The quiz and workbook format is interesting but had a few shortcomings. My biggest problem was that while reading the book, definitions of terms - specifically 'identity', and the already overloaded term 'gender' - were slowly established, but while this is going on you are required to answer questions on them. It's hard to know how to answer a question about something not clearly defined, especially when you find your own (or your dictionary's) definition to be different from the one the author is thinking of.

Another problem I had was the writing style. It's very informal and is supposed to match the kind of writing you'd encounter on message boards and chatrooms across the net. Unfortunately it's a very different dialect to that which I'm used to (double colons instead of asterisks to indicate an action? Crazy! *shakes head*), and also came across to me as fairly condescending, particularly the many sentences ending in 'okay?'.

Finally, I don't know how useful or interesting other people might find this, but a heavy theme of the book was the idea of reaching 'No gender', which to me sounds like no fun at all. Here's a specific quote from early in the book:

"This is the key to the whole workbook. Really. Ready? [this part in large white letters on a huge black banner:] The way you live without gender is you look for where gender is, and then you go someplace else [banner ends]. If you've got that, you don't need to read any further."

I didn't find this to be the kind of thing I wanted to 'get', but I read on anyway. And to be honest, I was glad I did. Despite all my complaints, there's certainly some very interesting content - the gender/identity/power pyramid is a very enlightening way to look at the world, for example. I'm also very aware I can't possibly appreciate how useful the whole thing may be to someone actually undergoing any kind of gender reassignment.

It just wasn't what I was looking for. Although to the author's credit there was a chapter at the end in which you are strongly encouraged to respond, whether you agree or not, to anything in the book you feel strongly about. This is the reason I'm writing this. Feedback is always good. Write on, Kate.