Review
Title: None of the Above
Author: I. W. Gregorio
Publication: April 7th 2015 by Balzer + Bray
Format: Hardcover
Source: Gift
Genre: YA; Contemporary; Romance (Subplot)
What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?
When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She’s a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she’s madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she’s decided that she’s ready to take things to the next level with him.
But Kristin’s first time isn’t the perfect moment she’s planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy “parts.”
Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin’s entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?
Thoughts:
I received this book from a lovely friend who asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I showed her my (enormous) Goodreads wish list and she decided to buy me this book. I can’t remember exactly when I heard about None of the Above but I can tell you when I first learned about intersex. My family doesn’t watch a lot of T.V. (right now our go-tos are Criminal Minds and Law and Order: SVU) but when I was younger we used to watch House a lot. I’m still a huge fan of the show (especially since it got put on Netflix!) but if I recall correctly in one season they have a case in which a patient is an intersex female. My malleable child-mind simply accepted that such thing existed, but I never thought much more about it until None of the Above was put on my radar. Needless to say, with the growing gender and sexual representation in YA lit (especially thanks to #weneeddiversebooks) I wasn’t surprised that this was a topic tackled in 2015. Let’s get started.
We open None of the Above with the typical contemporary formula of establishing the life of our protagonist. Kristin is a humble track star with a stud of a boyfriend, two bosom buddy best friends, and a father still grieving over her mother’s lost battle with cancer. After losing her virginity to her boyfriend in a more than ‘Hollywood’ painful manner Kristin is diagnosed as being intersex.
Because the author of this book is a doctor (surgeon I think?) the medical aspect of None of the Above as well as Kristin’s feelings about her new identity felt particularly realistic. Now, I’m not a doctor so I can’t say that everything in this book is true but coming from a skeptic and a fact checker, None of the Above shares quality content with the fictionalized story. In the author’s note, Gregorio mentions that she was inspired by an intersex individual to write None of the Above. I believe it can be assumed that some of the feelings Kristin exhibits in the novel reflect the experiences of Gregorio’s patient.
None of the Above follows an odd plot formula. Most of the book is character driven, focusing on Kristin and her emotions and growth in relation to her diagnoses. The end of the book, however, features rapid character development, relationship development, and an ill-fitting action scene that threw off the pace of the book. I have to conclude that the plot of None of the Above was very odd and not exactly successful. Not all points of interest were fully fleshed out and some (that didn’t feel as important) were. I’m not sure how to put it in to words exactly, but the whole thing felt off kilter.
My main beef with None of the Above, however, was the characters. Kristin herself was an anomaly. Although I appreciated the in depth efforts of Gregorio to represent an array of emotions about her diagnoses in Kristin, her feelings towards other things felt random and actions filed by those feelings in turn felt out of place. Other than Kristin, not a single other character mentioned goes through any sort of character development. Many were mentioned in passing or had roles but didn’t feel necessary to the plot. None of them were fully fleshed out or really reacted in ways that are realistic with real humans. I also felt like a lot to character’s roles (take Kristin’s friends for example), have roles that relate to a single plot piece but not another. An easy fix to this would have been to either create a more streamlined plot, or to cut out characters that didn’t move the plot forward as a whole.
I also feel like I should at some point address the most cliché romance ever to grace the pages of a YA book. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but anyone could have caught a whiff of this romance from a mile away. Thank goodness it managed to keep it’s pants on and stay a #subplot.
The ending to None of the Above caught me completely off guard. It’s not a cliffhanger, I was just expecting more of a conclusion and reaction time to happen. I thought that perhaps the Author’s note would give me more closure, and while yes it was interesting, it did nothing to answer my flow of questions about what happens next. I was surprised that such an abrupt ending occurred so quick after the climax; I think that None of the Above could have used two or three chapters more.
Final Thoughts:
None of the Above is an interesting contemporary read. A perfect introduction to the intersex community, Gregorio’s debut sets out to inform and entertain in a classic contemporary manner. I am not intersex, but as an outsider I felt like this book gave me a better understanding of the community and individuals of this identity. I was less fond of Gregorio’s characters and awkward plot flow, but I feel as if these should be side notes on the more important fact that we have gained more representation in YA. As a novel itself, None of the Above was unimpressive, but it dealt with issues that need to be addressed in the modern world and I can’t fault them for that. For fans of Aaron Hartzler’s What We Saw and Lauren Myracle’s Shine; the ostracized student formula will be familiar but I think that Gregorio is successful at making her novel unique.
Other Opinions:
P.S. Were you aware of intersex folks before hearing about None of the Above? Do you think that there is enough diversity in YA right now, or that it should be increased? Let me know in the comments!
Like you said, None of the Above is a great introduction to the intersex community for teenagers. Intersex isn’t talked about at all, and I love a book for going into the topic. Stepping backwards away from that, the plot is kind of stale. It does read a bit like other contemporary YA, and I wished it was more exciting (even if it’s informative).
I’m glad that you agree Cee! Thanks so much for stopping by. I mean, it is a tough/taboo topic, but the mechanics of it made it feel unfinished; not all of the pieces felt like they fit together.
Happy Reading!