What It Feels Like for a Girl cover art

What It Feels Like for a Girl

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

What It Feels Like for a Girl

By: Paris Lees
Narrated by: Paris Lees
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Thirteen-year-old Byron needs to get away and doesn't care how. Sick of being beaten up by lads for 'talkin' like a poof' after school. Sick of dad - the weightlifting, womanising Gaz - and Mam, who selfishly pissed off to Turkey like Shirley Valentine. Sick of the people who shuffle about Hucknall like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave.

It's a new millennium, Madonna's Music is top of the charts and there's a whole world to explore - and Byron's happy to beg, steal and skank onto a rollercoaster ride of hedonism. Life explodes like a rush of ecstasy when Byron discovers the Fallen Divas Project and the East Midlands' premier podium-dancer-cum-hellraiser, the mesmerising Lady Die. But when the comedown finally kicks in, Byron arrives at a shocking encounter that will change life forever.

Unflinching, hilarious and heartbreaking, What It Feels Like for a Girl is the unique, hotly anticipated and addictively listenable debut from one of Britain's most exciting young writers.

©2021 Paris Lees (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Coming of Age Fiction Witty Feel-Good Funny Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Tear-jerking
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Abide with Me cover art
I'm Glad My Mom Died cover art
Once Were Warriors cover art
Boy Parts cover art
The 392 cover art
Winter's Orphan cover art
The Trap cover art
Down Lambeth Way cover art
The Young Team cover art
Why Did You Stay? cover art
HWFG cover art
Whipping Girl cover art
The Good Son cover art
High Society cover art
Hated You Then cover art
Sexed Up cover art

What listeners say about What It Feels Like for a Girl

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    180
  • 4 Stars
    37
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    183
  • 4 Stars
    22
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    165
  • 4 Stars
    27
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating!

This was a riveting story, wonderfully well told and read by the author herself. So many sharp observations and so much wit. I loved it from start to finish.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Couldn't press stop...

I rolled around queer Nottingham in my teens in the 90's too and thus particularly connected to this story and references. But above all it's a great listen that's funny, tough and completely lovable. A story worth hearing!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not just a trans role model/icon, a truly remarkable person

Oh my goodness, what a great book! Now I may be biased as I’m from the area (I too was brought up in Hucknall on a street with the Lord Byron pub at the end of it, albeit at right angles to Paris’s street!), however the use of this particular regional accent/dialect really brings it to life. Although I’m sure that it’s just as polarising as Paris herself can be. I listened to the audio book, which Paris actually narrates, and it really does bring something else to it. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and everything else in between.

Some of the content may be a bit on the wild side for some, however that is the life that was lived. Someone came into the room when I was listening to it, and said ‘what are you listening to, radio porn?!’ Of course it’s not porn, just a different experience of life. I’m sure it’s no worse than some romance novelists, just a different version of it.

I think the thing I loved most about it is the format, the way it is written not as a traditional autobiography as in ‘I did this and then I did that’, but as a story, bringing characters to life along the way. I was totally submerged in the life being lived, definitely felt like one of the gang. I also loved the way that Paris addresses the issue of mental health, how things seem as a teenager and how she comes through it/sees things differently as a young adult.

I know that this is only a snapshot of life, and really hope that there is more to come. An inspiration for so many, not just as a trans role model/icon but as a truly remarkable person, I’m looking forward to seeing all that Paris goes on to do in her life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

utterly fabulous

Sad, heartbreaking, brutal, funny, uplifting & joyus. Thank you Paris for sharing.
Highly recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Moving, funny and insightful

Paris’s early life story told so beautifully. Amazingly evocative, told by Paris herself, you feel like you’re alongside her through every adventure. Not shying away from some of the challenging moments in those early years, she manages to communicate pain with a humour and authenticity that only helps you connect to her experience and never get overwhelmed by it. She’s a super talented writer and hope there’s plenty more where this came from ❤️

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant, Moving, Real

I laughed out loud, was horrified, shocked, inspired and in awe of her bravery. I felt her fear and determination and vulnerability. I loved this book. I hope Paris writes more of her story soon. Thank you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

A really moving honest book I loved Paris reading it. Highly recommend and I’m looking forward to more!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The author is always the best narrator

Loved this, hope we get to hear the rest of her story in the future

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Never has a title been more apt

A very very moving memoir from a transgender woman growing up in a Nottingham council estate in the late 90's early noughties. Paris is not that much younger than me and each chapter is named either after music of the time so anyone between their mid thirties to mid forties should especially enjoy this book.

I heard the audio version of the book rather than reading it from the page and Paris reads it not only in Nottingham dialect but also sticks to the present tense throughout which really brings the narrative to life and makes you feel like you're living every word with her.

This is not a book for young eyes\ears, were it a TV show it would definitely be broadcast post watershed but I like those and I loved it. I hope she writes another volume or two because I desperately want to know what happens next..

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Speechless, just wow.

How my life may've been different if I had read this when I was a teenage. Many, many comparisons from the brain dead, chav, nobhead bullies, to wanting and liking something you'd been conditioned is bad. swap Hucknell for Hatfield and they wouldn't have been worlds apart.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful