The Book Nook

By: Markey Battle

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What's this about?

Elliot Page’s raw memoir recounts the journey of a boy born into a girl’s body. Readers journey with Page as he faces continual nightmares in his home, on sets, and behind closed doors. The memoir acts as a retrospective diary, detailing Page’s abuse-ridden childhood and the terrors he faced as a child actor in Hollywood. 

 

While many might think that Pageboy is about gender dysmorphia or an exploration of queerness, the memoir is much more than that. Page published the book in response to the hate and cruel messages he received after his public transition in 2020. Pageboy is a welcome home present for the body he was always meant to have. 

 

Pageboy is not a cry for help. It’s a middle finger raised to the powers that seek to silence queer and trans voices. Page didn’t intend for his memoir to be a transgender manifesto or guidebook. He simply wanted to shed light on how non-linear and beautifully messy LGBTQIA+ lives are through his own interwoven tales of trauma and joy.

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About The Author

Elliot Page is an award-winning transgender actor. The Canadian actor is best known for Juno, The Umbrella Academy, and Inception. Page always told anyone and everyone that he was a boy, swapping the dresses and bows costume departments chose for him with gym shorts and oversized t-shirts. It wasn’t until his transition in 2020 that Page finally met himself. Elliot Page continues to accredit his transition as the biggest joy in his life. It wasn’t some switch or flip for him. Instead, he finally came home.

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Themes

Self-Discovery, Self-Acceptance, LGBTQ+, Sexuality, Gender, Identity, Coming-of-Age, Memoir, and Love.

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What We Liked

Trigger Warnings: Sexual violence, eating disorders, stalking, homophobia, transphobia, self-harm, depression, and abuse. 

 

Pageboy is a stunning memoir packed with real and raw emotions. While the book doesn’t withhold any graphic moments Elliot Page had to endure throughout his life, the reader cannot help but feel Page’s hand reaching through the pages of his book, grabbing the reader, and assuring them that it will all be okay.

 

What we remember: Many LGBTQIA+ memories are sprinkled with joy, rainbows, and sunshine, there is something beautifully poignant and stark in the blunt retelling of Page’s life. He doesn’t pump the breaks or summarize his darkest moments. Instead, he guides the readers through his memories, one moment at a time.

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What this book is : A heartbreaking memoir of a boy who always knew who he was, but wasn't allowed to introduce himself to the world until recently.

 

What this book isn't :  A lighthearted LGBTQIA+ memoir about finding love and the light at the end of the tunnel. While both are found and lost throughout various instances in the book, Page’s heartbreak rings throughout the pages.

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Why Read This Book

Memoirs alert people to experiences, heartbreaks, and triumphs they otherwise would have never experienced, and Pageboy is no exception. Pageboy doesn’t hold back on the atrocities that child actors, girls and women, and LGBTQIA+ actors face daily. Elliot Page details these encounters throughout his book as a message to higher-ups, begging for more inclusive healthcare and language. 

 

Picking up this book is an excellent first step on a lifelong journey of understanding and inclusivity. If your business prides itself on inclusivity, read books like this. If this book makes you uncomfortable, purchase Pageboy, annotate it, and set it up on your shelf. Inclusivity and acceptance grow with the proper research and attention and Pageboy is an excellent first step.

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Quick Quote

“I am evolved as I freed myself from the expectations of others. These memories shape a nonlinear narrative because queerness is intrinsically nonlinear, journeys bend and wind. Two steps forward, one step back. I’ve spent much of my life chipping away toward the truth, while terrified to cause a collapse. This is reflected on the page intentionally. In many ways, this book is the story of my untangling.” (p.7)

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“What was best meant fitting neatly into our society’s expectations. Staying inside the lines. The perfect heroine’s journey was preemptively and unknowingly written for me. How would her family, friends, soccer parents, fellow teachers, and neighbors feel? Had she done something wrong? What if it was a sin? And whether it was conscious or not -- If I had to conform, why should you have to?” (p.25)

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“In our society anger and masculinity are so intertwined -- I hope to redefine that in my own life.” (p.52)

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“The world tells us that we aren’t trans but mentally ill. That I’m too ashamed to be a lesbian, that I mutilated my body, that I will always be a woman, comparing my body to Nazi experiments. It is not trans people who suffer from a sickness, but the society that fosters such hate.” (p.124)

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Get the Gist

Read the full summary in The New York Times.

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How does it fare?

“This is not just a story of growing up, of becoming, of transforming and surviving, but one of choosing to live and to fight for that life, even when the costs are higher than anyone could imagine… Page took this opportunity to let us into his world on his terms, which many people in the entertainment industry don’t get the chance to do. Follow him into it. Let it break your mind and heart wide open. And let’s not let this be the last trans memoir to hold this amount of power.”

– Stef Rubino, Autostraddle

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“Ultimately, Page performs a remarkable alchemy. He marshals memories and turns them into an appeal. “Let me just exist with you,” he writes, “happier than ever.” Reading those words nearly made me cry. Page’s plea is small. It also feels very big.”

– Brandon Tensley, The Washington Post