This was a wild ride! I went in with very few expectations and came out feeling mesmerized. The concept of a fictional memoir is so interesting and fresh, and at times I forgot what I was reading wasn’t real. The categorization of Side A and B was clever and well-done, and watching Tracy grow and learn was fascinating.. Plante’s commentary on and exploration of creativity and creation was poignant and reflective of both the challenges and beauty of the human experience. I recommend the audiobook for a more immersive experience!

A fantastic trans coming of age, that isn't shy when it comes to the sex stuff. A wonderful character portrait, sad, funny, sexy and all the other emotions too.

Hazel Jane Plante has a talent for taking an unusual narrative and making it work for her. Quality must read author.

This is the first fictional memoir that I’ve read and I really enjoyed the nonlinear storytelling the author was able to do with it!

Any Other City is a fictional memoir narrated by semi-famous musician Tracy St. Cyr relatively late into her life. It is also an incredibly difficult book to review. It is middling in quality, but not in the sense that it hovers around a safe point of mediocrity with some decent scenes and some below-average scenes. The good and the bad can hardly be broken up by scene at all; Plante has an incredible grasp on some of the most complex aspects of delivering a meaningful narrative, but seems averse to utilizing many of the most basic tools of storytelling. This means the best and worst of this book often run parallel to each other, existing in the same moments and constantly fighting for control over the emotional resonance of any given scene.

This book is written in such a way, the voice so particular, there's no doubt in my mind that Hazel Jane Plante had a reason for each and every choice she made. There are so many inklings of good ideas that I'm sure if I had an hour to chat with her about it, I would appreciate it in a different way. Without that conversation, though, from my perspective her decisions are to leave an interesting arc underdeveloped, and to agonize through critique of an art piece that barely even exists in this fictional world, and 100 other things that smack my hands away any time I start to get too close to grabbing a deeper enjoyment of the story.

There is, in general, a lack of conviction in any of the ideas that Plante presents. Either there is no follow-through on a good setup, or there is too much follow-through on an idea that had no setup to begin with. One of the more egregious examples of the former is her relationship to Em in side 1 of the book. Em is an older trans woman whose body type and overall gender presentation makes Tracy think of a man in a dress. There's a sense of pity and disgust any time Em is described, which is an incredibly interesting perspective for a trans woman to have, and one that is generally unexplored even in the little trans-centric media that exists. Just as my mind was beginning to race with the commentary on social expectations of gender and internalized transmisogyny that might be explored with Tracy's character arc, though, the entire plot point was dropped. Tracy very suddenly realizes she's just envious of Em's ability to only present herself how she wants, and then it doesn't come up again.

Similar irritations persist throughout the novel, and by the second half of side 2 they've built up enough to make the entire thing feel incredibly tedious. Everything is explored through the version of Tracy that's already gone through her character progression, so readers get treated to uncountable variations of "That was shitty of me," as a replacement for actually witnessing her growth on the page. With the acknowledgment that Plante's own life is interwoven heavily throughout the novel (another neat idea that almost nothing is done with), it begins to read as a sad attempt to reach out to those the author herself has hurt in the past. One might argue that this is done to better tie itself to the faux-memoir form that the book takes, but even that is an underbaked idea that only seems to serve as an excuse for Plante to avoid writing challenging scenes. This aversion to describing things in a grounded, linear way is also thrown out the window when readers are being taught what a "pussy burger" is.

Indeed, around 60-70% of this novel is composed of graphic sex scenes. This is another piece of the story that makes it feel incredibly difficult to review. Just looking at the prose, they are the most well-written segments of the novel. They are described in so much detail that they consistently feel like the most grounded parts of the entire book. I also do not want to discount the importance of any trans women writing about their own sexuality in a non-fetishistic way. Doing so is radical in and of itself, a fact touched on by Tracy. If you are looking for smut that happens to include a trans woman, you will likely enjoy this book's sex scenes. Ultimately, though, most of these scenes aren't necessary, don't add anything to the larger narrative, and take up valuable space that should have been spent expanding on all of its other concepts.

It is very difficult in general to understand why so many of these scenes are included. One could argue that the book is simply meant to be pornographic, which is still a form of art with value. But even if the novel was advertised as such, they would still feel wildly out of place because they are surrounded by (but not successfully interwoven with) a story about grief and heartache. (If their intent was solely to be erotic, the few of these graphic scenes that take place between two children would be even more nauseating than they already are.) The narrative desperately wants to be touching and profound, but every one of its themes are so heavily filtered through sexuality that they start to crumble underneath the weight of whatever vagina Tracy is presently inside. Themes that are occasionally explored through these sex scenes, like growing relationships and self-acceptance, become grating because they are only allowed any significant progression through these scenes. They hold less and less value as the novel goes on.

