Jenny Manzer

DNF at 47% because I looked and saw I'd have to suffer through the same amount over again and just couldn't.

Nirvana was my first favourite band, my first intro to music. I obsessed over them incessantly, and still adore them and have them on a pedestal. But I did not at all relate to Nico, who is whiney, incredibly self-centered, and annoying. She looks down on people with mainstream music taste and doesn't think that maybe her attitude is why people don't normally talk to her. And then of course she sits on a ferry and meets a boy. Gosh! So cliche. I can't. Cliches are great when they're interesting, but this book is not interesting. And then I went and looked to read the blurb and realised that the main premise of the book was her thinking Kurt was her dad, which, hello math, doesn't make sense and is just...

I had high expectations for this, but alas.… (mere)

I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I don't read a lot of middle reader fiction but I am a huge baseball fan and this book hit all the right notes for me. As other reviewers mention, the plot lacks serious conflict of any kind (Caz is confident about his identity and his family and friends are mostly accepting) and the baseball plot is superficial (*spoiler* his baseball team practices and improves). Nonetheless, the dialogue is not forced, the narrator has some genuinely funny lines, and I kept turning the pages to see what would happen next. I hope others find this book as entertaining and joyful as I did. Normalizing characters like Caz in fiction is so important.… (mere)

I applaud this book's message, especially given the pushback against rights for transgender folks in some quarters. I do wish there was more depth and complexity to the writing, both on the baseball end (the critical game lurches from being totally awful to being totally awesome, which can happen but feels a little forced here) and on the interpersonal end (same). It'd be interesting to see if transgender readers felt this was true to their experiences; the author herself is cis, and while she has done research it's not clear if she had talked to transgender kids during that process, or had more than one transgender kid review the story before publication.… (mere)

Review by my 12 year-old son:

In my opinion, the book, "My Life as a Diamond" was a wonderful title. I thoroughly enjoyed this selection, and I would gladly recommend this book to another person. I really enjoyed how the author balanced the fine line between a story of passion, and sadness, with a story of sport, and valor. This is no small feat, finding this so called 'happy medium' in which the reader can delve into. The plot in this story was very simple, so simple that you could summarize the book by saying, " someone played sports". But the complex backstory, the amazing theme of friendship, and just the idea that you could be whatever you wanted to be turned a book with a normal, simple plot into so much more. The amazing writing of this book is something to be proud of. I would gladly read this book again, it is just so wonderful. I will share this book with my associates, with the hope that they will read it, and have similar feelings about this book. This book is just perfect.… (mere)