None of the Above

English language

Published Nov. 6, 2022 by Canongate Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-83885-431-7

(2 reviews)

‘When you are someone that falls outside of categories in so many ways, a lot of things are said to you. And I have had a lot of things said to me.’

In None of the Above, Travis Alabanza examines seven phrases people have directed at them about their gender identity. These phrases have stayed with them over the years. Some are deceptively innocuous, some deliberately loaded or offensive, some celebratory; sentences that have impacted them for better and for worse; sentences that speak to the broader issues raised by a world that insists that gender must be a binary.

Through these seven phrases, which include some of their most transformative experiences as a Black, mixed race, non binary person, Travis Alabanza turns a mirror back on society, giving us reason to question the very framework in which we live and the ways we treat each other.

3 editions

Tilde Lowengrimm reviewed None of the Above by Travis Alabanza

Painfully relatable and distant in equal meaure

No rating

Travis considers their nonbinary experience through the lens of various phrases which have stuck in their memory.

This was a difficult one for me, fam. Travis's experience is like mine and nothing like mine. They have suffered so much more of the UK's transphobia while I hid until I was in San Francisco. Most of the phrases in this book aren't ones that have been said to me, but I still hear them loud & clear — even if I have plenty of space to retreat from them.

The thing that hit me hardest was the concept of trans & queer identity only needing to be what it is because society imposes narrow restrictions. If society didn't attempt to control & constrain us in these ways, we wouldn't need to define our identities how we do. What would queerness be like in a society which did not impose a value …

Travis considers their nonbinary experience through the lens of various phrases which have stuck in their memory.

This was a difficult one for me, fam. Travis's experience is like mine and nothing like mine. They have suffered so much more of the UK's transphobia while I hid until I was in San Francisco. Most of the phrases in this book aren't ones that have been said to me, but I still hear them loud & clear — even if I have plenty of space to retreat from them.

The thing that hit me hardest was the concept of trans & queer identity only needing to be what it is because society imposes narrow restrictions. If society didn't attempt to control & constrain us in these ways, we wouldn't need to define our identities how we do. What would queerness be like in a society which did not impose a value judgement about the relative genders in relationships? What would queerness be like in a society which already centered gender on experience and choice? What would it mean to be nonbinary in a society which didn't hinge on binary gender and use that to empower and punish.

Jaelyn reviewed None of the Above by Travis Alabanza

Review of 'None of the Above' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

Travis takes phrases said to them over their life as an out nonbinary mixed-race individual and uses them to reconceptualise what it means to be nonbinary in a world of enforced binaries and transphobia. It was a hard read, especially in relation to how much we change ourselves to fit the expectations of cishet society or even the problems within the queer community itself. But it is a strong retrospective on trans existence, resistance and joy.

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