Kai Cheng Thom

Fiction. LGBTQIA Studies. Asian and Asian American Studies. Young Adult. FIERCE FEMMES AND NOTORIOUS LIARS: A DANGEROUS TRANS GIRL'S CONFABULOUS MEMOIR is the highly sensational, ultra-exciting, sort-of true coming-of-age story of a young Asian trans girl, pathological liar, and kung-fu expert who runs away from her parents' abusive home in a rainy city called Gloom. Striking off on her own, she finds her true family in a group of larger-than-life trans femmes who live in a mysterious pleasure district known only as the Street of Miracles. Under the wings of this fierce and fabulous flock, the protagonist blossoms into the woman she has always dreamed of being, with a little help from the unscrupulous Doctor Crocodile. When one of their number is brutally murdered, she joins her sisters in forming a vigilante gang to fight back against the transphobes, violent johns, and cops that stalk the Street of Miracles. But when things go terribly wrong, she must find the truth within herself in order to stop the violence and discover what it really means to grow up and find your family.

A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars

the title really does this book perfect justice. spirited and defiant, the kind of thing that you have to grin at. thom Knows what it’s like to be a girl who wants to have fairy tale powers, and shows us how much more you have to hang on to that dream when you’re denied the right to be a girl in the first place. it was missing in characterization though, which is an essential for me to rate anything past 3.5. the femmes weren’t caricatures, they weren’t quite one-note, but i wanted more.

lauren amitirigala

“Little cocoon apartment, I love how you rattle and shake in the wind. You are mine like nothing has ever been before. Someday you'll tear open, and I'll fly out with the wings I have grown inside you. Still shimmering. Still wet.”
--
A memoir like I've never read before. Imaginative, powerful, surreal, and poetic.

Sésame

J'ai trop aimé. Je suis pas trop fan des récits réalistes mêlés à du mystique/fantastique d'habitude mais là c'est vraiment fait avec beaucoup de justesse.

C'est hyper percutant, c'est plein de phrases qu'on a envie de se noter et de relire.
Mes trois étoiles sont peut-être un peu sévères, mais même si j'ai beaucoup aimé et été touché par le livre, j'ai quand même dû m'accrocher pour rester dedans, je crois que c'est pas mon style d'écriture préféré.

Bonus, la traduction française est faite pour le Québec, et ça rajoute un petit truc en plus.

April

I'm not one to write reviews, the sole reason being that I don't really think anyone would care to read my opinions. But this book--this book deserves all the praise.

I read this a few months ago, but still to this day, I don't think I've gotten over it. Memoir or fiction, whatever Kai Cheng Thom intended this novel to be, it exists on a magical realm of its own. 

Never have I read anything so heart-wrenchingly sad, but also extremely funny, dark, magical, intelligent, and inspiring. It's one of those stories that's hard to categorize into a genre because it rises above all those governed conventions of what a novel should be. This story just floats above all other stories like a QUEEN. And I'm telling you, you ain't never seen a queen as fabulous as this one. 

I'm probably not making much sense to the average review reader who just wants to see what people have said about a book before they even consider touching it, but trust me on this one, if you're up for a fantastical, eye-opening, inspiring, and incredibly entertaining ride, pick up this book. You won't regret it. 

Kai Cheng Thom is exquisite. She could literally publish her grocery list and I'd enjoy reading it.

Latitude Tamarind

some texts i sent to warren while reading this book

“I don’t believe in safe spaces. They don’t exist. I do, however, believe in dangerous stories.”
ohhhh the romance in this book is t4t
“what do you think the difference is between hunger and love?”
“hunger is the story you get stuck in. love is the story that takes you somewhere new.”

Fraser Simons

What a fun concept for a novel. Framed as a pseudo memoir of absurdism and surrealism, and magical powers, so, you know, a memoir in a tongue-in-cheek way. Who knows how much “happened”, and really, who cares? It truly is a fabulous story. Equal parts fun and crippling sad, with excellent foreshadowing for the ending, I think. “Real” memoirists could adopt a similar structure and be better for it. This meandered not a bit and hit on all the things, well, a novel would! (Because that’s what it is. To be clear).

Steffi

3.5

gripping trans girl coming of age story

Zoe Smolen

3.5 - There's a lot of great stuff here but something just didn't click for me. Still highly recommend reading. Would like to try this one again with the print book and not the audio.

Daryl Houston

I was ambivalent about a rating on this one. A 4-star book usually grabs and holds me more than this thin book really did. But a 3 would feel stingy. The fantastical elements in this one were sort of dazzling and fun, but of course the general subject matter -- how hard it is to make your way in the world as a trans person -- wasn't so fun. I enjoyed the book but didn't find it deeply, deeply satisfying. I can imagine though that a trans reader would find it affirming and personal in a way that my experience of the world doesn't really allow me to. I'm glad I read it. I liked it more than a little. I didn't love it to pieces.

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir

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