Becoming Eve - Abby Chava Stein

⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

This is a fascinating memoir with the subtitle "My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman." And that's what it's about. Abby describes living amongst the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in New York, speaking only Yiddish and with absolutely no outside influence, but knowing all her life that she was a girl no matter what she looked like on the outside. The focus is on her childhood and mostly teenage years, when she was mostly at an all-boy's school where she was constantly getting into trouble for questioning what she was being taught. She draws clear lines between her doubts about God stemming from her doubts that God put her in the right body, and how that eventually lead her to question her faith and seek other knowledge and answers.

It was so interesting to get a look into the life of ultra-orthodox Jews, and the life of someone who always knew they were trans even though they didn't have the words for it. I know not all trans people know their identity at a young age, but in this case she did, and to see how she interacted with the world because of that. My main complaint is that the book really goes into detail about her life until her marriage, and then from there to leaving the church, getting a divorce, and starting her transition was so fast, even though that was the part I was most interested in! I would've liked more descriptions of her process of making that decision and accepting that part of herself.