Although gender dysphoria and transitioning have been large parts of Grace’s life, she presents herself here as a complete human being—not just a transperson, but a musician, a parent, a friend, a partner ... Grace does not revise or justify her own past, even when it is problematic; instead, she appears to observe herself, and the result is an honest, genuine text. Fans of Against Me! would expect nothing less from the most infamous anarchist sellout ... Overall, Tranny is a well-crafted memoir that will impress not only Laura Jane’s existing fans but also anyone interested in punk music or transgender rights.
The real power of Tranny comes from Grace’s journal entries, which tell the real-time story of a quest for self that winds through addiction, divorce and, ultimately, action to address the agonizing dysphoria. The diaries are painfully repetitive, yearning for a path between shame and wholeness.
The section of the book that chronicles Grace coming out to herself and then breaking the news to the rest of the world is, naturally, the most engrossing part of this otherwise frothy bit of nonfiction ... Grace reserves the harshest criticisms for herself. She just drags a lot of people down in the muck with her ... Her more complete acknowledgment of the truth is a long time coming, and the solace that she feels as she moves towards it is palpable. The unintended effect, though, is that it casts the rest of Tranny in far more negative terms ... There are actual journal entries stitched in throughout the narrative, and as wearing as the dishy stuff can get, it also proves entertaining to eavesdrop on the gossip.
Grace’s memoir doesn’t eschew the rote narrative of the confused, fucked-up kid who turns to punk rock for comfort and guidance...but in Tranny’s best moments, Grace takes that oft-told tale and transforms it into something entirely her own ... It’s a bruising tale, but Grace writes about juggling the pressures of grappling with dysphoria and keeping her band together with such naked honesty that you can feel the weight being lifted off of her shoulders ... Tranny is rarely a sunny read, but it’s a page turner that brims with hard emotional truth.
Tranny—which pulls heavily from a decade of tour diaries— is actually a traditional rock bio in a lot of ways, full of road-dog debauchery, studio tales, and score-settling with ex-bandmates and managers. The physical transition, which doesn’t come until the last few chapters, feels almost like a postscript, and the prose swings between blistering and banal. But the book is also a powerful, disarmingly honest portrait of becoming.
...a detailed exploration of her lifelong affection for punk, her travails in the music industry, and her decades-long struggle with gender dysphoria ... it's Grace's unvarnished look at nearly two decades fronting a punk band that provides unlikely narrative momentum—she captures the mind-deadening monotony of living on the road without making the story feel repetitive ... Chunks of Grace's story are missing: one part of the book's title that's not properly reflected in the narrative is her history with anarchism ... Grace compels strangers to see her as flesh and blood instead of the shape of her flesh.
Grace sets her memoir apart by describing her experience with lifelong gender dysphoria—Grace finally came out as transgender just four years ago ... Grace takes a few obligatory shots at former bandmates and label execs, but she mostly aims at herself, believing that all of her self-perceived narcissism, arrogance, and rage came from her dysphoria. Half of Tranny is made up of Grace’s journals, which she’s kept most of her life. The other half—presumably the parts cowritten with Ozzi—is composed in dry 'memoirese,' lacking the lyricism that has endeared Grace’s music to thousands of fans across the world. But what the memoir sections lack in original voice, the journal entries make up for with illustrations of the magnitude of fear and confusion she’d been living with for so long ... Though Tranny is not entirely reinventing the rock memoir, it does offer a new perspective, and it comes at a critical time for a nation that is still wrestling with transphobia.
