None of the Above

None of the Above: I. W. Gregorio 

Publication Date: April 7th 

What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?

When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him.

But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned—something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."

Dealing with her body is difficult enough, but when her diagnosis is leaked to the whole school, Kristin's entire identity is thrown into question. As her world unravels, can she come to terms with her new self?

Kristin had a pretty good life besides her mom passing away from cervical cancer. She was a track star, had great best friends and a hot boyfriend, and was also voted homecoming queen. She was just dealing with normal high school stuff when she found out that she was intersex.

I loved everything about this book. This author just gets high school and how friends are in high school. I feel like this is so important for people to read!! There are so many judgmental people on topics surrounding not only this, but also transgender issues all together. This book will teach you about what intersex is without being preachy. I'm sure we all know people like Kristin's friends. Those people who will selfishly manipulate your problem to suit them.

"'I mean, what was I supposed to do?' she said defensively. 'I had to tell someone. It's all so fucked up. I mean, I was so traumatized-'" 

You will feel like you are there with Kristin through her journey from her diagnosis to trying to accept what it means to be intersex. Not only does she have to try to figure this out for herself, she has the added drama and pressures of high school weighing on her during this time. How will her boyfriend react when he finds out that she is intersex? The school?

"It was like, when Mr. Morris used the word, he wasn't just saying 'female'. He was saying 'not Kristin Lattimer.' 

The author is a practicing surgeon and during her residency, she met an intersex patient who inspired this novel. That hits really close to home to me because I'm a physician assistant student, and I know the feeling of wanting to follow your patient's story. Unfortunately, most times it doesn't work out that way unless you work in a family practice. Intersex is also a term that isn't used as often as it should be. As noted in the book, hermaphrodite carries a lot of stigma. When I took multicultural psychology for my minor, intersex wasn't a term that was used. I don't know if maybe we were using an old text book or what, but I think that it should have at least been addressed as a modernized term.

I don't know if anybody has ever seen 'Faking It' on MTV, but Bailey De Young plays Lauren, a character with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS).

I'd recommend this book to anybody who has an open mind and wants to broaden their horizons to learn something new. It was truly inspiring, and I hope this book helps to take some stigma out of the word intersex. I can see this being one of my favorite contemporary books, and I give it 5 stars!

"The Mona Lisa is a masterpiece whether it's in a pitch-black room, under a strobe light, or on the sun."