Allison's memoir of life as a young lesbian and breast cancer survivor is at once heart-wrenching and darkly comical, thanks to her captivatingly stark voice and arresting honesty. Her detailed experiences range from transforming into a conventionally feminine alter ego at a friend's wedding, uncomfortably dealing with sexism in the teaching profession, and spontaneously adopting a puppy in the midst of cancer treatment. Allison touches on issues of feminism, gender expression, sexual identity, religion, family, and more, and her stories are bound to spark tears and laughs of varying degrees. ( )