This memoir covers Boylan's childhood and youth (in a haunted house) as a conflicted boy who knew he'd rather be a girl, but had no hope of doing anything about it other than dressing in his sister's clothes behind a locked bedroom door. It was just excellent. Please read it. ( )

Jennifer Finney Boylan's memoir of childhood, adolescence, and some bits beyond centers around the Coffin House (named after people who once lived there, of course), the house where she grew up and which she always felt was haunted. This is a memoir of family and of self (whether there were or were not any actual ghosts in the house is left an open question; the real haunting here was of Jenny haunting herself), and Jenny's hopes and confusions around gender and love as a trans person trying to figure out life and friends and partners and herself are a strong thread throughout. The memoir is masterfully done, with early reflections echoing down the pages to come back stronger, more revealing, chapters later. The sentence-level writing is often a wonder, and Boylan is *funny*, in that slightly off-center way that should be familiar to members of the sorts of families that are proud of their shared, idiosyncratic inside jokes. I felt like I was in the hands of a fair and assured storyteller from page one. Recommended. ( )

My mother-in-law turned me on to Jennifer Finney Boylan. She read "I'm Looking Through You" first, while I started with "She's Not There". I don't know what my impression would have been had I read the books in chronological order, but in light of what I already knew about the writer's life, I could not help but see this book, in part, as a love letter to her sister. Again, that may well be my own perspective, but it is one of the beautiful and bittersweet threads that weaves throughout this memoir.

Throughout both books, Boylan's unexpected and agile twists of humor elevate stories that might otherwise feel overly dark and serious. Some books leave you with a great respect for the writer. Others, make you wish you could chat with them casually over coffee and a bagel. Boylan manages to do both as she weaves stories that make her endearingly familiar and extraordinary at the same time. ( )

totally engrossing memoir of transgendered woman Jennifer Boylan, and her life growing up as a boy in a haunted house. Read by the author

Simultaneously a departure from her earlier memoir and yet also a story about a boy (and then man) who wants to be female. Jim grows up in a house with strange thumps, bumps and visions while also struggling to be at peace with himself. This narrative describes the inner and outer ghosts that trouble him until he becomes Jenny. Even then, she remains haunted by memories of her imperfect marriage of male and female. Funny, scary and touching. Highly recommended. ( )