Thank you NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue Books for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this collection of blog posts from author Riki Wilchins about the issues that transgender people face in modern society. The author wrote compelling satire that sounds like the right-wing would say if transgender was the norm rather than cisgender in society. Some of these essays were a mixture of satire, personal essays, and statistical analyses.

Unfortunately, due to the multiple genres found in this collection, the book felt like it was trying to be too many things at once to the point where I was losing interest. I wish that the essays of same genre were made into different books, or at least divided up into different sections in the book rather than being spread throughout.

I also didn’t like that the essays were written as if they were blog posts (from my understanding they were, but these essays should’ve been edited to fit a book format).

The information Wilchins provided in this book is useful, especially for those who don’t know much about the transgender community and what’s happening in society to this group. Overall, the book is worth the read because of its helpful information.

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it has since come out. I always end up loving Riki Wilchin's work and this is no exception. It's honest, has humour and leaves room for the author and reader to grow. Never perfect, but imperfectly just what the world needs.

This is a collection of articles and essays that the author, Riki Wilchins, has written over the past few years covering trans issues and current events. I appreciated how this collection of writings felt like a primer on important current issues. As someone who follows these issues closely, I now feel like I have better language and a more comprehensive understanding of the wider political landscape to explain them to others.

I also did not expect to laugh out loud so many times! Interspersed among more serious discussions of anti trans policies and personal essays about the author’s own gender affirming care are satirical articles that highlight just how ridiculous anti trans arguments are. The first piece, for example, Jk Rowling and Voldemort walk into a bar, was hilarious. I keep re-reading it. It was exactly what I needed when usually I just want to cry thinking about what the legacy of HP has become.

The structure of the collection reminded me a bit of Nick Walker’s Neuroqueer Heresies in that it’s a collection of online essays originally written elsewhere. There is some repetition of information, themes, and topics, which makes sense given that these were originally essays written across several years. I read it from beginning to end, but I’d suggest treating it like a reader or reference on trans issues and current events.

I look forward to reading more from Wilchins!

My review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/237679441-burn-the-binary-vol-2

Some of the arguments in the book were statistics or arguments that I had heard before, but some were new to me, and I appreciate thinking in new ways about issues. The book addresses most of the arguments with humor. Lots of humor. Therefore this isn't the dry essay book that some people might have been expecting. That said, sometimes the humor was a little macabre for the scariness of the specific topic that particular essay was addressing. Therefore the reader should be prepared for what I might call "gallow's humor." I'm not sure this book would be the #1 first book I would choose to enlighten someone on the issues, but it is definitely a valuable contribution to the discussion.