Scan barcode
michaelion's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I was so sure that The Outsiders wasn't canon in this world and then she mentioned it! It's nitpicky but naming yourself after Ponyboy is much cooler than just naming yourself after an animal randomly. That boy got to senior year and didn't read The Outsiders?! It's so gay he would've loved it.
A great book for explaining what a trans person is to kids / teens. It has a perfect mixture of people familiar with the world and explaining to someone who knows nothing. Great writing. I laughed a plenty.
Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Transphobia, Violence, and Outing
Moderate: Sexual violence, Vomit, Deadnaming, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Infidelity and Abandonment
readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Deadnaming, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Misogyny, Hate crime, Body shaming, Dysphoria, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, and Transphobia
Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Child death, Alcoholism, Suicide, Physical abuse, Self harm, Murder, Excrement, Sexual content, Biphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Vomit
use of f slurmaxmaxmax's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Dysphoria, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Deadnaming, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Child abuse, Medical content, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Outing, and Suicidal thoughts
journey2's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
But I wanted to see how it ended.
~☆~ minor spoilers~☆~
Stay Gold was not a good read for me. I found this book frustrating. The characters annoyed me and everyone seemed extremely superficial.
Pony is relentless about the "friend zone" thing with Georgia. She continues to say no to his advances and he continues to pursue. Yes, she likes him, but she has clearly said no and he will not give up and keeps asking for more; including love bombing her with a grand gesture, until he can eventually win her over.
Our main love interest, Georgia, is so obsessed with her image and social standing right til nearly the end and her change of heart is supposed to be endearing, but by the time we got there I was just so tired of how fake she was.
I know that in high school everybody's figuring out who they are and who they want to be, but absolutely every character was so fake and two dimensional. In the end, superficial apologies and excuses like "it's just locker room talk" etc seem to 'fix' every off-colour comment or remark. Pony's dad was absolutely horrible to him throughout the entire book and his mom was kind of just complacent and didn't fight for him. A couple sentences at the very end of the book are supposed to redeem him but they just felt forced. Even though lots of things ended up being happy or at least happier, I found this book extremely problematic, frustrating and annoying and I do not recommend it.
I'm curious as to what the purpose of the storyline about Pony's job served. It didn't really go anywhere except to allow Pony to be nosy and intrusive into somebody else's business and then he got to have a warm fuzzy feeling afterwards. On that note, Pony continued to stick his nose into business that is not his own and it was very annoying. There was a time when Pony and Georgia stuck their noses into something so personal that I actually took time away from the book because I was exasperated. He was rewarded for it eventually, but it was annoying to read.
This book was 100% not for me and was just completely filled with red flags.
I could go on, but I won't!
Also it's list of trigger warnings is a mile long
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Outing, Rape, Sexual violence, Deadnaming, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Drug use
laura_keoski's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Bullying, and Transphobia
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Outing
Minor: Deadnaming
kiarack's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Hate crime
Moderate: Lesbophobia
cheye13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
There were two thorns in my side through the whole book, though: 1. The whole friendzone™ vibe. Pony rejecting friendship with Georgia bc she wouldn't date him is still bullshit. It could definitely have been written/handled worse, but I didn't like reading it. 2. The debate around Pony not being out. The current mainstream conversations around "coming out" and "passing" have taken complex concepts and boiled them down to black and white that just doesn't work. Having another trans teen borderline harrass Pony for not being out felt wrong. Likely something that happens and should be talked about, but didn't sit well while reading this story.
Graphic: Violence, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Deadnaming
Moderate: Outing, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Medical content
Minor: Sexual harassment and Bullying
eeriewater's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
In my opinion stay gold had the perfect balance of angst, love and wholesomeness.
The only thing I kind of disliked in this book is more about my personal preference and less about it actually being a bad thing. I did feel like this book, which is about a trans man, was mainly written for cishet people with little to none experience with LGBTQ+ people. At times the description of gender dysphoria, surgeries and other trans issues felt a bit too educational for my taste, but for someone who aren't educated on these topics before reading the book, this can be a positive thing.
LGBTQ+ rep: FtM main character, FtM side character (minor), other minor characters of varying sexualities and gender identities
Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Hate crime
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria
Minor: Child abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, and Deadnaming