I absolutely LOVED this book. No notes. The two protagonists were both fabulously well-formed and so achingly authentic. This book was deep, it was funny, it was surprising, it was so well-written (debut, how?!). Easy 5 stars.

Abigail is a 17-year-old high school senior. Erica is a 35-year-old English teacher and theater director. Both women are transgender. But Erica is only now being honest with herself. She turns to Abigail for advice, and the pair form an unlikely friendship.
Their small town of Mitchell, South Dakota, isn't exactly trans-friendly, though. So when Abigail begins to date the son of a prominent Christian woman, she faces some tough decisions. Erica must also navigate her relationship with her ex-wife and possible loss of all that's familiar. In the end, will love for self and others be enough to help the women survive and thrive?
I greatly appreciated this book. It offers a small look at what it's really like to be trans.
The book can also offer an education to curious folks. For example, I liked the tips to Google questions rather than ask trans folks for education.
And the author mentions the characters' dead names only once, which is respectful.
Two things I didn't like - all the profanity, so many fs! And the relationship between teacher/student did cross ethical boundaries, which is never okay.
Everyone can hide in the woodwork and disappear. This book can encourage readers to own their true identities and be exactly who they are created to be.

One of my favorites of the year, Woodworking is heart-breaking and heart-warming with characters that I loved spending time with. Abigail is especially endearing as a teenager who really felt like a teenager to me, precocious sometimes cruel, still a kid who needs protection and care and who inspires others. I will be recommending this book to everyone, but especially as a book club selection!

This book is SO good - like SO SO SO good.

Erica is recovering from a divorce while also learning and trying to understand that she is trans. She's helped along in this process by the incredible Abigail - a 17year old trans girl that actually decided to come out by running a newspaper ad! Even though these two are both at entirely different stages I love how they just allow each other to be. No pressure, no reasons to hide - they both are seen for exactly who they are.

When we finally get to THE twist - and well, I was incredibly blown away and just the way that the community ended up coming together was absolutely incredible and inspiring.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Crooked Media Reads for this e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was utterly phenomenal! I loved this book so much and felt like the characters were in my day to day world. It was written so evocatively that every line just snuggled up inside my brain and it will stay there forever. It seriously touched my heart and wont let go!
This was a masterful debut novel. The author clearly knows her way around a a story and it was magnificent and emotional, heartbreaking and healing. I cannot wait for more from her! Definitely an author to watch closely!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC of this title. I have long enjoyed Emily St. James' pop culture coverage and critical work so I was excited to hear that she'd be publishing a work of fiction. This is a wonderful debut about yes, two trans women but also small midwestern towns, the sisterhood between women and figuring out who you are.

Abigail is 17, outspoken, DGAF and the only trans girl at her small town South Dakota high school, living with her sister after running away from her less than accepting parents. She's dating a popular guy in school, Caleb, who is from a conservative family and somehow has made friends with Megan, a young Democrat who has a lawyer father and is trying to help a Democrat get elected to office, Helen Swee. Abigail thinks no one really likes her, but she's magnetic and everyone actually loves her even if she does do teenager things that blow up her life at times. It all makes sense and being in her perspective is so funny and real. She also is somehow Erica's "trans mom."

Erica is the school's English teacher who comes out to Abigail first, and for a while is the only one she's out to. Eventually through going to support group, having an unconventional friendship with Abigail, reconnecting with her ex-wife via community theatre, she comes into her own self and comes out to more folks.

I can't say much more to not spoil things but I loved this somewhat contemporary novel (it takes place in the fall before the election of 2016) even with the Cubs slander. This book is about understanding yourself, finding sisterhood and the political nature of all of it. The way deadnaming is handled is genius and actually there is only one instance of deadnaming on page and it has a powerful impact (again can't say too much more without spoiling). Anyways, trans people have been here, if you think you don't know someone trans, you probably do, you just might not be making it safe for them to be themselves.

Amazing debut novel filled with love and hope. I am so happy I got to read this early. It comes at such a difficult time in the world. A message of how important people are as human beings and how we all deserve to be the best versions of ourselves! The story is charming, sad, but ultimately happy. I loved getting to know the characters and their stories.

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review.

Woodworking is a rare debut. Telling the story of a trans teen and her trans English teacher in a small town grappling with the uncertainties in an election cycle, Woodworking is real, but hopeful. Informative, but emotional. It is a story we all need in order to reflect on what makes us uncomfortable and why and what it means to truly be yourself in an increasingly politicized world.

What happens when a trans kid comes school? Woodworking examines the ramifications in a small Midwestern town. A teacher comes to terms with their identity and looks for help, a relationship breaks and is mended, a previously hidden person is outed... While everyone is at a different part of the journey, Woodworking reminds us that trans people are among us and always have been, even if we never noticed.

Full disclosure: I mistakenly thought this book was written by Emily St. John Mandel and was super eager to read since I love her writing, but I’m glad to report that Emily St. James also made a huge fan out of me with this remarkable debut!

The characters were so amazing and vivid. I love that backstories were explored thoroughly, in some cases driving more character development and in other cases explaining limited character development.

