Nevada

Nevada by Imogen Binnie
Piece of advice: this book is best suited to mature readers due to explicit sexual content and a lot of foul language (yes, I'm calling it foul language).
This is a book about a trans woman living in New York City and trying to come to terms with her body, her mental state, ad her relationships. The first half of the book follows the main character, Maria, as her life in New York enters a downward spiral, and ultimately falls apart. Maria doesn't fit in in a lot of ways. Besides the struggle of being trans in a world that doesn't really understand transitioning, Maria is also a bookworm, and a bit of a rebel. She also seems to have difficulties maintaining good relationships with people. Honestly, she is a little bit of a shit disturber. The second half of the story alternates between the perspectives/stories of Maria and James. James, according to Maria, is just like her when she was younger; she says he's trans, he just doesn't know it yet. James does seem to be struggling with his sexuality and gender, but never admits that Maria is right about him. The two have a strange, uneventful encounter that lasts a very short time, and in which nothing is achieved. Maria wants to mentor him through his transition, as she has done with many people through her blog, but James does not want to transition and the ending is ultimately unsatisfying.
When we began reading this book in my English class, my professor admitted that Maria always gets very strong opinions out of readers: either you will love or, or you will hate her. I'm not sure how I felt. In the beginning, I felt bad that she was so unsure of herself that she struggled to keep her long-time girlfriend. However, there is one chapter in the first half that is presented from the girlfriend's perspective which makes you realize that they are both causing problems in the relationship, and you pity Maria less (or at least I did). It was hard to read Maria's story at first because of the way she thought and spoke...plus that girl cusses up a storm! That bothered me, but I learned to read it without noticing her swearing too much. Another thing that bothered me about Maria was that she never tried to fix her own problems, but she often had issues with people and things around her. But, she was relatable. I also liked the way she saw herself and the city through a romanticized, literary/cinematography lens. By the second half of the book, I found her pushy, over-opinionated, and imposing. She still didn't have great people skills, but her ego had convinced her that she was a perfect teacher for someone like James.
This is not a book I would ever have chosen to read myself, but it was not horrible. It is just a really different type of book, and one that I am not accustomed to (and may never be accustomed to). The lack of proper sentence structure sometimes drove me nuts. The plot was also lacking the usual story arch.
But it's important to consider that this story is not meant to be just any other book. It is a story that gives a (somewhat fictional) glimpse into the life of a trans woman living in America. It's not a transition story; it is the story of the every-day struggles of a trans woman...until she decides to drive across the country and mentor a unrealized-trans teenager.
Please, if you want to read this, realize that the book opens with a very free description Maria having sex with her girlfriend, and that discussions of physical transition commonly take place. If this is not something you are comfortable, then this may not be the book for you.
But, if you do want to understand these struggles, and to put yourself in Maria's shoes, then this book is definitely worth a try.