I cannot stress the importance of this graphic novel! It provides a lot of information in a small package, and is a nice overview of such a complex topic. While it read like a scholarly article, the presentation of the material is accessible to all readers.

What does it mean to be trans? Non-Binary? Gender Expansive?
What parts of gender come from society? What parts come from within?
How much is biology, and how much is socialization?

Really well done and very informative. Everyone should read this.

I appreciated the research, thought and detail behind this graphic novel, however I feel it would have been more effective if the information was spread out a bit more. The pages often felt cramped, with small text that was inaccessible for my failing eyes. Luckily we can zoom in on ebooks! Unfortunately this one missed the mark a bit for me.

3.75 ☆ rounded up

First of all, thank you NetGalley for this e-arc! I was of course excited to see this graphic novel that discusses gender. I'm glad that it didn't stay focused on western norms.
This also packed a ton of information within the short 40 pages, making it really informative both for people who do and don't already have these experiences. For instance, as a genderfluid person who's gone through some gender exploration of my own, there were terms and things in here that I'd known, but also new things as well.
I will say that this made it a little bit dense as well, and admittedly it would probably be better gone through with a bit more time. I also think that there were some pages where the flow of panels and text was difficult to follow; I had to reread some pages because I'd get to a segment only to realize that my eyes had gone to the wrong one first. Those places could have been reordered. These things did impact readability a bit, which is why I didn't rate this higher.
Overall though, this was a super informative and lovely graphic novel! I'd definitely recommend it to people who are looking to learn more.

Not sure if I would call gender strange but I did enjoy this book. I found this short novel (perfect for anyone interested in an introduction or may not have a lot of time) to be very insightful, more on the scientific side, in explaining the complexities and variations of gender while also being reader friendly and inviting with the colorful, simple but also descriptive images alongside.

Thank you Netgalley for a chance to read this book.

I feel conflicted on what to say about this book. I enjoy the fact books like this are coming more and more into existence, but I guess I struggle with the effectiveness of this specific book. It is definitely packed with a lot of information within only 40 pages, but the illustrations keep throwing me off. They're a unique style, though I'm 99% sure that I've pulled similar styled illustrations from canva for flyers and informational things within a corporate setting. It's hard to explain, but it's almost as though there is a collective habit of looking but not seeing at things that we are so used to being forced to look at for jobs, so I worry these illustrations may pull some readers from the content. Or maybe it's just me.

I do think it's important to break down a lot of this, I just wish there was more. I am not really sure I can tell who the target population/age range is for this material.

I am sure it'll find the people it lands with and it will be a good resource for many!

I love the art style of this and enjoy that quite complex notions of gender and sex are communicated succinctly. I like the different representations of gender from around the world too and very much appreciated the emphasis on being culturally sensitive to applying other terms to these gender representations. I also noticed a couple of typos and often the flow of the (quite dense) text was hard to work out due to the placement of text on the page which led to counterintuitive reading (i.e. the first text box you read is not the topmost of the page). I felt the book could have done with one more edit before publication. Overall though, if you're looking for a thoroughly-researched overview of gender theory in an accessible way then I would recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was somewhat disapointed. I picked the book up as I want to learn more about the nonbinary label, which is very "trendy" at the moment.

I was not aware it was only 40 pages long, which is also the main issue - the topic it tries to explore is too complex to properly examine in such a short page count.

Now, the artstyle. It's pretty, functional and clear. Unfortunately, it felt very "produced". The style is something you could easily find in a governmental awareness campaign or corporate PR stunt. It's just cold, there's no genuine feeling behind it. This makes the book seem like a corporate product.

The content itself... I was hoping it would be more informative. The scientific side is better explored than the social/cultural/personal aspect of gender. Perhaps this is due to the lack of space.

Perhaps this is my bias, but as a historian, the socio-cultural, political and historical aspects felt underdeveloped. The booklet makes some specific assertions that it doesn't substantiate properly.

This was such a beautiful exploration of gender in a biological and societal context! Even though the book is quite short, it manages to cover many topics, but sadly not in a lot of depth. However, if you are looking for a quick introduction to the topic, this is perfect, and it gives you many ideas of further topics to learn and research about! I thought I knew a lot about this topic, but even I learned a lot of new terminology and facts I didn't know before. It also criticizes colonialism and the current norms of gender in our language, which I thought was very important. Overall, I would really recommend the book!

“Trans or cis, we are all on gender journeys and all gender journeys are valid.“


This was a fast and fun read while also being extremely informative! I love that they chose to do this in the format of a graphic novel as it made it extremely accessible and and the way the the information is presented makes it easy to digest. This is a great intro to gender and the constructs surrounding it and I love that the sources have all been cited so we can use those recourses to continue researching!

I highly recommend to anyone who is trying to understand their own gender identity, if your trying to understand gender in general, or if you’re struggling with the concept of gender.

**Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing this ARC**

I nice little into to the spectrum and complexities of gender. A good book for allies and questioning young people

What an excellent little guide book! Gender really is strange! In this book we've got beautiful, fun, modern illustrations on every page. The text is legible and accessible unlike some other graphic novels I've read in this style. And there's some excellent representation in this book, featuring so many different types of bodies

This book is a lot of fun and is very progressive. They use accurate terminology and anatomic descriptions. It's beginner friendly and is probably meant for someone who wants a detailed overview on all the different facets of gender. I definitely learned some too, even though I've been reading about gender for years! There's value in this book for anyone.

A nice and quick introduction to gender (and explaining the differences between sex, gender and various genetic options in between), different identities based on different cultural contexts and a brief explanation of the structures that exist around us which may perpetuate a certain way of inhabiting gender.

This book is a great introduction to anyone questionning their gender or wanting to know a bit more on the topic in a very succinct and easy way. It's not too inf0-heavy because the illustrations break it up, though I'll say the text felt more important than any of the side-images, it's not exactly a comic even if it's illustrated in a very nice way.

<i>I received a complimentary copy of this graphic novel in exchange for an honest review, which I leave voluntarily</i>

'The concept of "gender as a performance" underscores that a person's gender does not develop in a vacuum. We can embody in whatever way we desire, but others will assign gender to us however they see it.'

This books is wonderfully illustrated and an insightful read with language simple enough to consume whilst still educational. There's a variety of information with clear cited sources that make for a great read.

'The first step is to give yourself permission to actively question and explore your gender and gender presentation'

This is a great short, introductory read on gender and how society influences how we interact with our own gender and other people's. This is the kind of thing I like to keep on hand for people who haven't had a chance to learn as much about the queer community.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

The book is very short but an enjoyable read. I find this book format very useful both because it is aesthetically beautiful to look at but also because it deals with delicate and important topics. I find that covering these types of topics in this way is a great alternative way to teach something.

I appreciate:
- the thoroughness of this book
- the well-cited debunking of scientific binaries in both sex and gender
- sharing examples of how gender is and has been constructed in non-white, non-Western, premodern, and other societies
- examples of how gender and sexuality binaries can create problems even for cisgender people, for instance by pressuring cisgender women to remove naturally occurring body hair.
- the page of questions which could be asked to help someone shape thinking on their own identity

I disliked:
- The point of a graphic text in science is accessibility, but despite token gestures in that direction, this is a scientist's text, and often unreadable to a layman. One example: "It would be super cool if specific effects of hormone therapy could be modulated through more selective hormone therapy and/or neuromodulation." "Super cool" and "neuromodulation" are not at the same reading level, so who is this text for? I just don't see a connection between graphic illustration, generally to broaden the audience, and a book that retains the sentence "21-hydroxylase deficiency, the most common cause of congenital adrenal hyperplasia... which can cause buildup of androgen hormones and 'masculinization' of external genitalia in an XX fetus with ovaries and uterus internally."
- I worry that someone who needs both the colonial and gender/sexuality messages of this book won't get them because the book presumes the reader is already extremely far left on both topics. For instance, the reader is expected to be mentally "decolonized" to the point that they are prepared to see the phrase "Turtle Island - the unceded territory named North and Central America by colonizers." Not even all Native groups use this phrase. I
- I'm disappointed that the pages are so crowded instead of having more pages with larger text

This book was so good and was such an important book with a necessary message, I loved everything about it, the illustrations were so well done, they suited the book perfectly, the story was amazing as well, even thought is very short I could really connect with the characters. I’m sure the kids are going to be just as enthralled with this amazing book as I was. I will definitely recommend! Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this early copy

“Gender is Really Strange” is a short - but surprisingly advanced - visual introduction to the concept of gender diversity. It does a fantastic job of examining gender through a multidisciplinary lens. Goetz includes bits of information from the fields of biology, psychology, sociology, history, etc. In fact, I actually wanted this book to be longer so that all of these different perspectives could get the time and space that they deserve.

With its illustrated format and small size, I could see this book leaving a beginner with more questions than it answers. And while I suppose that isn’t necessarily a bad thing for an introductory text, I can see how someone may feel like they simultaneously learned an overwhelming amount and almost nothing at all. The information simply moves that quickly.

Still, I would definitely recommend this to folks who are ready to challenge their ideas & knowledge about gender but don't know where to start. The art style is stunningly simple without feeling generic. There are a few really great opportunities for reflection. And, what I enjoyed most of all, was the consistent focus on multiculturalism - complete with explicit recognition of the harms that colonization & white supremacy have brought to folks all over the globe. For such a quick read, it certainly offers a lot to digest.

Gender is Really Strange is a really well constructed and informative graphic non fiction.
Ranging from history to current definitions, this will be a great starting point for people looking to learn more about gender identity and gender diversity.
I am looking forward to being able to recommend it to the local high school librarians as I believe it will be a very important resource for them to have on hand.