Customer Reviews

Through the Jungle: A Traveler's Guide

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Of all of the autobiographies of transsexual women that I have read, "Through the Jungle" is by far the most real and honest. Samantha Adams was never a medical doctor, never climbed Mt. Everest, is not a university professor, and never played professional sports. She is a regular woman who endured the transition from male to female.

For three years, during her transition, she kept a diary. Here, we see that this "ordinary" woman used extraordinary courage and stamina to endure hardships caused by family, "friends," co-workers, and even being thrown out of her church just for having the birth condition known as GID.

GID (gender identity disorder, a.k.a. transsexualism) is an embarrassing and emotionally painful birth disorder where the brain gender does not match the physical anatomy. The only known cure for this is social and surgical transition from the wrong gender to the right one. The transition can be the most difficult thing that a person ever does, and we read of Samantha's personal endurance of this important time. In the end, Samantha is now a wonderful and thoughtful woman with an inspiring personal history, and the pain of transition was well worth the rewards.

The book is not sensational, nor is it adult reading material--transsexuality is about gender, not sexuality. It is, however, brutally honest as well as heartwarmingly endearing. It should be required reading for anyone preparing to undergo gender transition themselves.

Now that the professionals are thoroughly confused in their notions of nature and nurture as it applies to gender assignment, it's time we heard from someone who really knows - a person who has actually done gender transition. This story of the day-by-day struggles through childhood and on through adulthood touched me deeply. The genuine feelings expressed on each page say so much more than any statistical analysis done by professionals. By sharing her journal of her own transition, Samantha Walker Adams shows us the inner reaches of her heart. While each person must walk their own path through transition, the path she walked was a long and a tough one.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering transition or who has a friend or relative who is doing so. This story of one person's path shows just how heart-wrenching and, at the same time, fulfilling this can be.

Excellent book covering so much of the underlying events of transition. The questions, the feelings, and the excitement of changing oneself so completely are written for all to see. This is one of the important "must read" books for transgendered people, their therapists and doctors; along with friends and anybody interested in transgender life. Many of us have difficulty expressing the feelings as Samantha so nicely does in her writing. Anyone can point to a line in any of the chapters and say "this is how I feel" and be understood.

Life is not easy, but it can turn out to be wonderful once you start living it your way, Samantha does that.

I found this book to be a no nonsense well done book. The author shares her personal experiance and fears of transitioning from one gender to another. It's well done and written by a person who shares her innermost thoughts and feelings. As a Clinician I highly recommend this book for anyone that wants true facts about GID and how one person dealt with it. I will include it in my resourse recommendations on my site and will recommend it to my Clients.

You can tell this book was written from the heart and soul of Samantha Adams. The three years of her transition was "Hell on Earth"...but she prevailed! She takes you with her on her journey into the depths of despair, and the highs of her triumphs. I was saddened for Walker, no one should have to live feeling that way. On the other hand, I was happy for Samantha. It took courage to take the road she chose. It took a whole lot of guts to go forward with everything she had to tolerate. I don't know that the average person would come out of it sane. I do believe that everyone should read this book to get an understanding of the emotional roller coaster of anyone in any kind of a transitional period of their life. Words/comments can cut a person to the quick. The book should be a must with educators of all grades, to help stop bullying.

This is the personal story of three years of Samantha's life as she transitioned male to female. It is told as a series of diary entries written as the events happened, interspersed with dream sequences and discussion added later as the book was written. More than just a story of what happened; it is an examination of her emotional highs and lows throughout this period.

Every person experiences their transsexual feelings differently, yet there are similarities. Samantha expresses her experience as the Beast of fear chasing her through the jungle of her emotions as she pursues her unknown future. Her diary format chronicles the highs and lows of accomplishment and setback. She loses friends, but gains new friends in unexpected places. Her father and wife are supportive throughout, while her mother gains acceptance only slowly. She transitions while employed; most coworkers react negatively, while a few are supportive. Late in her transition, her wife leaves her for a woman Samantha had considered a close friend.

Like many transsexuals, Samantha begins transition self-dosing with various hormones without professional medical care. Once she consulted a physician, she was told that she may have damaged her liver and sped up the effects of her diabetes. She cautions those following her NOT to self-dose hormones, since there can be many unexpected side effects and each person's dosage may be different.

