Incredible and comprehensive overview of gender that is perfect for older teens curious about learning about themselves. First purchase for our library.

This is an absolutely stunning graphic novel. This work of memoir follows author Rhea Ewing as they explore gender, sexuality, and identity throughout the years by a series of interviews posed to individuals they meet. The reader is able to follow along Ewings' own gender journey and it is a beautiful, deeply personal experience that I feel honored to have experienced it. Not only is the art itself beautiful, but so is the content and representation of the full spectrum of LGBTQIA+ identities. I cannot wait to see what else Rhea Ewing publishes.

**I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!

This was an absolutely fantastic book interweaving the 50+ interviews the author conducted over a span of quite a few years. The book is organized by topic and tells the own author's story and relationship with gender identity, alongside the stories told by the people they interview. The book covers a broad spectrum of identities and peoples' experiences with gender and the other facets of their identity. It asks some of the most basic questions we can have about the topic - how do you define gender/femininity/masculinity? - and shows how different the answers to these questions are person to person.

This book is provides a vital puzzle piece in the broader conversations we are having about gender identity, expression, roles, etc. and I would highly recommend this book to anyone that wants a peek into that conversation happening or has questions about themselves. This book is a really great primer on a lot of different topics from gender to race to sexuality to class, and while this book covers a lot, it's not going to be super in-depth - and it's not. It's a great starting off point for further reading and is invaluable for its variety of perspectives.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an e-ARC of this book!

I read this book through an eARC on NetGalley. Fine is a great collection of stories Ewing collected and illustrated about gender. The varied people represented give a look into how different gender varies. Highly recommend if you are interested in the topic.

Ewing explores gender through multiple interviews with people who identify many different ways. I enjoyed the art and the author's reflections. Recommended for collections with a need for LGBTQ titles.

Wow this book was fabulous. And critically important. I so appreciate the thoroughness of Rhea's interviews and the as-complete-as-possible discussions about gender and identity that this book depicts. This is a fantastic resource for those questioning their own identities as well as those looking to learn and support those members of their communities. Will be handing this to anyone I can.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Author of this graphic novel toys with the theme of what gender is. Well written, with several different perspectives and interviews.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
I loved this book. As a Trans person I didn’t think I’d get much from it but wow was I wrong! I felt so connected to the 56 people interviewed in this book, being able to hear about other peoples experiences and what gender means to them was so interesting. However, I did of course relate to a LOT of the content in it. My favourite part was the section where Rhea gave tips on how to familiarise yourself with someone’s pronouns! As someone who still gets misgendered family, I feel like this could be so helpful! A lot of this book was very vulnerable and personal to Rhea and everyone else involved which I appreciated. I found it easier to read it bit by bit, usually I finish books in one go so this was a very different experience and I enjoyed it a lot !! It was very informative whilst still being easy to read and understand , this would be great for anyone looking to deepen their understanding on gender.
“ This book is dedicated to everyone who wonders if they are enough. You are enough.”
I’ve struggled with my gender identity a lot through life (and I still do!) Seeing people who feel the same as me and have the same experiences was so validating, I definitely shed a few tears at things that hit close to home. Reading this book was a wonderful experience. I feel like everyone should read this. Even people who have no struggles with gender or anything similar, everyone can learn something from this book and its also just incredibly interesting to read!

I got an ARC of this book.

I was really excited. I love graphic novels. I love gender and talking about gender. This was going to be the perfect book for me. I could just tell.

The issue is, I was bored. So incredibly bored the whole time. I would have to force myself to read even a page at a time. The only book I can compare it to is the book about working out by Bechdel. Both had the same tone, the same level of excitement from me.

It might be the book that has the most interviews about gender in it that I have read though. So it isn't completely without merit. There may be lines or ideas that really resonate with people trying to figure out their gender. It was just not for me.

This book follows the author, Rhea Ewing as they collect interviews from people in their Midwest town. The book discusses gender and trying to find yourself through that. Overall, I thought that this book was fantastic and would be a great addition to any library - personal or public. This would be a great tool for parents, teachers, and kids to read. I think that a lot of people would better understand gender after reading a book like this.

I loved this book so much. Rhea Ewing's vulnerable and honest discussion of their own gender and questioning process paired with the extensive interviews they conducted made for an enlightening read that many people will undoubtedly benefit from.

Ewing shows a range of experiences, identities, and stages of gender exploration. They show that gender is complex, nuanced, and based on many factors.

As a nonbinary person, I thought that I might not learn anything from this book but I was pleasantly surprised by the range of individual experiences that were depicted and the insightful analysis.

I really appreciated Ewing's self awareness in pointing out that they are not a professionally trained researcher and that there were important gaps in their knowledge going into this process.

Beautiful illustrations and conversations about gender. Diverse set of characters and experiences depicted in a fresh way. Learned so much from this one. Highly recommend!!

