Love Lives Here

August 5, 2019
In this heartfelt memoir, Jetté Knox recounts three coming-out stories from her family: her wife’s and daughter’s as transgender women, and her own as a lesbian. She recounts a difficult childhood during which she faced extreme bullying, contemplated suicide, and was living on her own by 16. Then she met “the love of my life” and got pregnant, followed by marriage, two more children, and a parenting blog, The Maven of Mayhem. Her second child, at age 11 and suffering from anxiety and depression, came out as transgender. Jetté Knox made a plan to support her daughter’s transition and confronted her own “internalized transphobia” (“Her being a boy was part of my identity. But it wasn’t part of hers”). Shortly after, her then-husband came out as transgender. After they decided to renew their vows for their 20th anniversary, Jetté Knox came out as a lesbian, noting that, because her partner’s “living her truth, I’m finally able to live mine.” Though the unique bond shared between Jetté Knox’s wife and daughter isn’t deeply explored, her straightforward account of her daughter’s journey is valuable representation. This sweet and positive account of a family facing obstacles and growing closer together is inspiring.

August 1, 2019
After a troubled childhood and adolescence, Knox sought only normalcy and seemed to have found it in a stable, though not always happy, marriage, a comfortable home, and three sons. But everything changed when her 11-year-old middle son came out as transgender. Initially devastated, Knox quickly rallied and became a fierce advocate for transgender people, using her widely read blog as a bully pulpit. Things seemed to have normalized when, a year later, her often-troubled husband of more than 20 years came out as transgender himself, and suddenly Knox had a wife. There was more: she then found herself coming to terms with the fact that she was a lesbian, and it was her turn to come out. Throughout this complexity of events, she continued to share particulars in her blog, exciting controversy and sometimes hatred. However, she was resolute and handled her continuing advocacy with grace, compassion, and wit, qualities that distinguish this absorbing memoir. She regards the events in her life as teachable moments?and so they are?though, happily, the teaching itself is never didactic but honestly human and empathic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)