The Pervert

AUTOSTRADDLE -- It's a real story that doesn't try to gussy itself up at all. It reads like a Goya painting looks. Perez is telling stories that are so different from other mainstream comics, but will also resonate with so, so many people. You don't need to be trans or a sex worker or depressed to see yourself in this book. Perez is able to capture a shared experience that Millenials have where we just can't seem to swim upriver no matter what or how hard we try. Sometimes when I read books I think "wow, I'd love to live in the world this person has created;" with The Pervert, Perez has written a book where I think "wow, I already do live in the world this person has created." While it's brutal, there's also kindness and love in the book. One of the clients we meet had previously had a relationship with a trans woman and the way he loves her and talks to her warmed my heart. He's never shown as a perfect person, but he's given sympathy, because he's a human being and he's trying. I love these parts of the book. There are also splash pages of art that is simply beautiful. Sometimes the subject matter is something gruesome, like a car crash or deer carcass, but it's still overwhelmingly beautiful.

LIBRARY JOURNAL -- Fictionalizing her own experiences and those of people she's known, writer Perez recounts episodes (some selections previously published in Island anthology) documenting the life of transgender sex worker Felina Love. This isn't champagne-glamorous, high-class stuff but a sometimes bloody obstacle course undertaken at great risk to stay alive, solvent, and sane. For while Seattle offers Felina more permissive ambiance than did her childhood home in Michigan, threats and bullying plus physical and psychological danger lurk everywhere for a person perceived as neither fully male nor female. Her sometimes tormented customers don't have an easy time of it either. Boydell's (Emergency!; Recovery Blogger) anthropomorphic watercolor art provides a manageable distance between readers and characters while lending ironic poignancy. Felina's sexual life, both professional and personal, is depicted candidly, yet in Boydell's hands the effect is dispassionate, not titillating.
Verdict A challenging, intense, and empathic account of finding oneself despite heavy odds.-Martha Cornog, Philadelphia