Cover Image: Somebody Told Me

Somebody Told Me

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Member Reviews

Great book!
I loved Alexis/Alek's voice and it was so nice to see a queer character be so sure of themselves. They had such a strong voice! That was quite refreshing!
Even though this book was well-balanced and went through sensitive topics without villanizing anything, the author tried to cover too many different topics at once in such a short book, so some parts felt a bit... unfinished...
But with that said, this book was excelent in so many way. I highly recommend it.

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This is one that kept my interest for the most part and maybe just maybe I’ll pick it up again one day hopefully

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After an assault, bigender seventeen-year-old Aleks/Alexis is looking for a fresh start―so they voluntarily move in with their uncle, a Catholic priest. In their new bedroom, Aleks/Alexis discovers they can overhear parishioners in the church confessional. Moved by the struggles of these "sinners," Aleks/Alexis decides to anonymously help them, finding solace in their secret identity: a guardian angel instead of a victim.

But then Aleks/Alexis overhears a confession of another priest admitting to sexually abusing a parishioner. As they try to uncover the priest's identity before he hurts anyone again, Aleks/Alexis is also forced to confront their own abuser and come to terms with their past trauma.


I cannot express how much I related to this book. As an assault survivor and someone who doesn't follow the binary genders, this book hit close to home. The story was intriguing and straightforward in its writing. The author handled a tough topic very respectfully. I appreciate this book so much and would highly recommend it to nonbinsry/trans teens.

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In one word- Thrilling. This is a book about gender and religious belief. The writing is powerful and thank you Mia Siegert for granting us a view into their lives. I'm so grateful i am able to read about in Alexis/ks. They are such a great main character. I knew of the term but this my first exposure to a bigender character, and reading about Alexis/ks's struggle to fit in and deal with past trauma really added depth to the story.. Surrender our sons by Adam Sass is great contemporaries of each other.

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this really dealt with tough topics and I felt it was really well done with dealing with topics that we don't think about. It was well written and had wonderful main character.

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I've been waiting for some #ownvoices reviews before reading this book and many book reviewers in the lgbt community on the trans spectrum have said the rep in this book is questionable at best.
Therefore I don't plan on reading it anymore, hopefully my choice will be understood.

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This is definitely a book that covers some pretty heavy topics. First there is the gender fluidity represented in the main character Alexis/Aleks who is bi-gender, a term that I was not at all familiar with when I started the book. Second is assault, the one suffered by Alexis/Aleks as well as the assault that is uncovered by accidentally listening to a late night confession. I do think that the topics were handled well, and in a way that it was easy to understand what was going on and why it was important to the plot and overall themes of the book. Even though I myself and not bi-gender the main character of the book was easy to relate and even sympathize with and root for. This was a very fast paced and enjoyable read, for the recovery ending if not for the troublesome subject matter. I will definitely recommend it as a good example of representation in YA books.

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This book is really close to my heart! I git emotional reading this and somehow cry because of the experiences. It really did a good job portraying gender identification and religiousness. It is a quick read and a memorable one. So much love and respect for this book.

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honestly, this was a pretty decent book. it wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t the best thing in the world either. i might reread this book sometime soon, cause i was in a reading slump while i was reading this.

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Loved this book. This is the first book I've come across that brings you into the life of a bigender person. I think Siegert does a great job portraying Aleks and his/her emotions and how hard it is to go through life when your extended family is not accepting of your lifestyle. How hard it is when they don't realize that it's not a choice your are making. It is just who you are. The book is full of twists and turns, intrigue, heartache, and laughter. A great YA book.

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I really struggled to finish this one.
It‘s quite some time before the main story begins and until then there’s a lot of internal monologue that got kind of repetitive and unfortunately couldn’t get me invested in the story.
When the main plot gets going, it is kind of all over the place with the main character making ridiculous assumptions based off of no evidence and then acting so stupidly, it was a pain to read.
I thought the romance was also quite weird. They talk for a few times, each time really shortly, then (SPOILER) Aleks/Alexis confesses their love only to suspect the love interest of being a murderer the next day. What the fuck.

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Warnings: sexual assault. Homophobia. Possibly others further into the book.
I picked this up because I liked the premise and people were speaking about it. I also got to like 40-something % and found myself just swiping through the pages.
So yeah. I figured if I was absentmindedly turning the pages, it meant I wasn’t actually interested in the story.

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Great writing and strong voice. Recommend if looking for a story that is as captivating as it is well-written.

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This was a very compelling read. I wanted to know more about Aleks/Alekis's being bigender and how that affected their day to day life, as well as what was happening in the church. At times it felt VERY judgmental of religion as a whole, but overall kept me interested until the very end.

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DNF. I couldn't get into this one. Thank you for the opportunity to read it early. It just wasn't the book for me.

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I was immediately pretty sucked into this book, but as I kept reading I wondered when we were going to finally get to what I expected to be the main plot based off of the summary. Well that plot of overhearing a priest making a confession doesn’t start to over 60% in the book, and while I had enjoyed most of what I read in the first 60% it quickly went downhill from there. I do think most of my dislike was a me thing but dislike it I did.

The plan to catch this priest made me so uncomfortable that I didn’t want to keep reading. I don’t really know why it made me so uncomfortable but the whole time I kept thinking there has to be a better way to catch this guy, and the fact that people who were adults and in positions of power over the main character thought this was the best solution just adds more to my discomfort. I don’t think I would have been so uncomfortable with the whole situation if this had been a thriller because then I would have expected this kind of plan to be made, but in a book that was very much NOT of thriller it just felt like we were putting Alexis/Aleks in unneeded danger.

