A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex… and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.
What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?
When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She’s a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she’s madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she’s decided that she’s ready to take things to the next level with him.
But Kristin’s first time isn’t the perfect moment she’s planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy “parts.”
Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin’s entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?
Favorite Quote
“There’s something sacred about being awake when the rest of the world is sleeping, when the sky is just turning toward the light, and you can still hear the sounds of the night before the engines and conversations of the day drown them out.”
Thoughts
I was debating on giving this book a 4/5 stars instead of the 5/5 because I thought the beginning was slow and the characters didn’t stick out; however, I gave this book a 5/5 because HOLY COW WAS THIS GOOD after chapter 3. It really changed my perspective on things. Growing up, I was always taught that there were only two genders: male and female. Males had a penis and females had a vagina. It was pretty cut and dry. I never thought there could be a possibility that someone didn’t fit into that mold of being simply male or female.
However, I ended up taking a LGBTQ Studies class in college and learned of all these new terms like intersex and gender non-binary etc. So this book really fascinated me. I love exploring new things about gender and how gender is really just a social construct used to “organize” society, if you will. Although, I’m getting off topic. I feel like this book was not only good, but informational as well. The author did a lot of research and talked to a lot of intersex individuals in order to make sure the story was told accurate. Kudos to her!
This book was extremely depressing at times. As the synopsis says, word gets out that Krissy is intersex. I couldn’t believe how rude people could be. I mean, my high school could be pretty mean, but not as cruel as Krissy’s high school. Man. I got a sense of hope when reading this story. Even if things were dark and dreay, there still felt like hope hidden between the lines of the story.
Moving on to characters, I loved Krissy’s character. I had a hard time enjoying her at the beginning, but I fell in love with her. She was real and raw. She had accurate thoughts for a teenage girl getting bullied. She had some great friends. I loved Faith, Darren, and Jessica. I saw myself in all of those characters because they didn’t care that Krissy has XY chromosomes. She was still Krissy and they still love and accept her for who she is.
And lastly, I wasn’t fond of the ending. Although I felt hope in the end, the reader doesn’t find out much that helps with Krissy’s life and how things play out. I wish there was a companion novel or something because I want to know what happens with Krissy and how things go for her in the future. I highly recommend this story. It’s so freaking beautiful!
escapelifeinthepages.com 