Nina Here Nor There by Nick Krieger Review

Title of the Book: Nina Here Nor There
 Author: Nick Krieger
 # of Pages: 202
 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
 Review: "The permutations of gender were infinite," this concept may seem foreign to you. I mean, you're either a boy or a girl right? That's exactly what Nina Krieger had thought until she moved to San Francisco's Castro neighborhood. It was there she found a new culture, one filled with people who identified as queer*, people who don't fit in to what she thought she knew about gender. People who were "other" but not afraid. While she may have considered these people strange, she felt a draw to them that she couldn't help. Nina Here Nor There tells the tale of love, self discovery, and gender identity.

Nina Her Nor There tells a story not often told. A story of people that many would have you believe don't even exist. These people are living outside of society's rule, a middle ground, somewhere between man and woman, somewhere queer. It tells a narrative that many people need to hear and learn about, and it does so in a deeply personal way. The deeply personal nature of this book forces you to recognize this culture, forces you to go through what thousands have to every year, and forces you to empathize with them. That's not only important to grow as a person, but it's important for us to grow as a society.

This book is absolutely fantastic (hence the five star rating) however, it, like everything else in the world, has it's shortcomings. Due to the fact that it is a true story about a very confusing topic, the book itself often becomes confusing. Sometimes requiring a re-read of certain sections to fully grasp the meaning. This will certainly annoy many readers; however, I think it adds to the point of the book. Gender is confusing, and discovering and learning about genders you didn't even know existed is even more confusing, so I believe it's to be expected that a tale of someone learning about it would be equally confusing. That being said, this book does a very good job of easing the reader into the strange world, starting by introducing queer characters, then slowly easing Nina, and by extension the reader, step by step, change by change, into the world of transgender, nonbinary† identities.

Overall this book tells an important, but too often unheard story, and does so in a way that develops intimacy and empathy with the reader. This book not only taught me about a new culture and new terms, but fundamentally changed the way I view gender. It helped me to grow as a person. It is because of this that I recommend Nina Here Nor There to everyone, not just those in the LGBT+ community.


*Queer is used by many people as an umbrella term for anyone in the LGBT+ community.
†Nonbinary is a term used to describe anyone who does not fit into the traditional gender binary. That is, anyone who is not strictly male or female.