Endpapers has many elements that should result in a good story, but overall it felt somewhat superficial.

A strong opening that will fit perfectly into the genre of many, was not for me. The toxicity was out of my league, the political drama felt like filler and certain parts of the story that should have been a front runner were lacking in substance.

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review.

This book is a chaotic gem in how it talks about so many dilemmas that a human can face in life. The main character is a genderqueer bookbinder who is trying to make sense of her gender identity, her relationship, her friendships, her work, and her art. It ebbs and flows, the tide of this book, but on the whole, it’s a great piece of art made up of different pages and scraps, much like the piece of art that Dawn ends up working on.

Dawn herself is annoying in places in the way she behaves with the people in her life, but then again, there are reasons behind why she lashes out, however much the people at the receiving end don’t deserve to. Her desperation to make sense of it all reminds you that everyone arrives at that destination at their own pace. But how Dawn does it is riveting and makes you restless in equal measure - a tribute to the author’s calibre.

Thumbs up to Endpapers!

Engaging, immersive, and expertly crafted. A recommended purchase for collections where litfic is popular.

Unfortunately, I did not like this book as much as I had hoped. Even though the story is interesting enough to keep the reader engaged, the characters are boring and just downright uninteresting. The main character is obviously struggling with an identity crisis, which is completely relatable, but I felt there was no evolution or growth to her in the end. In addition, the backstory about the end papers and the mystery surrounding them, was not as big a revelation as what it could have been.

Dawn is a genderqueer bookbinder, working in NYC in 2003 when she finds a note glued in the endpaper of a book, sending her on a quest to discover her own gender identity with the help of a stranger. It is difficult to read about Dawn's journey, as her relationships and experiences go wrong so easily, but it was also an interesting read.

In a recently post-9/11 New York, Dawn is a young artist who is struggling to make art. She is also struggling to express herself is as a genderqueer person in a relationship and society that don't fully understand her. My heart ached for Dawn so many times throughout this book as she grappled with others' expectations. She makes her living as a book binder at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There, she finds a love letter written in german hidden in a book she is preserving. The letter reveals the writer's own grappling with their sexuality and perhaps their gender. Dawn embarks on a mission to find them and to uncover their story.

Endpapers is like a mystery in more ways than one. Dawn works to track down the letters' writer and learn about their past while also trying to uncover the truth about herself and the way she wants to show up in the world.

It's a difficult read at times but endlessly moving.

This was a thought-provoking , if quiet, exploration of gender, sexuality, belonging, and community.

I really loved the early 2000s setting - it gave the author a lot to incorporate into the story. The book discussed post-9/11 prejudice and how that impacted not only communities of color but also queer communities. There was also a more urgent sense of danger being queer than I’ve seen in more modern novels. I thought these two pieces added a lot to the plot and characters.

I struggled with the main characters of this story a lot. Dawn seemed pretty selfish throughout the book but really didn’t grow much except in her acceptance of her gender identity/fluidity toward the end. She sort of grew as an artist, but that was hard to tell.

Overall, a nice read with very discussion-worthy elements.

A perfectly fine book about a person's struggle to be accepted for their nonbinary identity in the context of another person's history struggle with their sexuality. Honestly, there should be more representation in perfectly fine books.

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly follows Dawn, a bookbinder who is struggling with artistic block, a strained relationship with her boyfriend, and her gender identity. Dawn discovers an engaging, decades-old queer love letter hidden in an old book which sets her on a journey to track down the author. It was so refreshing to read a novel about coming-of-age and self-discovery in adulthood. I loved the intimacy of the writing, the early-2000s NYC setting, and the character-driven plot. This is a timely and thought-provoking novel about gender expression that will resonate with many.

As someone who was a humanities major in NYC in the aughts-- one who spent a lot of hours wandering around the Metropolitan Museum, at that-- this really spoke to me. Dawn is a sympathetic protagonist and sensitive observer of her life and her world. A really touching story.

A well-written and thoughtful reflection on gender identity, both personally and in relation to how others see you.

An excellent debut novel that keeps the reader engaged throughout. Technically historical fiction as it's set in the early 2000's, this novel features Dawn, a genderqueer artist that hasn't been able to focus on her art and eventually becomes hyperfixated on a letter she finds at work, scrawled on the back of a pulp novel cover from the 1950s. As Dawn struggles to discover her identity and passions, she attempts to solve the mystery of where this letter came from. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the author Jennifer Savran Kelly, publishers Algonquin Books and Workman Publishing Co., and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of ENDPAPERS.

