Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

De: Andrea Lawlor

Narrado por: Dani Martineck

"In these irreverent pages, a shapeshifter gets a crash course in gender and sexuality by inhabiting both sides of the binary and arriving precisely somewhere in the middle." —O, The Oprah Magazine

“HOT” (Maggie Nelson) • “TIGHT” (Eileen Myles) • “DEEP” (Michelle Tea)

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century

It's 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul's also got a secret: he's a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is playful, sexy, smart, and like nothing else I—or you—have ever read before."
—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties

“Restless, muscular, and playful…. A tight satisfying masterpiece.”
—Eileen Myles, author of Evolution

“Fast-paced and cheeky…a touchingly sweet-hearted and deeply cool book.”
—Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave

"I love this book in all it's ecstasy, wit, and hilarity....As rare as it is contagious."
—Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts

“Joyous and ever-changing, whip-smart and brilliantly perverse, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is quite simply one of the most exciting—and one of the most fun—novels of the decade.”
—Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

"Mixes pop culture, gender theory, and smut, but [Lawlor’s] greatest achievement is that Paul is no mere symbol but a vibrantly yearning being."
—The New Yorker

"One of the most buzzed-about books from last year gets a reissue. In these irreverent pages, a shapeshifter gets a crash course in gender and sexuality by inhabiting both sides of the binary and arriving precisely somewhere in the middle. Book jacket blurbs are seldom something to go on, but in this case...just look."
—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Bends genre as well as gender....Difficult to quote in a family newspaper.”
—The New York Times

“A fantasy spin an all-too-pertinent issues of gender and sex.”
—Harper’s Bazaar

"If anyone has ever endeavored to reclaim the canonical—specifically Ovid and Gertrude Stein—not to queer it, but to genderqueer it, it is Lawlor."
—The Paris Review

"With lashings of sex, music and clothes, it is filthy, sharp and clever. What’s not to like?"
—Hanif Kureishi

"Endlessly inventive....Magic."
—Kaitlyn Greenidge, Lenny Letter

“Intoxicatingly rousing…. A timelessly contemporary exposé of an antihero with a heart made of fire.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Groundbreaking…. A fresh novel that elevates questions of sexual identity and intimacy."
—Kirkus (starred review)

"I'm loving Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl....It’s pulling at my little queer midwestern heartstrings."
—Danez Smith, The Guardian

The Hottest Book Ever Written

I've only dinged it a little because this book just sort of ends. No spoilers, but I wasn't very satisfied. The sex and heartbreak. Oh my god! I needed this book and it had its way with me.

Great book!!

A must read novel for trans and queer folks. Thoroughly enjoyable and just raunchy enough

A chaotic queer experience in sexuality and gender identity

This novel follows a shapeshifting gay man who saunters through every type of human sexuality and expression in gender to find where he belongs. It exemplifies the queer experience in a very unique and unusual way, and weaves in maladaptive daydreams throughout real experience as a literary device. Very intriguing read, and a must read for especially queer individuals.

Unexpected, hot, deep

Unexpected and real telling of both a specific kind of queer experience and the universal queer experience. Will be a book I’ll buy in print to read over and to add to the collection of hyper nonspecific depth, and will certainly be listening to again and again. There’s just something here…

Difficult to rate

There was plenty to like about the story and performance— I’d describe it as a bisexual’s maladaptive daydream infused with some real life queer experience to ground it. But by grounding it, it brought the whole thing down to depressy town which wasn’t the vibe I was hoping for as a reader. It felt pretty sad and a lot of the allure and magic of the transitioning flatlined for me. That said I think the author accomplished the book they wanted, and it was very well done, it just wasn’t what it was marketed as vibe-wise by the end. The fun, sexy fever-dream fizzled out and the sad reality of queer life took over. The writing and character building was very strong and I cared about them. The audio reader reminded me of the tiktoker who does fashion videos and says “let’s talk about it” I loved listening to them.