In this beautifully poetic literary fiction Duncan explores the exhilarating thresholds between creation and destruction, becoming and dissolving. Highly recommended, especially for trans folks and others interested in trans people’s experiences.

what better time to review eliot duncan's debut novel than the day the @nationalbookfoundation award for fiction longlist drops, and 'ponyboy' is on the list?!

this book truly lives up to its blurb by andrea lawlor in that it's a novel of 'melancholic transboy swagger.' this book is pure vibes, as the plot follows ponyboy, an early-20s transman living with his girlfriend, baby, in paris, and later in berlin. he's trying to be a writer, but spends most of his time drinking and doing a lot of k & blow. the two move to berlin, where much the same happens, and ponyboy finds himself at the attention of a photographer baby knows, and starting an affair with a writer named gabriel. much of the nuance of this time comes from the writing, which mirrors pony's deteriorating mental state. eventually, he finds himself back home in the midwest in rehab, reflecting on his destructive tendencies & trying to find a way thru it all.

this book is truly a snapshot of a messy life, and pretentious in the best way. i couldn't tell you what it was specifically that i loved about this book, but the vibe just hit right. i think seeing a person trying to navigate their relationship to drugs & alcohol, their relationships with other people, and their gender at this pivotal moment of adulthood was relatable in a number of ways. pony wasn't necessarily the most likeable character, but i still rooted for him as the story went on. this book was a joy to read, and i can't wait to see what duncan writes next.

Oh I loved this debut. I've been in a bit of a reading rut recently, and PONYBOY captured me immediately; I was gripped by the story of a character nicknamed Ponyboy and as they flail across early adulthood, falling into unhealthy relationships--beautiful and meaningful ones too--addiction, all across various European and American locales. I feel we don't see this kind of story as much in publishing, but this felt new and exciting.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

Good verbiage with a decent pace, but dialogue (unquoted to cater to the in between reality of auto-fiction) feels very stilted, like pseudo-intellectual movie lines. Ex. Who would really ask you “how it /really feels to make eye contact with yourself” during a haircut? They are FTM so this is a heavier question, but this type of told rather than shown gravity is a bit masturbatory, especially around all the quotes shoehorned in about philosophers and metaphysics. Calling everything, even a lover’s hands “the truth” is OTT ick, especially when they describe everyone but their girlfriend as hot as Heaven. There’s some country western to this prose that’s a bit like a drunk Bon Jovi: all boned up, all disoriented but appreciative for a gust of tumbleweed.

This being said, the MC is too much of a drifter. Not much of an identity besides trying to lose theirs in booze and coke, and hook up with as ambiguously gendered people. And for what? Why should we care when the settings aren’t all that pinned down so we have nothing to latch onto within or outside? The person tries too hard to be a bleeding, high-brow poem than a person who expresses actual love for anything. Defensive and horny, more like.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous vibes featuring a real account of the trans experience. Very powerful book. WIll definitely receommend to a friend!

I enjoyed the messy, painful, unflinching depiction of our narrator’s addiction and attempts to assert his transmasculine identity in a social group that doesn’t always see him as he is. I felt that the emotional truth of the novel was somewhat obscured by the prose, which leaned overly flowery for my tastes and which, in my opinion, needed more editing for balance. That said, it’s clearly the prose of a talented writer, and I’m sure the style will appeal to plenty of readers more than it did for me. Not a home run for me, but a worthwhile read.

This was an interesting book! It definitely felt much more of an autobio than I anticipated going in, but it had a lot of very real things to say about people who consider your transition as "abandoning" certain LGBTQ identities.

An incredibly important text in the trans literature canon.

There are passages that span across the way the trans body interacts with misunderstanding and miscommunication in the messy love triangle with Baby and Toni for our masc trans narrator. A lot of light was shed on the experience of the everyday trans individual that I found compelling and enriching. Beyond this, it's also a book about self-destruction through the trials of addiction.

Messy. Unapologetic. Chaotic. In prose, in person. In desperation.

I could make two arguments about the overly-done prose:

All For:

If anything, the flowery language, uneven throughout the text, is incredibly erratic to the point where it becomes Ponyboy. Ponyboy is prose. It leaps, it crashes. It drowns, it drags. It goes on and on because it [the prose] needs to keep up with the days that transgress against all odds, against oblivion.

All Against:

Sometimes the prose borders between overly-sentimental to pure cringe. It becomes too aesthetic for its own good, alienating care from the reader, adding little to no supplement to the thick of the plot. For an Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, I'm rethinking the program and its credentials as an iNstItUtiOn. If this is the kind of writing being produced, I'm glad knowing that I've saved myself a couple of bucks!

All in all, Eliot's novel is a fresh bildungsroman. I'm here for the ride, for the chaotic swerves and sharp turns, but it comes off as too debut-y. Amateur. It's an overly-produced indie art haus film that sacrifices too much for aesthetics in place of substance. But, there is no doubt that Eliot will come around with a greater and grander sophomore novel.

"Ponyboy" is an autofiction novel that delves into the eponymous character's struggles with addiction as he embraces his trans-masculine identity and navigates complicated queer relationships. The book has an experimental, hybrid form that includes emails, letters, and poems written to writers, philosophers, trans people, and others.
The prose style can be disorienting since Ponyboy's narrative voice prioritizes emotion and theory over concrete description. Especially in the first half of the narrative when Ponyboy is in the thick of his addiction and not in a clear state of mind. In the second half, Ponyboy goes to rehab but experiences a relapse. Personally, what sold me is the realistic portrayal of recovery and its setbacks, healing and its discomfort.
As a debut novel, "Ponyboy" shows great promise, and I am eager to see Duncan's future works. If you're a fan of queer, character-driven stories, I think you'll enjoy "Ponyboy" too.

