Chapin City Blues

Rating:

What It’s About:

Two years ago, George met the woman of his dreams. There’s just one problem: he lost her number after their first date and he never asked for her name. He held onto the hope that he may one day run into her again, and he does. Only she’s not the same girl he met on that first date. She looks the same, but personality has changed. Could this be the same girl he met that day so long ago?

Let’s Talk About It:

Nikki writes these characters that teeter on the line between being cute, loveable ignorant idiots and gross cishet men. George is only the latter. And while he does wind up with the (trans)girl of his dreams and accepts her fully, getting there is painful to read and a tad disgusting (especially his inner thoughts and constant misgendering). There isn’t a moment where I was rooting for the guy in this obvious story of mistaken identity (if you haven’t already guessed). Are we really hoping this walking epitome should get the girl at the end of the story? 

In similar fashion, Kate is no angel either. She knowingly leads George into believing that she was the woman he met and fell in love with when in fact it was her sister Jenn. She embarrasses him and her sister during the big reveal at the end that sent shivers down my spine. 

The only character I rooted for was Jenn, hoping that she could run away from her family and this obsessed and partially transphobic man.

I am cautious about labeling They Look Alike as an LGBTQIA+ romance or even pro-queer story. There’s a lot to unpack in its 45-page (or so) run. And perhaps I’m just being an overly sensitive (elder) millennial (xennial?), but this is a no-go for me. It doesn’t feel like a romance, but a fetishization of trans people (which I didn’t feel with The Sissy Spell, because sissification is a fetish/kink and we don’t kink shame on this blog). 

In short, I do not recommend this one.

Until next time, keep on huntin’.