An interesting memoir about growing up and searching for your identity. And then in mid-life, she discovers she has autism, which then puts her life, identity and growing up into clearer focus. This is a collection of essays about this experience, about being female, about being queer, about being autistic and having to "wear masks." We also learn about her toxic romantic partnership so a theme for me is about being "seen" and being respected for who you are as an individual. A very poignant and thought-provoking read.

Thank you to Netgalley and University of Iowa Press for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

A stream of conscious confessional of Amy : a queer feminist, a punk rocker, a witch, a late diagnosed autistic woman.
So much of this memoir resonated with me as a queer woman who was also diagnosed late with autism.(at age 23) I connected with her from the very beginning. I especially felt seen as fuck when it came to her chapter about masking. (A little ironic. Hush.)
We follow Amy throughout her life as she tells us about her new diagnosis and how it makes her feel / look back on things in her life, her family upbringing and also a ten year relationship with a man.
Blurring the line of fiction and nonfiction, this was raw, real, full of heart and justified anger. I want to give her a big consensual hug and tell her that she is not alone - even though she already knows that.
Such a good memoir, and I’m glad I read this - but also so glad she wrote it for not only us, but herself.

3.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

A lot of women get diagnosed later in life and to see the representation here is very compelling, giving voices to the queer, disabled, aging women that I identify with.

I wanted to like this so much. However, the writing was so ricky-ticky repetitive I kept getting distracted this is another author did not feel like they needed to use quotation marks. That combined with the writing made it a slog to read. it is meandered and it was hard to care about anybody.