Rhaina Cohen

Overall, The Other Significant Others was decent, but slightly mis-marketed.

It was nice hearing about the stories of these different people and how they came to build a friendship outside of the status quo. The information and stories presented were good and effective, and I agreed with many of Cohen's topics and arguments throughout the book.

The use of the word "Reimagining" in the title, though, can imply a sort-of "how-to." It was definitely geared more towards people who have been in the status-quo but are less than thrilled with it and looking to learn how other people live their lives and new practices to incorporate into their own. But, it only tells the reader that these closer friendships are okay, and doesn't explore how to actually go about deepening those friendships. It also has a very heavy lean on queer platonic relationships and legal rights surrounding children, medical decisions, and inheritance of those relationships, and does not focus on relationships which may not want to incorporate a more "partner" role or "legal" role.

As someone who knows more about polyamory and queer platonic relationships, this book presented nothing new. While they were good stories, it's all stuff I've heard before.… (más)