Symptoms of Being Human

 In Jeff Garvin’s book „Symptoms of Being Human“, the main character, Riley, is a gender-fluid teenager. They feel neither completely male nor female. Instead, they fluctuate between the two genders. Gender identity is a social construct but it is often mixed up with sexuality and sexual orientation.

In this book Riley is coming out – not as gay or bisexual, but as a gender-fluid teenager. Riley begins to write an anonymous blog, starting with the question: “Am I a boy or a girl?” Jeff Garvin has decided not to reveal Riley’s birth-assigned sex. Riley’s parents also never refer to them as their son or daughter, only as “their child”.

This is a very refreshing book, which helps the reader understand youths, who go through major changes. What happens when somebody has no concrete gender identity or a fluctuating identity? One such story can be read in this book.