This is such an important graphic novel that discusses so many topics surrounding gender, identity and relationships. It offers such a wide variety of opinions and viewpoints that really open your eyes to the struggles that different people face in a world obsessed with labels and binary definitions.

An inclusive and informative book that I think many people will benefit reading from. Accessible to read and the illustrations where great. I think this would be a great resource in my library, not only reaffirming for those who are not cis-gendered but also helpful for those who are looking to deepen their understanding

I'm absolutely blown away by this book! I loved the art style, the format, the structure, and the way the author weaves in their story with the interviews. I really appreciated that of the 56 people interviewed for this book, there's a great mix of representation with people from different racial groups, age groups, abilities, gender and sexual identities, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds. I truly felt connected to the various people who shared their stories; many of them I related to because I had similar experiences or knew people who had or are going through similar things. While many of the interviews got into personal experiences, there's underlying common themes that are highlighted in different chapters in the book (i.e. bathrooms, housing, relationships, healthcare). I loved learning from the different interviewees and the author, and feeling embraced by this wider community of folks I'll probably never meet but who share similar dreams and goals. This book is enlightening, inspiring, and challenging. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Fine is a non-fiction graphic novel that started out as interviews with others to answer the question that had been playing in their mind over and over, "what is gender?". This is such a personal piece and I really appreciated the medium of graphic novel that was utilized here, it's a piece that I could see as a documentary. The different perspectives from the diverse individuals they interviewed on gender and identity and how that not only affected my thoughts but also Ewings, which was really cool to see included, was a wonderful thing to experience. The gender binary, or perhaps lack thereof, is such an individualized experience and it was really profound to see the stances the individuals Ewing interviewed had. This novel I think is completely accessible to any reader regardless of their experiences with gender and identity or with the LGTBTQA+ communities and I truly commend Ewing for that.

I found that this novel was easier for me to read in smaller portions to digest all the interviews as this is a hefty piece and the exploration of gender and identity is a thought-provoking one and I liked to mull over each interview and ask myself the same questions that they had been. I truly recommend this book to everyone as I think it's so vital that there are continued discussions related to gender and identity.

I loved this book. I am often wary of books that are designed to tell the reader about gender because it seems impossible that it wouldn't be an oversimplification of a vast and complex topic. But the approach FINE takes is perhaps the best possible one. Ewing interviews over fifty people, both cisgender and transgender, about a range of topics related to gender and allows all of those contradicting perspectives to coexist, each one valid and true for the person who voiced it. The book opens broadly, with questions about femininity and masculinity, before tackling how gender intersects with race and impacts people's experiences with housing, bathrooms, and incarceration. The inclusion of cis voices alongside trans ones demonstrates that gender is something on which all people have varied opinions and complicated relationships, not only transgender people, Over the ten years this project spans, some participants were interviewed multiple times, and we are permitted to see how their understandings of their own identities change; for instance, one interviewee identifies as genderfluid on one page, yet when we meet her again two pages and five years later, she identifies as a binary trans woman. That is just one of many instances in which FINE successfully illustrates what gender really encompasses, not by simplifying, but by complicating, by allowing contradicting things to be true—for different people, for the same person at different times, even, sometimes, for the same person at the same time..

This graphic memoir is an exceptional exploration of the question, "What is gender?" I thought I had a handle on this question, but I realize that I am privileged with my understanding of this answer as a cisgendered person. After reading this incredible book, I realize that the answer to this question will not, and will never, be the same for anybody.

This book challenged me and it changed me. I laughed, and I cried, and I felt so much empathy for this author and their struggle. "Fine" is a ground-breaking work and I am so excited for its publication so that I can add it to our collection and to my own personal collection as well. Copies of this book should be in every library everywhere as a reference guide and as a conversation starter. I truly, truly loved it.

I absolutely loved this book! Rhea Ewing does a fantastic job of constructing and deconstructing the idea of gender in a way that is completely accessible regardless of your background with LGBTQ+ topics and communities. This book kept me fully immersed and I easily read it in one sitting. I have never before questioned my gender and this book had me thinking about considerations of masculinity/femininity/the gender binary (or lack thereof) that I never would have thought about otherwise. I highly recommend for anyone looking to have their mind blown (in the best way possible!)

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced readers copy of this book!!

Fine by Rhea Ewing is a truly powerful and enlightening memoir for anybody who is gender queer, questioning, has a loved one who happens to be gender queer/questioning, or literally anybody who would like a bit more insight about gender identities and how gender is viewed by a variety of people of all walks of life. As a cis female who happens to be questioning gender labels, who has very close friends that are trans (both with and without therapy or surgery) and non-binary/gender fluid, this novel and POV really means a lot to me. I'd love to see more people read stories like this.