We discussed Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir on June 15, 2023 as part of our Pride Month Special. Kobabe’s 2019 graphic novel shows the author’s own journey to eir non-binary gender identity and has been at the heart of the ongoing U.S. censorship debate. We talked about the text with regards to its form of textual and visual story-telling and in context of the LGBTQ+ struggles.
PADERBORN2READ Rating for Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
3.5 out of 5
Members’ Opinions
“A touching read about self-discovery and searching for fulfillment within your own identity!”
“I consider this graphic memoir a very important text because representation of gender queer identities seems very necessary to me—especially in context of this text’s banning in various US states. While I think it important, I did not enjoy this text all that much.
The author and narrator Maia, although for sure a very interesting person with an important message, came across as a rather flat character with not much more to em than eir gender queerness. Obviously, Maia’s queerness would/should take up most of the memoir’s content as it is literally about this queerness, but I still would have liked to see more of em as a human being in all eir facets rather than just this one defining characteristic.
The graphic style is not quite my cup of tea because, to me, it came across as somewhat inanimate with its fairly strict use of clear-cut panels without too many transitions and with rather reduced dynamics. This is only my personal taste, though. And the graphic style definitely manages to bring Maia’s story across.”
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