Despite my tone up to this point, I did not entirely hate Any Other City. As mentioned before, there are plenty of good ideas and unique observations about living as a trans woman nestled within its pages. Hazel Jane Plante occasionally proves that she is very capable of writing meaningful stories with beautiful prose, and that, again, she likely had her own reasons for writing the book the way it was written. There are dramatic scenes that would be incredible in another novel which actually gave them proper buildup. Unfortunately, they just don't feel earned in this case. I have hope for Hazel Jane Plante as a writer, and I am interested in what she will release next. This book absolutely has value for a lot of trans women, it could just have a lot more.

I loved the inventive storytelling in this fictional memoir of a trans indie rock musician. It had a focus on art and trauma and was fantastically written, full of raw emotion. I enjoyed the formatting of the story told in two parts, Side A and Side B. If you love literary character-driven books focusing on queer stories, I would highly recommend this for you.

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

a deeply queer fictional memoir following a transfem rockstar, tracy st cyr, which focuses on love, friendship, connection, sexual pleasure, trans joy, and healing from trauma through art and music. it's written in two parts, side A talks about the past, where tracy, who isn't out to anyone including herself yet, makes friends with a group of artistic trans women and starts to figure out her identity. side B jumps to 2019 where tracy is the front woman of an indie rock band and we hear about how she got there. I definitely preferred side B but I so enjoyed this! I read it as an audiobook, which is narrated by the author which was also very cool.

There were a lot of aspects of this book that I enjoyed. The characterization of the side characters was very well done, there were many beautiful lines, and the writing itself was just very genuine and raw. The audio narration was fantastic, and having the author narrate their own book was such a genius move. I did have two main critiques while reading, and the first doesn't necessarily have to do with the book but the marketing. The majority of this storyline explored sex and art and queerness and community. These are all very valid and important themes and topics of discussion, but there is a large shift that happens in the second half where the book becomes pure erotica. Very little plot happens (despite it already mostly being Vibes before) and it is just graphic sex. There are emotional conversations and discussions of trauma, but the fact that this isn't really marketed as erotica is not the smartest move as I foresee a lot of readers going into this not expecting/wanting those graphic scenes. Again, this is not really a fault of the book itself but the shift was jarring enough that I wanted to point it out. The second note I kept having while reading was the story structure itself. It just did not feel like it knew what it wanted to be. The book is split in two parts and they don't feel as connected as I would have personally liked. The switch feels very out of the blue and suddenly we have new characters and relationships we are supposed to care about but we just don't because three pages ago, we cared about completely different people. I also wish that the author either leaned in MUCH more towards the memoir nature of the book or just dropped it completely. This did not at all read like a memoir to me which was a bit disappointing seeing as how memoirs are one of my favorite genres and the concept of a fictionalized one was so fun. It just felt like I was reading erotic literary fiction. Which is fine, and also a genre that could be enjoyable, but the memoir aspects would pop up every now and again and take me out of the story completely. There were only a few parts that were told in the "present" aka the fictionalized collaboration between Hazel Jane Plante and the narrator/main character of the story, and the flow would have benefited from either more of them or none of them. In the end, this was an alright reading experience and I would probably pick up another book from this author, but the execution of this particular story unfortunately fell flat.

There is something so personal in having the author read their own story to you and Hazel Jane Plante does an excellent job at bringing her book to life.

I enjoyed how you could see Tracy's life at two very different points in her life while that seemed unconnected whilst also showing the reader how they connect and reverberate throughout. She is also a songwriter and oftentimes her thoughts and ideas are made visible through her craft - I always enjoy seeing creative people.

There is also a lot of sex. I personally could have done with less of it or at least with a little more purpose to those scenes since I feel like quite a few were there to shock the reader as to how kinky/exhibitionist/open to new experiences the main character was to it which doesn't really work for me. Plante is frank with her depictions and discussion surrounding trans bodies which I can appreciate however.

I wished the fictional memoir aspects where even stronger. I loved the first introduction and the little interludes on how the story was created but I wanted even more of that. It reads like a normal literary fiction title.

I really liked the majority of this book, the two time settings and the character's journey. But towards the second half of the book there were some really graphic erotic scenes which I just didn't enjoy. I don't know if they were needed to make the books what it was, or if they added anything specific apart from a shock factor.
I'd still recommend to the right audience though as it was overall an interesting and engaging read.

