Rebe’s Reviews > If I Was Your Girl > Status Update

(Spoiler) I was really hoping this was going to be a story about a trans person who didn’t get outed against her will or get beaten up, especially since the summary emphasizes how this is a “big-hearted” “love story.”

I can’t believe Bee would do this. I was going to say it seemed out of character, but actually she wasn’t really developed enough for me to know that yet. She’s just more developed than Amanda’s other female friends.

"I was with my girlfriends, shopping for a dress for an actual dance with my actual boyfriend." This is when I file yet another imaginary petition to get straight girls to stop using "girlfriend" platonically. You'd think a book with trans and lesbian characters wouldn't do this, but here we are.

The whole "we found our way" cornfield/life metaphor is a bit heavy-handed.

"I took a minute to actually read the bumper stickers... JESUS WAS A CONSERVATIVE, one read, and RIGHTS COME FROM GOD NOT GOVERNMENT; ILLEGAL ALIENS! EXACTLY WHICH PART DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? and I CAN’T HELP THAT I’M HOMOPHOBIC … I WAS BORN THAT WAY! I stood in place and swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. The side door slid open and Anna leaned out, smiling." RUN AWAY. RUN FAR AWAY

(Mild spoiler) "'I know when we kissed I felt warm all over, like when you sit too close to a campfire, and I know no girl’s made me feel that way before.' 'That’s really nice,' I said." This is inexplicably funny to me and I don't think the author meant it to be.

So Grant keeps saying "ain't" but I've never heard anyone my age use that word unironically and I'm from the South... Maybe I just don't live in a rural enough area??

"I was never going to be free of my past; it was always going to be there, waiting to suck me in and crush me like a black hole."

"I desperately wanted to finish the sentence with the truth, but what was there to say? I think I like you, but I'll never have a normal life. I think you like me, but you'll never understand who I am."

"Son," he said, "I want you to have a good life. Boys who really think the things in your story are confused. They don't have good lives. So you're not one of those boys." Ouch