This graphic novel offers insight into how parents react to their trans progeny. In that sense, I found the graphic novel an important addition to the conversation around transitioning, and other family members in particular may benefit from seeing a journey similar to their own and, hopefully, become as accepting as Durand.

However, it has some inherent problems as a result. In showcasing her journey to understanding her transmasculine son, Durand must first show the beginning, where she has doubts, misgenders and deadnames, and those can be hard for a queer person to read. Similarly, other than the letter towards the end, there's not much time given to the view of Durand's son. I think the narrative would be stronger if there had been some kind of blend, where you got to see both aspects of the story.

I found the art good at times, such as they bright, crayon-like drawings to showcase the past, but in others it's a little confusing to follow. Similarly, time lines (except when dated specifically) are a little difficult to follow in terms of what point in time events occur.

So informative & emotional! I think this should be required reading for parents. I like that the story was told in graphic novel format because it made it a quick and easy read but also shows how the mom felt throughout the whole journey.

This was a very thorough and genuine story about a mother coming to terms with her child transitioning. I really enjoyed seeing this story from the mother's perspective and am very happy to see how her journey through this process concluded. I found the walls of text a bit dry when she was quoting text but other than that I really enjoyed the story and would love to see a follow up on how the mother and son are both doing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced ecopy of Transitions.

This comic was a powerful and emotional read. At the beginning I found it choppy, but as I got further in it didn't bother me. This story of a mother's acceptance/growth/learning of her child's transition was deeply personal and a great book for education as well as empathy. I definitely teared up!

This was an interesting and challenging read. It was hard and painful to read Anne’s perspective as she was refusing to see Alex for who he was and instead was seeking ways to affirm her own worldview. Once she started to step up and towards her son, it was like releasing a held breath. Given that Anne is a biologist, I felt like there was so much more opportunity to explore the diversity of sex and gender in nature and was surprised that only a few pages were dedicated to this.

I appreciated the sort of “mixed media” approach in this graphic novel, including illustrated depictions of documentaries, and emails from Anne’s son (that I found particularly impactful given that this story is told from Anne’s perspective, it gave direct insight into her child’s feelings). The choice of when to use color was inventive and engaging.

While this won’t be a problem when the book goes to print, it was frustrating that the ARC had a giant watermark in the center of every page—it makes it much, much harder to read a graphic novel.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It was honestly difficult to read Anne’s initial reaction born out of fear and ignorance. But above all, it was beautiful to see how deeply and intentionally Anne’s views and actions evolved and how Alex blossomed into his true self.

This book was somewhat difficult for me to decide if I liked or not. There is a lot of deadnaming and misgendering. I know the whole premise is a moms journey on coming to terms with her kid being trans, but she just read as selfish. Maybe I'm too biased. I think these are important conversations to have but I almost feel like it's at the expense of LGBTQ kids/people.

Wow, this one is kinda hard to rate. I liked the concept of a mother telling the story of the transition of her trans son. I know that it can be really challenging for families and it's not easy to see your child changing completely. But although the mother seemed to be very loving and supportive, it drove me crazy how often she used the deadname of her son and misgendered him. I know that this is probably the reality of many trans people, but it made me uncomfortable while reading it. There were also a lot of facts and statistics about gender and sex thrown in randomly, which was interesting, but also not very relevant to the plot. Anyways, I don't want to judge personal experiences and I think it could be a good book for other parents of trans children who are overwhelmed and need some information and help to support their kid.

I really enjoyed reading this book and learning more about the perspective of a mother during their child's transition. It shows that people can change if they are willing to, but that this change can take time and that it can be very difficult to accept, which I think is an important message.
The book also included a lot of interesting facts about gender in different cultures, which I thought was a great addition. And the artwork was great as well!
It was sometimes hard to read, because I found myself getting frustrated with the mother for not accepting her son's identity and for deadnaming him. However, I do think that I understand the struggles of a parent in this situation more than I would have without reading this book, so it was very eye-opening for me as well.
Lastly, I found the storyline to be really difficult to follow, because it kept jumping back and forth without any indication of time or date.
So overall, I think it was an interesting and informative read, but it was just sometimes a little hard to follow.

As a trans person whose parents took years to start using my name, It was interesting to read a trans story from a parents perspective. Im thinking of getting a copy for my parents who are still working through my identity. I do with this story was formated differently, the facts and media references were thrown in a bit strangely

A mom’s story of learning to accept her son’s transition to female to male.

This was such a beautiful book! I think it captured so many important ideas. I also loved the art throughout to represent some of the concepts discussed. I also loved that it has further reading and podcasts at the back that references some of the things mentioned by Alex and Anne. Definitely a great read in the world we currently live in.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An engaging and challenging look at the reality of having a transgender child, and how even the most liberal-thinking parents can face acceptance issues. Matriarch Anne considers herself open-minded, but when the girl she raised as Lucie starts identifying as a man called Alex, she struggles to accept this new reality, thinking her child has somehow been "brainwashed" or it's "just a phase".
What follows is a fascinating look at the reality of life as a transgender youth, including the reactions of various family members across the generations - many of whom take the news a lot more easily in their stride compared to Anne. The narrative pulls no punches, as Anne repeatedly deadnames and misgenders Alex, but it's a narrative firmly grounded in reality.
Beautifully drawn, and with a hugely informative storyline, this is a truly unique graphic novel. Hugely recommended.

