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Title details for It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished by Kate Gies - Wait list

It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished

A Memoir of My Body

by Kate Gies
ebook
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Wait time: About 10 weeks
A raw, beautiful memoir of a girl born missing an ear, a medical system insistent on saving her from herself, and our culture's desire to "fix" bodies.
When Kate Gies was four years old, a plastic surgeon pressed a synthetic ear to the right side of her head and pulled out a mirror. He told her he could make her "whole"—could make her "right"—and she believed him. From the age of four to thirteen, she underwent fourteen surgeries, including skin and bone grafts, to craft the appearance of an outer ear. Many of the surgeries failed, leaving permanent damage to her body.

In short, lyrical vignettes, Kate writes about how her "disfigured" body was scrutinized, pathologized, and even weaponized. She describes the physical and psychic trauma of medical intervention and its effects on her sense of self, first as a child needing to be fixed and, later, as a teenager and adult navigating the complex expectations and dangers of being a woman.

It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished is the story of a girl desperately trying to have a body that makes her acceptable and of a woman learning to own a body she has never felt was hers to define. In an age of speaking out about the abuse of marginalized bodies, this memoir takes a hard look at the role of the medical system in body oppression and trauma.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 4, 2025

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781668051061

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781668051061
      • File size: 14683 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from February 7, 2025

      This debut memoir by Canadian author Gies (creative nonfiction, George Brown Coll.) is an emotionally raw, vulnerable, and intelligent critique of the medical institution as a whole, a system that judges bodies born with imperfections as specimens in need of fixing. Gies takes readers on an incredible journey of what her life was like growing up with only one ear and having multiple childhood surgeries in which doctors attempted to make her what they considered whole, normal, and beautiful. At times heartbreaking, this is both a very personal memoir and also a look into the way society dismisses people with visible and invisible differences as lacking and lesser than. Compellingly written with a dual-timeline structure, Gies's book interweaves her life in the past with her life in the present, based on her own recollections as well as her documented medical history, as she tries to reconcile her identity and resolve her past trauma. VERDICT Gies has written a standout, poignant, and much-needed look into what many disabled children are forced to deal with (often against their will or consent) and the ways it affects their mental health and wellbeing for their entire lives. It's sure to appeal to readers of the work of Alice Wong and other disability rights' activists.--Shannon O'Connor

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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