"Making the change male to female is not all bad and dark," she reports. "The worst parts came from my own thoughts and imagination trying to make mountains out of nothing."

Samantha's book includes a lengthy series of 23 steps to full transition, with the caveat that these are HER steps. It also includes a wonderful letter to her church - which refused to baptize her as scheduled when the pastor was told she was transgendered.

The book closes with a brief story by female to male Miles Newman, close friend to Samantha and copy editor of her book.

"Not every single person who you meet wants to do you harm; sometimes they, just like yourself, simply want not to be alone when they eat their dinner."

Being born Transgendered is a difficult reality to come to terms with. All of those who experience it must in the end realize that each one of us deals with our gender confusion in our own way. There is no such thing as a "cookie cutter transsexual," all of us are unique individuals and every one of us has our own set of hurdles to overcome along the journey to self realization.

Through the Jungle is the story of one soul, one heart, one life. But this story also demonstrates and helps all of us, transgender or not, to understand how one person's struggle can so profoundly effect the hearts that surround us.

Within it's pages the reader can find solace in the concept that none of us are truly alone unless we believe ourselves to be. We all have problems, but they can only become true obstacles if we allow them to. It is the story of one woman's journey, not a dissertation on the transsexual experience in general.

Comprised largely of personal journal entries, Through the Jungle is a glimpse into the mind of an individual who must learn to overcome the many hurdles society throws her way. It is the story of triumph over deep personal suffering, cleverly augmented by a secondary metaphorical story line in which a traveler journeys through the jungle of the mind. In the end, the traveler, like all of us who read the book, should realize that daily life's answers come from within. Only within our own hearts can we discover ourselves and find the answers to the questions we do not realize we ought to be asking.

For the Transsexual: read this book and ask yourself the questions you never believed you had to. Learn to find the place in your heart where the questions you always believed you would never find the answers to, lie waiting. Samantha Adams did, and she taught me how to do it as well. I searched my heart and asked myself if a childhood trauma could have caused my own gender identity issues. And in the end I discovered that my past had liitle to do with my identity. I was born to be the woman I became, in spite of life's trials.

The obstacles Samantha Adams overcame could have left her bitter and jaded. But instead she triumphed and became the strong woman she is today. She opened her heart to the world and put her life in transition up for public inspection. And I seriously doubt that many of us would or could so willingly allow anyone who cares to read a book, to share in the profoundly personal events of our own lives as willingly as Samantha Adams did.

I am proud, very proud, to call Samantha W. Adams my friend. All of us who struggle with gender issues are brothers and sisters, but Samantha and I are true sisters. We share our lives beyond our histories and in spite of the trials that brought us to where we are today.

In the end, the message of this book is very simple. None of us are perfect, none of us are as great and important in the grand scheme of life as we would like to believe. But as long as we have friends, we can accomplish anything. And being born transsexual is neither anything to be afraid of, or an obstacle to your life. Instead, it is a gift. Nurture and discover yourself and create your own destiny.

Samantha W. Adams is now the President of an independant film company: Pixilluminous Creations, LLC. There she strives to serve the LGBTQ community through educational and outreach projects.

Sincerely, Rebecca P. Chestney

No longer afraid, no longer alone.

[...]

In "Through the Jungle: A Traveler's Guide" Samantha Adams has written an account that would best be considered barely readable of a sixth grade student as she attempts to create the tale of her purported struggle to forcibly reconstruct the world around her into the fantasyland of her desires.

The work careens and lurches hither and yon, with the only semblance of cohesiveness being supplied by the glue in the binding. Following her is difficult; readers who do not know her will quite likely fail to comprehend they are holding a very small piece of the true Samantha, her incessant chewing of the scenery and demand for attention and the limelight screaming from their hands like one of Lovecraft's eldritch creatures from the mist shrouded banks of the Miskatonic River.

Her story is nothing new, nor uniquely presented; it is merely the usual puerile attempt at justification of her actions, seeking of validation, and display of deep seated resentments held that is endemic in books by transsexuals about themselves.

I can't recommend this book [...]