Gregorio's novel None of the Above follows Kristin Lattimer, a teenage girl who has it all: many caring friends, a loving boyfriend, and a promising athletic career. That is until Kristin discovers that she is intersex, causing her to spiral into a full-blown identity crisis while she also suffering from the discrimination of her classmates. This novel contains scenes of sexual assault, and discrimination against queer identities which may be triggering for some readers.
When I read None of the Above for the first time, it was my introduction to the concept of intersexuality and the complexity of gender identity. There are no more than a handful of YA books that have intersex main characters, and this book definitely has made a positive impact in educating teenagers on gender. However, looking back on this book ten years after it was published, the time period in which it was written can definitely be felt. I believe that if this book was written today, many things would be done differently. One major flaw that I have with None of the Above is that the fact that Kristin as a character feels incomplete. The author is cisgender and writes from an outsider's perspective, and in my opinion treats Kristin as more of a vessel to convey intersex issues than as a character. Everything that happens to Kristin in this book is through the context of her intersex identity without ever exploring the other aspects of Kristin's identity. None of the Above does not stray away from showing the brutal reality of discrimination against minority gender identities, and the book definitely has an honest depiction of such reality. However, there is not a lot of positive intersex representation in the novel, and because of this fact, at the end of the book, Kristin's intersex identity still feels more of a burden than something to be embraced. All in all, None of the Above, despite its flaws, is an important novel and something I would recommend to readers who are interested in learning more about the intersex experience.