All the characters in Any Other City felt like real, messy people. The exploration of this segment of punk trans femme queer culture was great - gritty, soft, and funny in balanced portions. The first section, in which the main character has not yet figured out that she’s trans, but is both beginning to have a gender crisis and getting her first connections to a trans community, was the most compelling to me. The way Tracy’s insecurity and denial of her own identity made her made her think and do some pretty unpleasant things to the other trans women in her life and the way they still recognized her before she knew herself were painfully real experiences to read about. The second section started to lose me for a while, but it came back to being touching and raw by the end.

I will warn this book is full of graphic and frequent sex scenes. I can appreciate the desire to portray sexuality openly and unflinchingly, whether it is beautiful or gross, damaging, freeing or just fun. However, the detailed descriptions did become a bit much to listen to for me at some point in the second half. Listening to it as an audiobook may have contributed to that.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced version of the audiobook.

Trans books often feel like they are catered to the cis reader, which makes them feel like a bit “trans 101”. This book is not one of those books. It was unashamedly queer and trans, full of art, music and sex and made me feel like I was witnessing queer culture being made right in front of me. I loved seeing queer joy and struggles and exploring the main character’s life and the people around them, despite their experiences being vastly different from mine. There is something so magical about just knowing that queer people exist and live their lives (even fictional ones).

Making this book a fictional memoir allowed it to stay down to earth and realistic while still being fictional and I really love the idea. The characters felt like real people with vibrant lives and interests. For me personally, the style of writing was a bit hard to digest as the narration jumped between different moments and went on tangents even in the middle of an event happening. I guess as a plot-oriented reader, I just wanted to focus on the action. That is not to say the writing wasn’t done well or wasn’t interesting, I just had a harder time with it and especially in audiobook format, it was a bit hard to follow. Though, I do love it when the author also does the narration for the audiobook, which is the case here. It gave me a feeling of being as close to the author’s intent as possible.

I read this book on recommendation of Laura Sackton of Queer Your Year, who had put it on my radar forever ago but once she wrote “I cannot understand why the queer internet isn’t screaming about this book!” (https://bookriot.com/queer-books-from-the-first-half-of-2023/) I finally requested a copy of the audiobook on NetGalley. And I have to say….I CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE QUEER INTERNET ISNT SCREAMING ABOUT THIS BOOK!!! I AM SCREAMING!

I was enraptured from the first lines; the discussion of “shimmering” sets the tone for exactly what this fictional memoir is—something gorgeous and dazzling and ephemeral and possibly not quite real just beyond our fingertips. These characters are rich and complex and so queer and so messy and so so human. The side A/side B narrative structure was really neat. Gosh I loved this book. What a revelation. An added bonus of course is that the author narrates the audiobook—I will read anything Hazel Jane Plante writes wowza.

Also just be prepared for some descriptive ~spicy~ content.

This one was A LOT; not sure doing the audio was a smart idea, as so much of it is so graphic and raw. It may have been easier to digest if I had read it rather than listened.

I found the graphic sex a bit much, personally, and it distracted from the story.

I do think that this will really resonate with some people. but i am just not that person.

Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante, an audiobook narrated by the author was different. I loved the unique format of this book. It's like a memoir and a novel at the same time. At the same time, it was a little bit confusing. I believe this book would benefit from multiple narrators. It would give more dynamic. It took me a while to use the voice. Some parts felt it fit but some parts felt I need something else, something different.
I like when there is a bit of a sensitive approach around spicy parts and starting to struggle with the "all on the display" approach. There are a lot of sex scenes! I personally need a little bit of mystery, I need something to be left to my imagination.
I really wanted to like this more than I did but I can't say I didn't like... It's so confusing!
I believe there is an audience who will love this book because of the depth of the story, there are so many topics that not everyone is brave to explore.
I think that the first part of the book was better than the second part but again, it's just me. Everyone like things differently. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes things a little bit more differently, who likes a lot of sex, and who is interested explore different parts of life starting with confusion and trauma and ending with acceptance.
Thank you, NetGalley and ECW Press Audio for the chance to have this book.
#ECWPressAudio #AnyOtherCity #NetGalley

I tried several times to listen to this audio book. Unfortunately I couldn't make it past all the sexual content. This one goes on the DNF list. The narrator is fantastic!!!!

This book is a gift. Engrossing, impossible to put down. The characters are three-dimensional, rendered in technicolor. The narrative structure was seamless. The audiobook performance (read by the author) really set it apart. I could not recommend this more highly!

Thank you to Net Galley and Arsenal Pulp Press for the chance to review this audiobook advanced reader copy!

I am always so thankful to get the chance to listen to memoirs on audio, because they're way more personalized and hand-selected almost as if they were catered to me from the drop. I am so gracious to Hazel Jane Plante, ECW Audio, and Netgalley for allowing me advanced audio access before this gem hits shelves on September 19, 2023.