Eliot Duncan

2023. This is a book about a transmasculine character trying to self-actualize. Ponyboy does excessive amounts of drinking and drugging, and seems to be supported by a rich dad, while living in Paris and Berlin. Until he/they (since it is in the first person, from Ponyboy’s point of view he/they are never referred to in the third person, but it is clear that she would be wrong, so I’m using he/ they) overdoses, and gets sent back home to Iowa for rehab.
Ponyboy also has a best friend/lover from high school who is nonbinary, so they pronouns are used extensively.
This should be a good set up for a book for me, but I really hated the writing. Duncan misuses a lot of words, and I think they were trying to be edgy and cool, but it’s just wrong and someone should have edited it better.
On the first page there were four words used in ways that didn’t make sense to me, but I suspended judgement and slogged through the whole book, because I need trans literature that badly.
It’s an easy read. I read it in two sittings, but it seemed like all hipster postering, and no characterization. I couldn’t relate at all. It was all glamorous surface, no real emotional depth.… (meer)