This was a miss for me! I think this book has an important place in queer canon, since there are so few novels centered on young trans men. That being said, I found the writing incredibly overwrought and bulky. The interspersed "emails" to famous queer writers felt odd and out of tune with the narrative.

A difficult book.

The first half was a constant stream of drugs, alcohol, Ponyboy failing to distance himself from people that didn’t respect his identity & made everything worse, and sections that felt like they were supposed to be profound but sometimes just felt pretentious. I found the first half to be tiring and repetitive.

The second half of the book, following the worst parts of Ponyboy’s spiral of addiction, was in my opinion a lot better but it was also emotionally very heavy. The scenes where Ponyboy essentially gives everything up just to get more drugs were powerful & very hard to get through. Big TW for sexual assault - especially if you’re trans, there are multiple scenes that might affect you in a bad way..

Overall, I don’t know. I didn’t enjoy this book but it is an important story to tell.

Thank you netgalley for this ARC!

Strong 5 ⭐️

Wow i can not say anything negative about this novel it was so beautifully written and i could not put it down the story was both beautiful, sad, and touched down on alot of important topics regarding self discovery the people around you.. love,sex,lust,addiction. The addiction parts were so sad because this novel made you fall in love with the main character i was so invested in the journey. This novel took us too places like berlin paris talked about the arts i just loved this one so much ugh i didnt want it to end. This book is such an important piece of work just because i feel alot of people who feel the same way as the narrator might see themself and relate. It was split in parts and each part was so amazing even during the struggle the narrator went through and showing you how dark sometimes life can be. This was such an amazing debut novel Eliot you should be so proud! I fell in love with this novel!

DNF 48%
This was a big anticipated book for me so I was very grateful when I received an ARC. Unfortunately I couldn’t get with the writing. I saw what the author is trying to do but it didn’t work. The sentences are too brief and don’t flow together into a cohesive narrative. I understand the desire for a stream of consciousness type writing to depict Ponyboy’s mental state and drug use but it doesn’t connect you with that type of life.

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for access to this E-ARC.

Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan is a dark tale of coping with the world as a transman while facing the destructive nature of addiction. This novel presents the realities of transphobia even in queer spaces as seen by the relationship between the titular character Ponyboy and Baby their painter girlfriend. Witnessing the descent of Ponyboy leading to rehab is painful, as it should be .While I feel that the message of this novel is important, it is often clouded by pretentious language and writing style. The novel, while always flowing, can feel constricted by the language used.

Overall, Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan is an poignant debut that has many things to say about the state of trans individuals in our world and the difficulties of substance abuse. While the writing sometimes hinders these messages, it is still an important story.

Unfortunately, as a big reader and ardent follower of all things transmasc literature, I found this book to be nearly unreadable. The narrator is insufferable; the philosophical tangents are baffling (at one point, the narrator says, "After fervent discussion, we settle on a formula: d = xx. Desire multiplies itself, exponentially smirking" thats not even pretentious, thats like, someone trying to be pretentious and failing); so many passages are, for lack of a better word, cringe. The book reads like fourth-rate transgender garth greenwell.

I overall enjoyed the concept of this book. I liked the honest discussion of the struggles of being trans in today’s world. Bits and pieces were just a little too pretentious for me to truly enjoy it.

This debut novel highlights the struggles one has being Trans in this modern day society, where there is conflict of others understanding, perhaps even understanding your own identity and making the decision to move forward with your change, how it can affect your relationships.

Then as if that was not enough of a mental load on a person, they are also an aspiring artist surrounded by others alike and artist, the drug scene, the party scene. Becoming addicting to multiple drugs and alcohol and spiraling out of control with their life.

This novel reminded me of the tv show 'Skins' meets the movie 'Trainspotting' and 'Dead Poets Society'. There is a lot of high pretentious artist vibes in the writing, specially in the beginning. For me it was hard to truly connect with the characters, because of the style though also because they were in and out and not to likeable to me.

I think how the novel ended was perfect, and really summed up the journey you did go through with Ponyboy.

4/5 - Good, but had more potential.

This is a book that takes some time to get immersed in, but once it happens, it's inescapable. The sections on gender and sexuality are good, and it is very important to tell stories like these, but where the novel really shines is in its depiction of the downward spiral of addiction. I believe this is a work of autofiction, and it feels very true to lived experiences. By that, I do not mean that it is memoir, but that it feels viscerally real in a way that almost has to come from a place of having been through such things to some degree or another.

I flew through this in less than a day. Once the fever-dream/avalanche of addiction started to pull the narrator down, I was along for the ride, holding on for dear life. Overall, quite a good read, and I would recommend this to someone who would be interested in this type of story. We need more powerful, gripping stories like these.

this was good, sometimes hard to read - because of the heavy themes but also because it was admittedly a bit painfully pretentious at times. i found ponyboy to be an interesting and empathetic protagonist and i was certainly rooting for him, even if he got annoying at times, in both his self-destruction and prententiousness. i really liked that it explored addiction and transgenderism and queer relationships in ways i haven't seen done very much, and it felt really uniquely written. it also read pretty quickly, but again........ felt like it was maybe just trying a tiny bit too hard for my liking. i also just struggle w/ books where people are getting fricked up the whole time. it makes me tired. i do think it'll do really well though, and i'm grateful to have gotten to read it!

3.5 rounded down

thanks netgalley & ww norton and company for the arc !!

Reading this was like being in the worst manic episode I've ever had, it was like seeing the worst parts of myself put down on page and having them look back and me and say that I was not alone in all my terrible, brilliant feelings.