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stacy837's review
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Deadnaming, Homophobia, and Bullying
Moderate: Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Cursing
Minor: Alcohol and Religious bigotry
courtnoodles's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Would have worked better as a coming of age story about a trans boy with a Democratic yet transphobic politician as a father, and a high school student council election in the background, rather than the other way around. If you're gonna do an intense election at the forefront, with political jargon and everything, you have to go full Politician a la Netflix. Extreme camp, sheer ridiculousness, no holding back. Anything halfway won't work. And this was kind of halfway.
Excellent writing though. Lots of layered analogies that I loved.
Excellent writing though. Lots of layered analogies that I loved.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Deadnaming, and Transphobia
Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, and Blood
Minor: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Classism, and Cursing
dogbuttsandbooks's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Deadnaming, Homophobia, and Transphobia
Moderate: Bullying and Death of parent
Minor: Violence and Antisemitism
antonique_reads's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Deadnaming
Moderate: Antisemitism
solly's review against another edition
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I enjoyed this a bit more than I thought I would, to be honest. Reviews comped this to The Politician and I couldn't make it past the first episode of that show, but I think my taste in books vs. movies/TV shows is super different in some places and that's why.
I'm a bit of a politics nerd, so it was great for me. I tend to enjoy non-American politics more, because American exceptionalism is a plague, so this annoyed me in places, but not more than politics usually annoy me. I'm a politics nerd but I don't *love* politics, I'm just very involved in my local and national politics as an activist, and all of my friends are, so it's something I can talk about for hours. So seeing teens deep into politics was really enjoyable to me, as I've been discussing politics with friends since middle school (my very political far-left best friend got me into it haha).
It was still a bit unrealistic in places. Not so much because kids can't be this involved in politics but because EVERYONE was. Everyone was taking themselves so seriously and while I believe some kids are very politically oriented, a lot aren't. So this whole dramatic election thing demanded some suspension of disbelief in places but, hey, it's fiction and I was happy to give in.
I really enjoyed the ace best friend and the aro best friend rep, they were both fully realised characters and there wasn't any aphobic stuff that I caught, and it made my aroace heart really happy.
The LI was sweet too, though I wish the romance subplot had been a little bit more engaging in places.
There's a few times throughout the book where I wanted people to be MORE angry at Mark instead of just accepting apologies straightaway or refusing his apologies.
The LI was sweet too, though I wish the romance subplot had been a little bit more engaging in places.
There's a few times throughout the book where I wanted people to be MORE angry at Mark instead of just accepting apologies straightaway or refusing his apologies.
Binder safety also just... wasn't it in this. Mark wears his binder to work out at the gym, wears it in the water... it's not good, despite him mentioning binder safety earlier/taking his binder off after 8 hours of wearing it. I know a lot of trans teens don't follow safety guidelines because dysphoria is a bastard, but it wasn't even mentioned that Mark wasn't respecting said safety guidelines, so that was a meh aspect of the book to me.
Overall, I enjoyed it a lot. There's a lot of misgendering and deadnaming but I didn't mind, there has to have space for trans stories where this is central. It's understandable if some readers wanted to avoid it, though, so be warned.
I enjoyed the questioning Mark had to go through to find his ground in politics, I enjoyed that one of the best friends was a self-assumed politician shark, I enjoyed some of the subverted tropes, and I enjoyed that this didn't glorify politics/politicians and that it had some critical lines about the whole thing. It was good! Probably not for everyone for several reasons, but it was good.
I enjoyed the questioning Mark had to go through to find his ground in politics, I enjoyed that one of the best friends was a self-assumed politician shark, I enjoyed some of the subverted tropes, and I enjoyed that this didn't glorify politics/politicians and that it had some critical lines about the whole thing. It was good! Probably not for everyone for several reasons, but it was good.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Transphobia, Mental illness, Homophobia, Deadnaming, and Bullying
Minor: Antisemitism and Religious bigotry
xoodlebooks's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Full review to come.
Things this book has: Trans author, transmasculine main character. Jewish author, Jewish side character that talks a lot about Jewish theology, identity, and intergenerational trauma. Main character with bipolar disorder, but it doesn’t come up much at all. Side character with an anxiety disorder. Depictions of panic attacks. The main character is Catholic. He isn’t very religious, but he used to go to Catholic school, and he had a super eloquent prayer scene towards the end of the book. Emotionally manipulative father. So many good quotes. Diverse cast. Basically all of the main side characters are queer. Some things felt kind of weird / token-y, but maybe I am overthinking it? I am not sure. Academic / extracurricular pressure. Competitive students. The audiobook narrator was really great and had a lot of emotion. They might have pronounced a few words. Either that or the words in question have alternative pronunciations that I am unaware of. Also, there was a bit of Hebrew and Yiddish in the book, but I can’t verify whether or not the narrator’s pronunciation of Hebrew and Yiddish words was good. I really liked this book.
Things this book has: Trans author, transmasculine main character. Jewish author, Jewish side character that talks a lot about Jewish theology, identity, and intergenerational trauma. Main character with bipolar disorder, but it doesn’t come up much at all. Side character with an anxiety disorder. Depictions of panic attacks. The main character is Catholic. He isn’t very religious, but he used to go to Catholic school, and he had a super eloquent prayer scene towards the end of the book. Emotionally manipulative father. So many good quotes. Diverse cast. Basically all of the main side characters are queer. Some things felt kind of weird / token-y, but maybe I am overthinking it? I am not sure. Academic / extracurricular pressure. Competitive students. The audiobook narrator was really great and had a lot of emotion. They might have pronounced a few words. Either that or the words in question have alternative pronunciations that I am unaware of. Also, there was a bit of Hebrew and Yiddish in the book, but I can’t verify whether or not the narrator’s pronunciation of Hebrew and Yiddish words was good. I really liked this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Transphobia
Moderate: Antisemitism, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Violence
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Biphobia, Blood, Cancer, Chronic illness, Fatphobia, Genocide, Islamophobia, Mental illness, Racism, and Xenophobia
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