All She Wanted (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "It was only a matter of seconds before they were through the house and in the back bedroom..." (more)
Key Phrases: transgender people, triple homicide, Falls City, Teena Brandon, John Lotter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Soon to be a major motion picture from Fine Line starring Drew Barrymore, This is the story of Teena Brandon, a woman who passed herself off as a man and had passionate affairs with young women--until she was murdered. Jones's exclusive access to Teena's family, girlfriends, enemies, and convicted killers make this a riveting tale of sexual betrayal and murder.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671023888
• ISBN-13: 978-0671023881
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #399,207 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre and Unskilled Writing, March 21, 2000

By	Sally Mander (Nevada) - See all my reviews

Aphrodite Jones relates Brandon's story in an extrordinarily trite and amateurish manner. This book sorely needs both copyediting and proofreading. Jones includes too many dull details of peripheral characters and events that do not propel the story forward. Also, there is an appalling number of spelling and grammatical errors. A reader should expect that the purchase price of a book includes the publisher having made the book readable and free of silly errors. The life and untimely death of Brandon Teena are fodder for a fascinating study of human nature. It's unfortunate that Jones did not exhibit any depth or insight whatsoever. This book is a huge disappointment on many levels.

62 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars **Don't Judge A Book By its cover**, July 1, 2000

By	J. Abercrombi - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I bought this book in a book store and it looked very interesting. The back of the book had a very tantalizing introduction. It gave me the impression that this was a book about someone who gave up their entire identity to become a man; of someone who went into complete seclusion never to look back on their past. The book itself wasn't nearly as interesting as the introduction on the back cover. For many reasons. The author devoted many chapters on people surrounding the crime (their upbringing and other details.) I wish the focus would have been solely on Brandon Tina. Also, in the end I was hoping to hear about what happened to the 2 killers. But it didn't discuss their sentencing. There was also a lot written about transgender activism and hate crimes. That is all well and good but it also took away from the story. I often found the book rather boring mainly because the author really didn't make me feel like she was "in the know." It read more like a newspaper article than a book. "'...everything was too good to be true.' Yes, it certainly was." Very ironic last 2 sentences given the fact that I only bought the book based on its sensational cover and introduction.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly written by someone with NO clue about gender issues, March 27, 2000

By	Amazon.com Reviewer (Lawrence, KS) - See all my reviews

I have to echo previous complaints about the atrocious grammatical and spelling errors throughout this book as well as the overall poor and directionless writing. Most appalling, however, is the complete lack of understanding Jones shows when it comes to transgendered people and the queer community in general.

I was at a gathering of trans activists remembering Brandon a year after his murder at which Jones got up and spoke. Her entire speech was a self-promoting, buy-my-book ploy peppered with "she" and "Teena" references, with no acknowledgement whatsoever that Brandon was transgendered. One prominent trans activist, Leslie Feinberg, left the stage as Jones continued on, returning later to denounce Jones's lack of awareness.

After being present for this, I knew Jones's book was going to be very poorly done, but since it's the only book so far about Brandon, I decided to buy a used copy - so as to not give any of my money to Jones - to learn the facts of the case. To be honest, many of the details are still unclear to me because of the muddled way in which the book was written. If you really just want the details and don't mind wading through the terrible writing to get to it, I suggest you get this book at a used bookstore, through Amazon's auctions or Zshops, or at a library rather than to further line the pockets of someone who just doesn't get it.