A Little Sunday Book Review: Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars

In the interest of being perfectly honest, off the top of my head I don't think I've read a book by a trans writer before in my life, and that's embarrassing for me and for the literary world, but this is my first step to remedying that gap. I truly believe you cannot claim to be well read unless you read diversely, and that extends to all types of identities and life experiences.

That being said, another part of being well read is being honest about your opinions of the books you read, and I did not love the book Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars. BUT, as I read, I did find myself internally screaming, "THIS IS A PLAY. THIS JUST NEEDS TO BE A PLAY." And that's saying something cause 90% of the time when I read books I am adapting it in my head to either a film or a prestige mini series, rarely a play. So if any non-profit, new play development oriented theatre company wants to throw some money at this property and commission the writer to adapt her work, employ an all trans/non-binary/gender non-conforming cast and creative team, and make some theatrical magic, please do it! All I ask is a special thanks for the idea in the program.

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom is, first and foremost, not a memoir, and I don't appreciate being misled by the title. I don’t have much experience in the fictionalized memoir genre, the closest book I can think of would be Daisy Jones and the Six, which I absolutely loved, but it was a fictionalized oral history, which is a different thing. I don’t really get the fictional memoir thing, and with this book in particular I feel like it would have been worked just as well if not better as a novel. Putting that aside, Thom’s story of a young trans girl who runs away and joins a gang of vigilante femmes protecting the city’s trans women from violences exists in a mythical world filled with poetic language and poetic justice, flowing in between prose, poetry, dialogue, and epistolary segments (in the play the epistolary segments would be direct address, I have the whole thing planned out). With locations like the City of Gloom and the Street of Miracles, it takes place everywhere and nowhere, providing a universality and allowing the reader to insert their city (or an imaginary city of their choice) in the places she describes. At times, this felt a little juvenile because so much inspiration is derived from the tropes of fairytales, and I do feel like the reading level of the book is most appropriate for YA readers, although it does deal with mature subject matter, such as self harm, sexual assault, and the ongoing systemic injustice that is the murder of trans women of color.

At the end of the day, this is a book by and for trans girls, specifically trans girls of color, and that's incredible. Thom writes the most badass, beautiful, and complex trans characters, and I (a cis woman), felt so connected to the narrator's desire to create her own narrative, break out of the box society has put her in, and just figure out who she is. It is a coming of age story, after all. So, while the book wasn't for me, I still appreciate it for what it is and what it can be.