I was recommending this before I even finished reading. One of the best debuts I’ve read in years!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a stunning book. What a fantastic debut. I think this is a book everyone should read. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and hopeful and enraging all at once. I loved all these characters and they will stay with me a long time.

"Woodworking" is one of those books that will leave a deep mark on the reader, and I can't be happier. The story follows Erica Skyberg, an newly divorced English teacher who is coming to terms with her transness. The coming out is also spurred by a 17 year old trans girl who bravely came out in their small town through an ad in the paper.
St James weaves different perspectives completely naturally, using different mediums to refer to the women's past and how it truly feels to let go of that.
This debut is ferocious, it's about heritage, it's about pride and ultimately, love for oneself and your community.

This review is based on an ARC of Woodworking which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Zando/Crooked Media Reads).

One of the great strengths of literature (and my main justification for the amount of pleasure reading I do) is its ability to give readers an in-depth analysis of a lifestyle or station of life that they may be unfamiliar with. Despite considering myself a shaky ally, living by the notion "just be a kind human," Woodworking took my understanding of transgender and gender dysphoria one step further. I admit that there is a lot I was missing, and judgements that I was making.

While not outstanding in terms of literary merit, Woodworking is yet an important novel for its content and humanity. It is gripping, twisting, touching, and hopeful. It is hard, and truthful.

Woodworking is not a novel of gender or sex, but of humans as unique as you, me, and Joe down the road.

WOODWORKING by Emily St. James is outstanding; it's one of my favorite 2025 reads so far. This novel does not read as a debut: the writing is sharp, the characters distinct. The main POVs of Erica, the transgender teacher who's accepting her gender later in life, and Abigail, the high school student who has been out as trans from a young age, are well developed with their different journeys contrasting and complimenting each other at different times. There's something especially poignant about Erica's envy of Abigail, already living her truth as a teen, and Erica's repeated ignoring of what this has cost Abigail (her parents; she lives with her sister Jennifer). Abigail's voice is perfection--she sounds like many of my students. I felt like I knew her.

From a writing standpoint, I want to point out something Emily St. James does that may go unnoticed but makes a significant impact. In the chapters written from Erica's POV, the author uses third person. This ensures we, the readers, are accustomed to the character being referred to as / named Erica with she/her pronouns. When Erica's deadname or the wrong pronouns are used, it feels jarring. (I also love how St. James uses the grayed out boxes when Erica's deadname is used.) This close third person POV of Erica allows us to be closer to who she really is versus how she is perceived by (some) others. In Abigail's POV chapters, we get first person, which highlights her voice and how she feels versus how she acts or what she says. It's appropriately immersive for this teen character.

In addition to strong writing and great storytelling, I'll be using WOODWORKING to help my writing students deepen their understanding of POV and authorial choices. I love this novel and highly recommend it!

3 ⭐️. each of these characters annoyed the hell out of me, but also warmed my heart. they are complex, complicated, messy AF and ultimately you wouldn't help but want to root for them.

thank you to Crooked Media Reads, Zando & NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

this was a good story & set a very lovely group of characters, but i'm afraid it was a tad bit too long - it could definitely do with some editing, as there is little to no plot and it does feel a little meandering at times.

When I heard the guys on Pod Save America talk about this book as part of their CrookedMediaReads imprint, I knew I had to read it. I have long been a fan of the author’s writing on pop culture across various websites. This was a truly lovely story about a high school teacher, Erica, in her mid-30s and recently divorced who has realized she is trangender. In her small town in South Dakota, she knows exactly one transgender person, a teenage girl in one of her classes, Abigail. Erica tells Abigail she is trans, and Abigail reluctantly agrees to help Erica navigate her baby steps into this new-to-her world, but living in their conservative small town makes life extremely difficult for both of them. I absolutely loved how the book shows the difference between Erica slowly and gingerly accepting her identity later in life vs Abigail who has always known and accepted her identity and began transitioning as early as she could. As the book progresses, we meet other transgender characters, including a trans woman who is completely closeted - “passing” as a cisgender woman - a phenomenon that gives the book its title - when trans people fade into the woodwork, allowing them to exist in society without any prejudice but without the benefit of a shared trans community. This book was frequently funny, often touching, and felt very honest and real. I’m giving this 4 stars instead of 5 just because the teacher-student friendship/relationship feels a little squishy in terms of appropriateness (that is acknowledged in the book), but I really do recommend it and hope it is widely read.

I absolutely loved this one! I thought it was funny and witty in the best ways. The nuance regarding gender was enlightening. I loved the main characters too. I gave this 4.5/5 stars

I picked this up because the book is set in South Dakota and, here and there, I need to read something that takes me home. And this did, right to my home town, right to the streets I used to walk with my friends. For good and bad. The author noted they didn’t set out to write a political book, but one of sisterhood in places where you may not think, and I think it was accomplished, even set against the backdrop of a state election. From Helen to Constance to Abigail to Brooke to Bernadette to Danielle to Erica to Megan, a complicated story of womanhood is weaved and it is painful and hopeful, maybe especially for those girls that feel different in a state that feels so isolating.