Growing Up Haunted

I truly enjoy reading nonfiction, and I have just read the most beautifully written biography. I'm Looking Through You-Growing Up Haunted: A Memoir by Jennifer Finney Boylan is a wonderfully lyrical biography that reads like fiction. The author is a masterful storyteller and she hooked me from the very first line. The book details Jennifer's life as she grows up in a haunted house in Pennsylvania in the 1970's, nicknamed the "Coffin House." But, other things haunt Jenny besides ghosts. Jenny, born James, existed in a haunted body and learned to live with her mysterious father and her wild, unpredictable sister as she made her way in the world and transitioned from a male into a female. The story is raw, painful and full of insight that makes the reader sympathize with Jenny's life. Boylan uses wit, humor and her experiences to show how she (and you, if you let it happen) found peace with her ghosts, her loved ones and the boundaries between men and women. This is a truly entrancing story that will make the reader think twice about what characteristics define men and women.