity. De La Cruz tells the story of growing into her queerness, illustrating moments of adolescent confusion and repression leading up to eventual confidence in her adult self. The author not only explores how her queer identity formed, but also how the intersection of her other identities--for example, race and gender--compounded the struggles she experienced. A Black woman from a Caribbean Latinx family, De La Cruz delves into her juggling of many forms of internalized oppression, from the shame caused by familial, community, and internalized racism to the discomfort and stress of strict gender binaries and their impact on her feelings about clothing. As De La Cruz contended with surviving stressful external realities while also deconstructing harmful ideologies, her journey to being out was a long but rewarding one. She also educates readers on queer and racial history, as in a section that illustrates the background to the Stonewall uprising. The book expects readers to already be somewhat familiar with terms like patriarchy and heteronormative to get the most out of the text's more advanced concepts. A sketchy, zinelike art style combined with the interesting framing of panels and gutters effectively portrays both the fears and joys of discovering one's marginalized identity and vividly and effectively conveys the author's changing understanding. This potent memoir assuredly navigates the complicated intersections of identity. (Graphic memoir. 16-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
