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What It Feels Like for a Girl

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'What It Feels Like for a Girl' by Paris Lees is a memoir that delves into the author's experiences as a young trans woman growing up in Nottingham in the early 2000s. The book navigates through themes of identity, drug use, sexual exploitation, and the challenges faced by working-class trans individuals. Paris Lees' writing style is raw, honest, and immersive, making readers feel like they are experiencing her journey alongside her.

Writing/Prose:

The prose is engaging and characterized by a strong sense of voice, employing a unique dialect that captures authenticity and emotional depth.

Plot/Storyline:

The narrative focuses on the author's journey as a trans woman, navigating trauma and finding her identity while engaging with her past experiences.

Setting:

The narrative is set primarily in Nottingham, providing a vivid backdrop for the author's life story.

Pacing:

The pacing is well-structured, keeping readers invested through emotional highs and lows while allowing for reflection.
The vicar sez Lord Byron worra bit of a gay boy an’ I had to bite ma tongue so I din’t burst out laughin’. Sez he worra right bogger. After we left, Old Mother ’ubbard guz, “He din’t mean what you’re ...

Notes:

The book uses authentic Hucknall dialect, enhancing the reader's immersive experience.
Paris Lees writes in the first person, providing a personal and engaging narrative.
The book contains poetic observations about everyday life.
It explores the challenges of being a young trans woman, emphasizing empathy and respect.
Paris Lees' experienced trauma from imprisonment, which is a significant theme in the narrative.
Reviews highlight its raw honesty, humor, and emotional depth.
The book is described as wildly entertaining, fresh, and real.
Readers noted that after some initial difficulty, they found the dialect easier to understand.
Paris successfully captures the complexities of growing up in a working-class area in the early 2000s.
The memoir addresses serious issues like drug use and sexual exploitation candidly.
Many reviewers believe the memoir should be included in secondary school curricula.
It's mentioned that the story could be adapted into a film, showcasing its cinematic potential.

Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings

High content warnings for topics like sexual exploitation, drug use, and mental health struggles.

From The Publisher:

"Fresh, original, heartbreaking" Reni Eddo-Lodge "Devastating, hilarious, unlike anything I have ever read. Destined to be a classic" Pandora Sykes 'A must-read ...

as mesmerising as it is poignant' Stylist, SPRING MUST-READ BOOKS TO FEEL EMPOWERED 'This utterly distinctive memoir, written almost out loud in Nottinghamshire vernacular, hauls you into the world Lees grew up in... it's shocking, funny, heart-rending and totally brilliant' The Bookseller, EDITOR'S CHOICE MAY 2021 'What It Feels Like for a Girl says it like it is' Evening Standard, BEST NEW BOOKS IN 2021 Thirteen-year-old Byron needs to get away, and doesn't care how.

Sick of being beaten up by lads for "talkin' like a poof" after school. Sick of dad - the weightlifting, womanising Gaz - and Mam, who pissed off to Turkey like Shirley Valentine. Sick of all the people in Hucknall who shuffle about like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave.

It's a new millennium, Madonna's 'Music' is top of the charts and there's a whole world to explore - and Byron's happy to beg, steal and skank onto a rollercoaster ride of hedonism. Life explodes like a rush of ecstasy when Byron escapes into Nottingham's kinetic underworld and discovers the East Midlands' premier podium-dancer-cum-hellraiser, the mesmerising Lady Die.

But when the comedown finally kicks in, Byron arrives at a shocking encounter that will change life forever. Bold, poignant and riotously funny, What It Feels Like For a Girl is the unique, hotly-anticipated and addictively-readable debut from one of Britain's most exciting young writers.

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