shippychaos reviewed Fishwives by Sally Bellerose
Review of 'Fishwives' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I had no clue what I was getting myself into when I picked up this book, and WOW did it take me on a beautiful and pain-filled journey.
Jackie is the first masculine female character who I’ve ever read about chest binding, and the first time I have seen gendered body dysphoria so present in (contemporary?) lesbian fiction—though not labeled as such. Jackie is still binding her chest at 90yr old, and this topic just does. not. appear in lesfic. I am so grateful to this author for including it, and for writing Jackie’s experience of gender so …gracefully.
I actually don’t know how to critique the writing at all because nothing mattered to me about the grammar or sentence structure—I only know how this book made me FEEL, and I’m not even sure I can describe that. It was haunting, it was difficult, it was beautiful, it was troubling, …
I had no clue what I was getting myself into when I picked up this book, and WOW did it take me on a beautiful and pain-filled journey.
Jackie is the first masculine female character who I’ve ever read about chest binding, and the first time I have seen gendered body dysphoria so present in (contemporary?) lesbian fiction—though not labeled as such. Jackie is still binding her chest at 90yr old, and this topic just does. not. appear in lesfic. I am so grateful to this author for including it, and for writing Jackie’s experience of gender so …gracefully.
I actually don’t know how to critique the writing at all because nothing mattered to me about the grammar or sentence structure—I only know how this book made me FEEL, and I’m not even sure I can describe that. It was haunting, it was difficult, it was beautiful, it was troubling, and it was raw emotion at every turn.
An absolutely phenomenal story! 6/5
