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Part of the problem with this book is how badly-organized it is. There's no introduction summing up Beam's intentions, which was a huge mistake. She just seems to be talking about a bunch of things that happened to her and the people she knew, without bothering to create a coherent structure or even maintain a discernible chronology.

Man, I would've liked to know so much more about how they accomplished the I Was a Teenage Anarchist video in one take. But anyway, it still surprises me how much Laura dislikes New Wave and White Crosses. Listening to them, you'd never think they were made by people who didn't care out of financial obligation.

The language Beam uses just isn't how people talk about trans people anymore, especially in the fact that she uses people's birth names and deadnames when she talks about their past. I'm giving Beam the benefit of the doubt by assuming that it's only because the book is a decade old, and things used to be different. But still, it makes the book hard to read.

Is it some kind of requirement now that every contemporary YA book has to be written in some kind of painfully cheesy slang? In this case, it's dated as hell - Jo just said something was 'the bomb' completely unironically. Moreover, the flow to the scenes just isn't very good. Time and place are often poorly established, and scenes tend to start too late and end too early.

So I guess this is the gay equivalent of the 'underqualified white person teaches POC' genre of nonfiction. I never seem to hate these books as much as I want to, and this is no exception - Beam can be a bit condescending, but the story is pretty interesting, even if I'd much rather read the perspective of one of her students.

It's honestly kind of sad to see how little of her own work Laura is satisfied with. Reading this book has certainly convinced me that, even though I like New Wave and White Crosses, signing to a major label was the wrong move for Against Me!. I'm looking forward to the section on Transgender Dysphoria Blues - I'm hoping Laura is more satisfied with that album and the process that created it.

This book is a lot more interesting to think about than it is to actually read. You could stop reading anywhere you wanted, or remove every third page, and it wouldn't make a difference.

I feel like this is what Calvin and Hobbes would be like if it wasn't funny. Like Calvin and Hobbes, this manages to be about childhood imagination without all the wide-eyed idealism. But it can be a bit bland and predictable.

Not a whole lot to say about this. This is good, just underwhelming compared to what I was expecting.

This does a very good job of capturing how fifth graders think and act. Jess is kind of a jerk, but eh. Most fifth graders are.

This works a lot better if you see it as visual art than it does if you view it as literature. The book's summary claims it tells a story, but at least so far, it really doesn't. There are ideas that could be parts of stories, but I don't see any one idea that McGuire is trying to push here. It's more a series of musings, which is a lot more effective in the art world than the literature world.

This is totally changing how I look at not just Against Me!'s music, but bands in general. I never really thought about how touring changes you, and what it means to sign to a major label. I can picture the kinds of conflicts Laura describes happening to all sorts of bands, really.

So has Laura made any music in the past decade that she actually likes, other than The Ocean? I think I like most of her music better than she does.

I was kind of curious about why Against Me! decided to sign to a major label, and to be honest, I'm not sure if Laura knew either, at the time or now. In her journals, she sounds terrified.

This totally changes how I listen to Against Me!'s music. Also, Laura is a hero to us all.

Hey, look, Anna's falling in love with a guy who clearly doesn't care about her, and is ignoring her friend's warning about how much of an asshole he is. I WONDER HOW THIS IS GOING TO PLAY OUT. I'M BITING MY NAILS IN SUSPENSE.

The way punks responded to Laura trying to make money through her work kind of reminds me of that Tumblr post that said if an artist puts their work behind a paywall of any kind, they're a sellout. Seriously, it bothers me that people get mad at artists for wanting to make money off their work. Why is it a requirement to be dirt-broke in order to make Great Art?

I can't tell if the problem is that I don't like historical fiction very much, or if this book is just really fucking boring.

This is not the most well-written thing in the world, but it's making me very interested in punk music and culture. I'd love to read a more detailed account of Laura's time with these underground bands.

I'll be honest, I have basically no memory of volume 1, and I do not understand what's going on here. Like, each individual chapter makes sense to me, but I have no idea how they fit together - I honestly think the manga might work better if you read each chapter as a standalone story.

Reading the story about the Blazers - a team that almost never won, but where everyone was satisfied because they enjoyed the game and each others' company - was like reading about an extremely appealing fantasy that you have to remind yourself isn't true. I'm not saying it can't happen, it's just so hard for me to fathom that it was a true story, even though I'd really like it to be.

I am not at all the right person to be judging whether this book is good or not. That said, I am enjoying the verse and Kek as a character, so that's all I can say.

This section on boys and girls is a lot less painful than I expected. I mean, it's not totally accurate or anything, but considering this was made ten years ago, it's a lot better than I would've guessed, just on the virtue of not being terrible.

As a teenager myself, reading the section on the teenagers is kind of bizarre. I do share the authors' values, but I can't help but think they're being kind of idealistic. I honestly can't imagine anyone actually experiencing sports that way.

I don't even know why I'm still reading this, my research is still done. I guess it's making me appreciate more why some people make decisions with their kids that I don't agree with - it really is a complicated job, with a lot of ambiguity and a lack of clear answers.

This is a very good way to bring the novel to a climax. I am thoroughly enjoying this book.

The chapter on eating disorders and steroids is just... not comprehensive enough. Like, I appreciated that they acknowledged the issue, but if any parent actually finds out their kid is having one of those problems, they're gonna need a hell of a lot more resources than that. I wish the chapter had acknowledged that and provided more information.

Boy, this is a terrible plan that they're about to go through with. There is a 0% chance of it going well.

On what may or may not be a related note, this is the most excited I've been to find out what comes next in the whole span of this book.

I guess the chapter on overweight kids was as good as I could reasonably expect it to be. Could've been better, but at least it wasn't atrocious. I'll take what I can get.

I do kind of like this story, despite the fact that I have a lot of trouble following it. I'd probably be completely clueless if I hadn't read the Dark Phoenix saga, but since I know basically nothing else about X-Men, I'm kinda lost. Still, I like the themes a lot, and there's some excellent artwork.