There was also insta-love which anybody who knows me knows that’s a thing I hate but this was even worse than usual. Our main character falls for a nun and then touches her hair which obviously makes the nun go, “No, you can’t do that” but does that stop Alexis/Aleks from doing it again later in the book? No, of course not. But does this none somehow end of returning Alexis’/Aleks’ feelings by the end of the book? Yes, of course because insta-love.

Alexis/Aleks was very judgmental which I liked at first because we could see them trying to overcome this and work on this aspect of their personality. But then Alexis/Aleks never actually seemed to learn and made some leaps of logic with no actual evidence and very much could have ruined somebody’s life over it.

Lastly I do want to mention that there are a LOT of thoughts of self-hate through out the book. So if you do plan on reading this be prepared for those especially in the first half of the book. Triggers warnings as well for sexual assault, transphobia, and murder.

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I absolutely loved this book! I really just love Mia Siegert and her writing. JERKBAIT was one of my favorite books. I really, really like how she manages to write books about topics that not a lot of people are talking about. She writes books that really make you think. She also has a bigender main character, I've never read a book with a bigender character so I really learned a lot, and I was able to understand what it's like to identify as bigender. In general, this book made me learn so much! I really liked her author's note at the end, which really made you understand why she wrote this book, she brings up a lot of fair points.

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Reading about a bigender character is probably one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. In Somebody Told Me, Mia Siegert seamlessly creates an atmosphere of mystery to explore Aleks/Alexis’ identity and how they’re dealing with their trauma after an assault. The story is quietly heartbreaking; even though they are sure about their gender, we see our main character go through a lot of internalized homophobia and transphobia in this brand new religious environment. They are thrust back into the closet, with no coping mechanisms or support system.

I adored seeing how Siegert tackled the theme of religion and faith, and how one doesn’t correlate with the other, and for that alone, I consider this a necessary read, as it doesn’t shy away from peeling back the layers of awfulness that exist in the Christian community. I also highly appreciated how it reflected that not all religious folks share the same conservative, close-minded views and faith is constantly evolving. As someone who firmly believes in God but doesn’t care for Catholicism, I felt quite seen.

The narration is unreliable and this isn’t a read for everyone. Aleks/Alexis is very much an unlikeable character and they go through a ton of development throughout the novel, but they have a lot of questionable and uncomfortable views and make wrong decisions that get challenged and really demonstrate how there’s always space for people to grow, especially queer folks in regards to issues like racism and sexism.

Another thing I really appreciated seeing was the discussion about the toxicity that often exists in fandom and anime culture, and how quickly these communities can turn to fetishization and objectification of queer people, especially masc-presenting folks, and the transphobia and homophobia that also exists in these spaces.

If you’re looking for a queer contemporary with thriller vibes, I highly recommend Siegert’s Somebody Told Me. It is one of the most unique YA books I’ve read recently and brings something new and raw to the speculative fiction genre.

Rating: 3.5 stars ⭐

Thank you to Lerner Publishing Group for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review!

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Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I'm not sure what to think about this book. I loved the main character Aleks/Alexis who was a bigender teen.
The concept of the book was both originally and interesting. I was very intrigued by the fact that the MC was able to hear confessions and Aleks/Alexis takes on the roll of a guardian angle. He's a wonderful soul trying to ease people's pain.

However, there is a subject of abuse in the church which leads Aleks/Alexis to have a hard time dealing iwth that confession considering their past.

The only thing that bugged me about this book was that I don't think the author gave the story enough justice. It's a short book. Only 250 pages and I feel like it was trying to do a lot in a little bit of space. It felt so rushed at times.

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I received this book as an arc from Net Galley and offer my honest review.

Book Details: After an assault, bigender seventeen-year-old Aleks/Alexis is looking for a fresh start―so they voluntarily move in with their uncle, a Catholic priest. In their new bedroom, Aleks/Alexis discovers they can overhear parishioners in the church confessional. Moved by the struggles of these "sinners," Aleks/Alexis decides to anonymously help them, finding solace in their secret identity: a guardian angel instead of a victim.

But then Aleks/Alexis overhears a confession of another priest admitting to sexually abusing a parishioner. As they try to uncover the priest's identity before he hurts anyone again, Aleks/Alexis is also forced to confront their own abuser and come to terms with their past trauma.

I’ve only my just finished this book and still feel shook from everything within it. I’m not a religious person but have been impacted by the stories of sexual assault survivors from the Catholic Faith. I appreciate the author for being able to offer up a story that allows readers to understand the shame, guilt and embarrassment that survivors carry with them daily for something that isn’t their fault. The way that the hyper vigilance, flashbacks and anxiousness that’s portrayed by Aleks/Alexis Is textbook PTSD and done authentically which I appreciated. As readers we are also submerged into the life of an individual who identifies outside “culture norms” as bigender and educated us in a non-threatening way on how we can do better.

One thing that I didn’t like, a bit of a pet peeve, is that while Aleks/Alexis wants people to accept them for who they are without question or assumptions; Aleks/Alexis is constantly making assumptions about Dima, Bernie, Joey and even their Aunt. I can see how that played into the story line, but it also felt too defensive and harmful.

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