Dawn has commitment issues. She's not sure how she feels about almost ever major factor in her life, and each of them, one by one, suddenly require her attention and focus. Dawn is genderqueer and, perhaps central to the rest of her commitment issues, she's struggling with the question of how to express her gender to herself, and consequently, the world. She doesn't know how she feels about her boyfriend, Lukas, but knows for them both something has to change. She doesn't know if she likes her work anymore, and agonizes about gender conforming when she's there. She doesn't know how to continue with her art, how to express herself there when she has closed down so many other channels inside her. She knows only that she loves her friends, Jae and Gertrude, and they center Dawn, and this book. Through the growth of those relationships, Dawn faces her inability to commit and all the pain it caused in her life.

As you might be able to tell from my description of this book above, the form of this novel is pretty brilliant. Like a hurricane of indecision with the three main relationships being the eye of calm through the middle. The pacing is fantastic. The tension builds steadily toward the major plot points. The ending feels predictable, but in a way that's intended. As if to say, after everything Dawn has been through, she's earned a little predictability.

This is my trigger warning for terrible violence against queer people, hospitalization for violence, post violence injuries, and ptsd descriptions.

Rating: 📖📖📖📖📖 / 5 antique books
Recommend? Absolutely!
Finished: March 15 2023
Read this if you like:
🏳️‍🌈 LGBT+ rep
🏳️‍⚧️ Trans rep
📚 Book binding
🌃 New York
🎨 Art (collage)

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly is a unique character driven story about a genderqueer book conservator. The main character, Dawn, is a non binary person who is searching for who they are and how they fit into the world, both big and small. It's a really interesting story - beautifully written and compassionate. It's hard to find thoughtful, literary stories about non binary folks and this is a really great one to add to the stack.

Endpapers is out now! Don't miss it!

Fantastic historical fiction with awesome representation. Will be featured on an upcoming episode of my podcast Your Rainbow Reads.

This book totally blew me away! I wasn't expecting it to hit me so hard in the feels, but it really did. I totally empathized with Dawn and her gender confusion and struggle to find herself. I loved the character development over the course of the story. This felt like a complex character driven story with a fast-paced mystery underneath it, and the pacing was absolutely perfect. I loved the queer rep and the Jewish rep SO MUCH.

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly is an adult literary fiction book following a Genderqueer, Queer main character in New York City in 2003. The story is accessible and character-driven with the writing style really delving deep into character-work without being bogged down by purple prose which can often slow a story down. The story follows Dawn as she finds a hidden letter in the endpapers of a book she’s reading; the letter is a love letter written by a woman, for another woman. From there, Dawn goes on a journey of Queer history and discovers just as much about herself as she does those that came before her.

The thing I loved most about this story was definitely the writing style. Endpapers is extremely accessible which makes it stand out in the literary fiction market in particular as the genre is infamous for being overly, well, literary and arguably a little elitist at times. Savran Kelly’s writing style in this novel really allows them to explore Dawn, our lead, in a deep and truly introspective manner.

This leads to another well established part of this story which is the exploration of relationships, love and how these things can change over time. The story explores Dawn and Lukas’ relationship in a fascinating way by examining relationships of love vs. relationships of convenience and forcing Dawn to evaluate which she is in. Dawn’s investigation into love in such a way is driven primarily by her discovery of the love letter from the titular endpapers of the book she’s reading. She finds herself determined to uncover more about and become more immersed in Queer culture and history.

Ultimately, this story is truly a love story to Genderqueer – and all Trans and Non-Binary – readers, the Queer community and how far we have come in the past century. It is a testament to the power of language's ability to help us define our sense of self and identify others like us.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for access to this book in exchange for an honest review. This was an engaging book for me. I loved the open window into the main characters' lives and their relatable, imperfect relationships. I thought this book's portrayal of the pain and heartbreak concerning the protagonist's gender identity struggle was very well done and that it was strongly rooted in the setting. The place and time of the book was a big selling point for me, as I do not often come across books set in the early 2000's New York that explore gender identity and a job in book conservation. The experience of reading this beautiful book is not one I think I will forget.