Jodi Picoult

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

spoiler for new book Mad Honey

I've dipped in and out of JP books Iver the years - generally enjoy the court room stuff, never usually guess the ending.

I got a copy of her new book Mad Honey for Christmas which she co wrote with wnouther author.

Whilst her writing style in this is a bit hyperbole heavy, I was quite stuck into it. At exactly the halfway point, the deceased girl (I think 16/17yo) is revealed by the medic who carried out the autopsy as a trans girl.

She had a boyfriend who didn't know this about her, had clearly had full surgery already as they had sex, and was not suspected of being trans by her friends or anyone who had met her.

I didn't know the book would involve trans characters, nor those who have gone under the knife in childhood, and on pausing to look online as to how this might change the story for me going forward, learn the second author is trans and, according to online reviews, the second half of the book is very much pushing the trans suffering, brave, troubled youth thing.

I had a look at JPs Insta to see if any comments had been made on her promos of the book and she seems fully entrenched in the trans mentality.

Feel a bit robbed as I'm gender critical and the book summary on the sleeve doesn't hint at any of it, else I'd have left it for someone else to buy. But hey ho.

So JPs off the shelf for me now. I'll drop her other books in a charity shop, but this one will be pulped.

Maybe a naive teenage boy who has never had sex with an actual woman might not realise he’s having sex with a male. I can’t see any other way this would be feasible.

Also used to really like JP till she turned into a mindless TRA.

So Jodi Picoult’s idea of writing a story of what it’s like to BE trans is to write an nonsensical portrayal of adolescent medical transition and kill that person off?

The transgirl also self harms, makes actual suicide attempts, and for pretty much the duration of the book, her male boyfriend is the main suspect in her death as "scorned boyfriends who's girlfriends are ending the relationship always turn to violence"

What conceit has Picoult used to account for how the boyfriend doesn’t know the backstory? Is the trans character supposed to have moved and then met him?

I'm gonna start using the character names as the pronoun thing is hard when describing a book.

Lily (transgirl) makes an attempt on her life so Lily and Lilys Mum relocate to the east coast. Then Lily and Asher meet and begin dating. There is no reference to Lily's physical stature, so I have no idea when the surgery happened / puberty blockers to prevent growth etc.

Lily also hid other things from Asher (Lily claimed Lily's dad died in a car crash, but actually they are estranged), and when Lily then confesses, Asher asks Lily for 100% honesty which Lily accepts and says there are no more secrets.

Urgh.

I'm glad I stopped reading.

Give me Jodi Taylor over Jodi Picoult any day of the week.

A trans woman who passes convincingly AND is beautiful as well isn't a very fair character, surely, to the majority of trans women if the idea of the book is to give a real sense of being trans.

Surely one of the biggest struggles trans women face is they don't pass convincingly and as a result aren't blindly accepted as women?

And (musing here) even if they were accepted at face value based on convincing appearance, that still isn't acceptance if they really are, which is trans...? And being trans is surely critical to who they are...?

I think if I were in a relationship with someone who had a backstory like the main character, I'd feel like the relationship was a total lie if I didn't know the full truth. Imagine being in a relationship with someone and finding out they had a different name and different life at some point, and never shared that. Crikey.

Those 'deep'n'meaningful' asides are why I stopped reading her books. She has a gift for intriguing plots, but spoils it with her pretentious style of writing.

I’m halfway through listening to this on audiobook, and I was already a bit bored. So I don’t waste any more time (I’ve got the new Stephen King to listen to) can someone tell me who murdered Lily? I was thinking it might be Dirk? Or was it actually Asher? I’m just up to the bit where Asher’s been bailed out of jail.

Maya

By accident.

Oh, I didn’t see that coming! Thanks.

I thought her, but i thought it was as a consequence of her either loving Asher so killing lily as hate, or Maya actually falling for Lily and a fight ensues as Lily declares she's straight

I didn't read the whole book, so I don't know the reasoning.

Contemplating just reading JPs chapters bit really don't want to

They both did a tour to promote the book. Tickets at York Library were expensive and I think in the end they did 2 for 1 deals on them. They were pushing it like mad on their social media, I don't know how it went in the end.

Lucky Yorkies got the extra treat of handmaiden in chief Joanne Harris introducing the evening...... of cause she did.

I was heartily amused by Dawn Ennis comment about the book tour. No you silly sausages we are not going to picket a book tour..... obviously you lack the self awareness to understand this sort of action massively backfires..... which is why you don't stop doing it to woman.

Ennis has an interesting history, which no doubt is on the farms somewhere.

Of course women who weren't interested in this just ignored the book tour and I think the authors had a nice time on T*rf Island.

Thanks for the warning!

This is the next part

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I'm moved beyond words by your work

I take issue with this. Surely it was a gold lame bag.

“I think we can all benefit from this,” said the judge. “Normally, things like rules of evidence, relevance of the line of questioning, and leading the witness apply, but only TERF NAZIS think the point of court is to actually hear evidence relevant to the case and to either convict or acquit someone. In fact, this is so important that I’m going to order all the other courtrooms pause their proceedings immediately and everyone comes in here to be educated. After all, this is only a murder case, it’s not like it’s as important as hearing about how your chromosomes are actually a construct and in fact after taking hormones there is literally no difference between a cis woman and a Trans woman.” A member of the jury piped up. “Is this going to take long? Because, like, I have to get home to my kids.” “Order in the court!” yelled the judge. “Let me make one thing very clear! We WILL be learning about the lady penis today and if there are ANY objections I will charge you with contempt of court and send you to prison!”

It's a fiction book, so should be treated as such, and sometimes characters and scenarios can be thought-provoking. These fictional characters are very idealised which can happen in fiction.

But what is more interesting is that co-author was a heterosexual married man who transitioned in middle-age etc. Yet again their activism doesn't revolve around the image of middle-aged men transitioning, but young gay boys transitioning, as that is a more sympathetic image.

The co-author wouldn't have any idea of what it's like to be a homosexual transsexual as they have another condition that leads to transsexualism.

Well so far @Misstache’s work is of a vastly higher calibre than the somehow-published dreck.

Give the woman a book contract I say! Or at least a column somewhere to be snarky in.

Well, MN deleted my work! Wow. That seems inappropriate. We can’t write satire these days?

😂😂😂😂 Bravo!!

🤣🤣🤣🍻 thank you!

And I'm deleted too 🤣

Shame we aren't allowed to pick at such pomposity. Still the real thing is as funny as the satire.....