hwamr.blogg.se - Jeff garvin

At the same time as Riley is navigating the difficult social landscape of home and school, their blog is noticed on a national level, and they meet a love interest who is impossible to ignore.īeyond never using third-person pronouns for Riley, Garvin manages never to confirm whether Riley was assigned male or female at birth. Riley is starting at a new school, starting a blog on the advice of their therapist, and is not out to their parents about being genderfluid. (I’ll be using the singular they to refer to Riley in this review.) We meet Riley soon after they are discharged from the hospital following a suicide attempt. The author, Jeff Garvin, manages to avoid using third-person pronouns to refer to Riley throughout the narrative, which is no mean feat, even in a first-person novel. “Boy or Girl?” is the question that defines the narrative and haunts our protagonist, Riley. Symptoms of Being Human explores gender identity, bullying, oppression, and how these things intersect with mental illness with deft narrative, compassion, and only a few missteps. I’m still all those things, except no longer a teenager.

Book currently reading/most recently read: THE GODFATHER by Mario Puzo and THE LEGEND OF DRIZZT: THE COLLECTED STORIES by R.A.One of the most important parts of the conceit of this blog and the modern disability rights movement is the phrase “nothing about us without us.” Taking this into consideration, this title was a perfect choice for me to review: I was a genderqueer suicide-attempt-surviving teen with depression and anxiety.

Favorite time of day/place to write: Early in the morning, in his writing room with the red wall, his Storm Trooper action figure looking down on him from his tiny Iron Throne.

Childhood aspiration: Astronaut, Rock Star, Actor, Novelist.

Favorite book growing up: CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D.

He is responsible for the overall look and feel of the Sweet Sixteens website, as well as posting and maintaining new pages. Jeff is one of the Sweet Sixteens two WordPress Administrators (with Nisha Sharma). But when the blog goes viral, a storm of media attention threatens Riley’s anonymity. In his debut young adult novel, SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, Winter 2016), Riley, a 16-year-old gender fluid teen, starts an anonymous blog to deal with hostility from classmates and tension at home.

He has a BFA in Film from Chapman University, where he won awards for his short films and classical guitar performances. Later, he toured the US as the lead singer of his rock band, 7k. Before becoming a writer, Jeff Garvin was a child actor, guest-starring on network TV shows such as The Wonder Years and Roseanne.