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(7/4/2023) this was way less queer than i thought it would be, which is not necessarily a bad thing! it's an interesting examination of the author's relationship to femininity and “girlhood” and the gender binary while growing up, but while it touches on feeling uncomfortable in your body and wanting to be a boy because boys got to do cooler stuff it does deviate from the “typical” trans narrative in a way that's closer to my own experience.
(7/1/2023) a quick read, but it didn't feel rushed. wish we could have spent more time with the characters, but it was pleasing in a wrapped-up short film kinda way. the art was cool, the banter was good. worldbuilding could have gone a bit deeper, but if we think of it as a small package maybe it was just enough? undecided.
(6/27/2023) this was a reread. i last read this a few months ago (or late last year) while doing a pass of books on my shelf to donate/sell, but i've read it at least twice before that.
originally impulse-bought as a used book at a now-defunct local games and comics store in northampton for $5.99.
the POV shifts throughout are interesting and it can be a fun puzzle to figure out what is happening (unless you “recently” read it, like me) and who is who. it's a very short read, though, and there's not much time to get attached to the characters, and they show up kinda like assholes in many scenes. i think i kept the book this long because there's some gay intrigue (back from my “will consume content for breadcrumbs” days) but it's not earth-shattering.
i just put together on this particular readthrough that there were some context clues about a part of the story happening on 9/11. that was a “huh.” moment.
(notes on 6/27/2023) this was a reread (dates are estimated, but definitely during june 2023), only brought on by me watching 2/3 of the disney+ television adaptation (mediocre, imo, despite the cast) and wanting to revisit the source material to see if the MC was as insufferable in the graphic novel as he is in the show. i last read this a very long time ago, likely close to release date, and i've kept it on my shelf for this long because it was a showoff title for my asian american lit collection. i can't say i love it now or find as much importance in it the further away from high school i get, but it was certainly a book of its time.
i think it embellishes the story of the monkey king and i'm kinda intrigued about how the OG story actually went, because i only remember bits and pieces from my upbringing. i was trying to summarize the OG for a friend before we started the show but couldn't remember details beyond him storing a size-changing magic staff in his ear, wrecking a peach garden, and trying to outrun someone's hand and peeing on it thinking it was a mountain then getting trapped under a rock.