This graphic novel is the illustrated journal of a mother's transition towards acceptance and allyship towards her trans son.

Anne's story is relatable, sincere and very informative, as the book includes quotes, resources and info pages with fun facts on the topic of gender. I loved the artwork and use of color, and the sometimes abstract representation of feelings and thoughts throughout the story in the form of silhouettes.

Highly recommended read!

||✨Disclaimer✨||
I've received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was unique in that it showed the experience of a parent as their child came out as trans & started transitioning. So many books and other forms of media focus on the child and their journey, and just expect the parents to follow along and be accepting. This book showed what is is like from a parent's POV going through their own journey accepting their child. This was an interesting perspective that I had not thought about before.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this story! I love how a mother's notes/journal was translated into a graphic novel. The informational pages where terms are defined will be very helpful for other parents or friends going through their first experience with a friend or family member coming out at trans.

I am not the intended audience for this book, but now I have it in my arsenal to recommend to friends and family.

“You fear that Alex will be marginalized, but the first and foremost marginalization is family rejection. That is in your hands.”

Transitions: A Mother's Journey by Élodie Durand was originally published in French and then translated by Evan McGorray, a non-binary translator specializing in French to English literary translations.

Transitions is a non-fiction graphic novel which tells the story of a mother finding out her son is transitioning from being assigned female at birth to his new identity. It painstakingly shares her experience in understanding the trans community and her struggle in reconciling old assumptions with different gender identities.

Occasionally it did feel a bit stilted, there jumps between the story line and what felt like excerpts from instruction manuals and brochures. Some art was confusing as well, but I do think that's a lack of understanding on my part.

I can only pray and hope that more people who have queer family members would pick up this book, and read and learn from it as the novel is not shy about describing all the ugly thoughts and experiences she goes through in her journey to acceptance.

My favorite part of the book was Alex's letter at the end, which was lovingly given four whole pages. And the way they started their journey of healing their relationship together, felt such a fitting ending for a beautiful book.

This is a story of a parent learning to accept their transgender son. It was sincere and brutally honest. There is a lot of factual information, and a lot of it is at a basic level.
This would be. good as an introductory level book for people that don't have a strong background in LGBT terminology. The illustrations were lovely and evocative. 4.5⭐️.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

First, thank you to Netgalley and IDW Publishing for sharing this ARC with me for an honest review.

First, wow. Just wow. This book is incredible. An extremely thoughtful and poignant story of a mother and her journey to acceptance for her son’s transition. This book could easily be a resource for teachers, therapists, doctors, and anyone in the business of working with individuals and their families during times of transition. It was full not only of scientific research on gender, but a multicultural view of transgender practices throughout history. It had amazing research and explanations for the ways of pursuing a transition, definitions of spectrum, gender identity, and gender expression, and what I think most important of all- humility and pain. While we all need to learn to be more open-minded and tolerant, what made this book incredible successful to me was that interlaid with the research was a mother’s journey to acceptance. The questions, the doubt she grappled with, the ways she hurt her son in her journey to acceptance, the grief as well as the fear that comes from this process. That portion was what compelled me most- it is not easy to accept transitions immediately, and this book can be read by anyone who is in that place and they will not feel judged but understood. I am not saying this book condones bigotry, the opposite, but it highlights that because of conditioned norms in our society, discussions of gender are difficult, especially for parents- even the most open-minded and progressive.
This book is invaluable, with understandable science as well as citations for further reading, deep consideration of gender and Hetero-norms, and most important of all, a deep dive into acceptance and the work that goes into it.

Sensitively told, full faceted and reaching nuances that so often do not become realized, this somewhat biographical graphic novel is about a modern biologist mother coming to terms with her adult daughter transitioning to a man.

We often get viewpoints from the trans person that are invaluable and remarkable. So to have this perspective from a parent is incredible useful and rewarding. Although I do not know a trans person, I did want to understand more and try my best to approach life in a more inclusive and understanding way. This book goes a long way toward that goal. Had I been the parent or relative of a trans person, I would have found the book invaluable.

The artwork is represented by what you see on the cover - loose form with some color. The author goes through a process of understanding her son - from asking herself if she caused this, if it was due to some trauma she did not know about it, if it means her son will now be in a more dangerous world. There's so much to read and understand here. Along the way, the author brings up many side points - from the gender of clownfish to individuals or groups throughout history who have lived as a gender different from their birth.

In all, highly recommended. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

I really liked the concept of this book! I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the execution. I found myself a little lost at times and not sure about what was going on. I was interested at first in the story but I felt like there wasn’t much progress being made. I think the story would have done better with more notes describing what was going on in the past and what actions could be corrected. In the end I did like the list of things for the mom to do to work their way to accepting their sons transition and I think if that was a larger focus it could of been more helpful. There was also a mix of facts added in that I did not feel flowed with the story. Overall stories like these are incredibly important to be shared and hope to see more like them!