None of the Above

English language

Published Nov. 6, 2022 by Canongate Books.

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

(1 review)

‘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

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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