Symptoms of Being Human

By: Jeff Garvin

Narrated by: Tom Phelan

Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist

YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults List

2017 Rainbow

A sharply honest and moving debut perfect for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Ask the Passengers.

Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. But Riley isn't exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for re-election in über-conservative Orange County, the pressure - media and otherwise - is building up in Riley's life.

On the advice of a therapist, Riley starts an anonymous blog to vent those pent-up feelings and tell the truth of what it's really like to be a gender fluid teenager. But just as Riley's starting to settle in at school - even developing feelings for a mysterious outcast - the blog goes viral, and an unnamed commenter discovers Riley's real identity, threatening exposure. And Riley must make a choice: walk away from what the blog has created - a lifeline, new friends, a cause to believe in - or stand up, come out, and risk everything.

From debut author Jeff Garvin comes a powerful and uplifting portrait of a modern teen struggling with high school, relationships, and what it means to be a person.

©2016 Jeff Garvin (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

incredible story. raw real relatable

what a beautiful journey. great narrator. amazing story. real storyline and in-depth background is given. very immersive.

Awesome book.

Having a nonbinary main character was great. I recommend this for everyone. Questioning people, nonbinary people, trans people, and cis people.

YESSS

The narration is amazing and the story is phenomenal, I was so into it I was screaming out loud

Non-binary reader

Symptoms of Being Human is about a young teenager named Riley Cavanaugh. Riley not only deals with the normal issues of being a teenager (high school and bullies), Riley has to deal with their dad being a Congressman for Southern California and anxiety attacks.
Now, I know you noticed I said “their'' when referring to Riley. This is because Riley (on top of everything else), is Gender Fluid. In simple terms, being Gender Fluid means sometimes Riley sometimes feels like a girl, and sometimes they feel like a boy. As they refer to it in their own words, their gender is like a dial. The needle sometimes points closer to “girl” and sometimes points closer to “boy”. I'll be posting a more in-depth blog post about non-binary genders on Friday.
Riley, from the advice of their counselor, starts an anonymous blog under the username “Alix”. This blog unexpectedly explodes in popularity after Riley gives a suicidal trans girl advice that saves her life, but sends her back home where she's almost beaten to death by her father.
Riley now not only has to deal with the issues mentioned earlier but now they have to deal with the guilt of their blog causing that girl harm. Its mentioned in the story that the girl is not only alive, but she also thanked Riley for the advice. Even though the girl is ok with everything and even encourages other trans people to come out, Riley still feels guilty.
This would all be overwhelming if it weren't for Riley's two new friends, Solo and Bec.
Riley tries to stay anonymous and in the closet as long as they can but can Riley manage to stay that way?
Symptoms of Being Human is the first book I've ever read with a non-binary main character. As a non-binary writer/person, this was refreshing. The only problem I had with this book is the lack of “they/them” pronouns. Using “they” are a pronoun is extremely common for non-binary people (this isn't the ONLY pronouns used, but the most common).
This book was written by a cis male (which is another problem I had, but he at least did a decent job representing the community). The other issue I saw was the main character reinforces the stereotype that non-binary people are teenagers who run a blog (all too familiar to the stereotype of non-binary people being SJW Tumblr users). I'm 28 years old, married with a child, and proudly non-binary.
If you're non-binary or want to change up your usual cis, white male reading list, give Symptoms of Being Human a try.
4.5 out of 5 stars.

A must listen!

I listened to this with my son and it was a fantastic read! The writing, the performance and the story were phenomenal! I would highly recommend.

I laughed, I cried, I learned

What an amazing book! So honest about a topic that many people are afraid to talk about nowadays. Really helped me understand a lot more about the struggles of another person. And it's told in a really empowering way. Nothing like taking your own pain and using it to help other people through theirs!

Kuddos to Jeff Garvin .

A great book that shares LGBTQ real issues from a teenager's point of view. Inspiring!

A perfect story

I don’t really have words to describe how much I loved this book. I cried countless times as I listened to it. I highly recommend it, it’s the perfect listen.

Very informative re: gender fluid

Love the main characters in this story and learned about gender fluid. It is critical this day and age to be knowledgeable about sense of gender versus sexual preference. Well written, well narrated and thoroughly enjoyable!

I am so happy with this book

this was a very good book and I felt like I WAS the main character. my favorite character was solo, also. I could relate to the main character a lot. so, overall very good book.