So I've had a review draft open for a week and I just deleted it by mistake and I can't remember all of my points so I'll make this short. I liked that it's a story with a trans protagonist that isn't a trans story. First I've had of those. Of course the author is trans so that tracks. I liked the framing device in theory (the main text is a primary source from the 18th century, the framing device are the annotations and footnotes by a modern scholar). In practice I found the scholar character annoying and felt like he didn't go anywhere, also the suspension of disbelief required to buy that this guy uses annotations as his diary was too much. I liked the 18th century language, the heavy use of London slang with the footnotes to understand it, the capitalization of nouns. The world of the novel is really dark and ugly, so I liked that the ending was hopeful and beautiful. I liked the politics in the book, even though it felt heavy-handed at times. The author Jordy Rosenberg is very visible through his writing, he's an academic and you can tell. This guy oozes postcolonial theory, queer theory and marxist dialectics out of every pore and to me personally that's cool but it's probably not for everyone. He also really wears his mommy issues on his sleeve.