Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Passing Playbook

Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons

9 reviews

fanboyriot's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Read For:

⚽️ Gay Sports

🫥 Hurt/Comfort

🫶 Supportive Family

👨🏽‍❤️‍💋‍👨🏾 Secret Relationship

🤝 Wholesome Friendships

Amazing. Absolutely such an amazing book, the plot, the characters, the relationship, and all the teammates made it wonderful to read.

I was fully invested in this story, it was so wholesome and heartwarming. Spencer’s parents were adorable and doing their best. The coach too was the absolute best. The found family and wholesome family vibes this book had was like a warm hug.

Spencer going for what he wanted in life, finding the right people to be on his side and help him along the way. He had trouble with his old school but his new school had his back, his teammates supporting him, it was all written so well.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (5/5)

Release Date: 31, March 2022

POV: Third Person

Spice: 🌶️ (mentioned lightly)

Rep: Black Transmasc (MC), Autism (MC’s brother), Nonbinary (SC), LGBTQIA Characters

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rockythefreak's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

A wonderful read! I wish I had this book when I was a kid. As an adult, there were a few parts I might have cringed or yucked at (I do NOT want to read about teens exploring sexually, no matter how brief) but I think for teen readers, these moments are important and perfectly done.

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emily_mh's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

When I picked this book up I was looking for a tropey high school romance with a bit of cheese, and this book delivered on all fronts. The American high school setting satisfied my nostalgic cravings (think cafeterias, sports games, and biking to school). The chemistry between Spencer and Justice was great; I particularly liked how they started off on the wrong foot, but that they were also clearly into each other. My critique here is that I wanted to know more about WHY they were into each other. I also wanted the tension between them to have been better resolved. But overall their romance was sweet and ultimately happy.

I loved Spencer as the MC! I was fully invested in his story. His bravery in coming out and standing up for himself considering the transphobia in his history (and present), was incredible. Like, I was a mess as a teen, how are these kids doing it? Through Spencer’s character, Fitzsimons demonstrates how being both Black and trans impacts playing soccer. I loved seeing Spencer’s development in realising he wanted to come out again, that the cons of being in the closet outweighed the pros for him personally.

Something I haven’t read a lot about in fiction is religious bigotry, which is a major theme of this book. Justice, the LI, comes from a bigoted religious family so we really get to see “behind closed doors” with this. We also gain insight into the complex situation this leaves Justice in, as he must ensure his personal safety as a gay teen dependent on and at the mercy of the very people who seek to oppress him. Another topic Fitzsimons approached that I was gripped by was the lack of solidarity within the queer community when it comes to marginalised identities. This manifests in Spencer’s QSA not caring to fight for trans rights at their school. It was a great example of how queer people can still have privilege and work consciously or unconsciously to oppress other queer people on the basis of that privilege.

By the way, if you, as an autistic reader, are worried about the autism rep in Spencer brother, don’t be. It was characterised with care. Spencer being a glass child might be a little triggering if you are disabled with siblings, but this is a very small part of the book and I believe it was handled with care and without ableism. On a lighter note, don’t let the soccer focus put you off. I was also worried by this but Fitzsimons included this content in a very engaging way!

So this was a solid read. The reason why I docked 0.75 stars was because of my early critique of the romance, and also because the pacing did get away from Fitzsimons in the last third. It was too rushed and it felt like we needed more time fleshing out the resolution of each plot point. But overall this was a heartwarming and hopeful queer story and I look forward to see what Fitzsimons writes next.

Rep: queer trans Black MC, gay LI, Black autistic SC, Black SCs, East Asian SC

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the_vegan_bookworm's review

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lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was a cute read featuring a Black trans MC and a Latino gay MC. It's a sports romance with a large focus on soccer, but it also touches on religious bigotry, transphobia and homophobia throughout. There are also moments that touch on anti-autistic ableism in relation to the MC's younger brother.

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a_libra_library's review

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emotional reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

My first book with a trans main character. I liked the story of our MC wanting to join the soccer team, finding a romance but also the laws and hurdles of being a trans student in high school and how that effects students. It made me think of how it effect students in real life and how I as an ally can actually help or advocate. It was a hopeful, inspiring story.

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rey_therese07's review against another edition

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funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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nobirdtennis's review

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

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valereads's review

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emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

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? Yes

2.0

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited for this book so I’m sad to say it ended up being a disappointment.

I will start off with the positives. This book had a strong start. It was fast-paced and I liked the writing style. I really liked Spencer’s character at first and it’s always good to see some well-written trans characters in books.

That said I had some significant problems with this book. Firstly the portrayal of Spencer’s autistic brother. I wouldn’t normally refer to him like that but that’s all he was to the narrative: Spencer’s autistic brother. He felt like a prop, used first as something for Spencer to feel guilty about (a plot point that never really got resolved) and then to make Spencer look like a good person for loving him. He was also a flat character; the only things I could tell you about him are that he’s autistic, he likes animals and he has an ipad he takes everywhere. If he had more character development and relevance in the narrative he could have been good representation but as an autistic reader I’d rather he wasn’t included than be portrayed like this. It wouldn’t make any difference to the overall story if he was left out entirely.

My next issue is something of a sensitive subject: religious bigotry, abuse and victim-blaming. If you haven’t grown up surrounded by religious bigotry and with abusive and controlling parents you may not understand the issue I have here. As someone with personal experience with these things I was very uncomfortable with the way Justice’s family was portrayed and Spencer’s reaction to them. Justice comes from a conservative family who are part of a cult-like right-wing Church. His father is emotionally abusive and controlling. Spencer breaks up with Justice for not standing up to his abusers for their homophobic bigotry and is depicted as in the right.

Thousands of queer people are subjected to conversion therapy, abuse and even exorcisms by abusive family members for coming out. Justice is a 15/16 year old kid. Expecting him to stand up to his family and Church is victim-blaming and the narrative shows little empathy to the situation Justice, and many very real queer young people, find themselves in.

In addition to these things there were some amateur writing mistakes in this book that became more and more grating to me as it went on. I may have been able to ignore these issues if it weren’t for the other issues I had with the book.

I’m sorry to say that I found this book to be a disappointment. I won’t tell anybody not to read it if they’re still interested but it gets a no from me.

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xoodlebooks's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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