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ryanpfw's review
5.0
For posterity, this one took significantly longer to read than most. What can I say? I discovered podcasts!
Really strong, if open-ended. Perhaps that’s the point. It felt like the middle of a trilogy. I’d really appreciate followup, but equal parts of me feel that this book is true to life. A golden time in your life ends, the future is uncertain, nothing will be the same, and we have to move on and become new people.
That’s a different story.
I’d love to check in with these characters again.
Really strong, if open-ended. Perhaps that’s the point. It felt like the middle of a trilogy. I’d really appreciate followup, but equal parts of me feel that this book is true to life. A golden time in your life ends, the future is uncertain, nothing will be the same, and we have to move on and become new people.
That’s a different story.
I’d love to check in with these characters again.
dancearh's review
4.0
I would give this book 3 stars because I found the writing so disjointed. But - it gets an extra star for dealing with book banning.
pancake_reads's review
emotional
funny
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
5.0
bibliobrittish's review
5.0
This was such an incredibly satisfying conclusion to this duology - all the golden threads came together and truly glowed (yay titles). Phil really stepped up his relationship writing, representing so many different facets and adjustments and I think it will be so important for many a teen (and adult) to experience.
rebelqueen's review
3.0
3.5. It’s senior year and the Golden Boys are back and trying to thrive as queer boys in Ohio. I liked this one better than the first one. The boys were much more differentiated than the first book. Loved the fighting queer book banning storyline.
fictionalmandy's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
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
3.25
anj's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
nietnoah's review against another edition
2.0
I already predicted how this book was going to end after the first chapter and I was right, sadly.
Although the book isn’t as violently stereotypical as the first it still fell flat for me. The drag storyline also felt really random and sudden.
Overall 2,5 stars for me. Had to push myself to finish it.
Although the book isn’t as violently stereotypical as the first it still fell flat for me. The drag storyline also felt really random and sudden.
Overall 2,5 stars for me. Had to push myself to finish it.
lilibetbombshell's review
4.0
In my last year of high school, I felt like I was more than ready to blow that popsicle stand. It was almost a physical itch to get out of that school and out of my small town. In my mind, I was already gone and it was only my physical body that was stuck with these small minds and forked tongues. I always knew I was somehow mistakenly born in a small town when I was meant to live in big cities. I was not born to live in the small dairy town I was born and raised in. I hated every moment spent there.
So I completely identified with all of our four boys as we rejoin them in Afterglow after the events of Golden Boys (which was also a brilliant novel). After a summer away from one another, each of our main characters comes back to their hometown to find they feel even more out of place than they felt before the previous summer. Not only that, but their best laid plans may not be the best of plans after all, and isn’t senior year hard enough without having to worry about changing your life plan, too?
Just like Golden Boys, Stamper writes Afterglow as a bittersweet ode to those formative friendships that build and hold as fast as Urban Decay’s All Nighter Setting Spray (Ha! Makeup joke!). No matter how circumstances change, no matter how mad they get at one another, no matter how many times relationships form and then break, these four boys are tied together by years of laughing, crying, celebrating, making playlists, throwing parties, supporting each other at events, and comforting one another through yet another breakup.
See, I seem to have liked the first book better than Afterglow, but that’s because I have a great affection for yearning. Golden Boys had acres and acres of yearning. For home, for friendship, for love, for connection, for inspiration, for motivation, and more. Afterglow feels more like a combination of disillusionment, pressure, discovery, drifting, and time sneaking up on you.
And, of course, I want to thank Phil Stamper for writing not one, but two optimistic, lovely, realistic, relatable, non-toxic books about LGBTQ+ youth in middle America. I could just stop at saying, “Thanks for writing great LGBTQ+ books!”, but I think it’s important to acknowledge so many books in this genre are set on the coasts in the major metro cities, and yet Stamper chose to make the hometown setting in these books somewhere in the midwest, where queer representation in literature is not prolific; and, if there are queer characters in books set in the midwest, they usually aren’t shining stars who get the best representation. I may live on the west coast, but I can acknowledge this choice will probably give heart and hope to a lot of LGBTQIA+ folx in the midwest, no matter what the age.
I was provided with a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Friendly Reads/LGBTQ Romance/YA Romance/Young Adult/YA Book Series/Coming of Age/High School/YA Drama/YA Fiction
So I completely identified with all of our four boys as we rejoin them in Afterglow after the events of Golden Boys (which was also a brilliant novel). After a summer away from one another, each of our main characters comes back to their hometown to find they feel even more out of place than they felt before the previous summer. Not only that, but their best laid plans may not be the best of plans after all, and isn’t senior year hard enough without having to worry about changing your life plan, too?
Just like Golden Boys, Stamper writes Afterglow as a bittersweet ode to those formative friendships that build and hold as fast as Urban Decay’s All Nighter Setting Spray (Ha! Makeup joke!). No matter how circumstances change, no matter how mad they get at one another, no matter how many times relationships form and then break, these four boys are tied together by years of laughing, crying, celebrating, making playlists, throwing parties, supporting each other at events, and comforting one another through yet another breakup.
See, I seem to have liked the first book better than Afterglow, but that’s because I have a great affection for yearning. Golden Boys had acres and acres of yearning. For home, for friendship, for love, for connection, for inspiration, for motivation, and more. Afterglow feels more like a combination of disillusionment, pressure, discovery, drifting, and time sneaking up on you.
And, of course, I want to thank Phil Stamper for writing not one, but two optimistic, lovely, realistic, relatable, non-toxic books about LGBTQ+ youth in middle America. I could just stop at saying, “Thanks for writing great LGBTQ+ books!”, but I think it’s important to acknowledge so many books in this genre are set on the coasts in the major metro cities, and yet Stamper chose to make the hometown setting in these books somewhere in the midwest, where queer representation in literature is not prolific; and, if there are queer characters in books set in the midwest, they usually aren’t shining stars who get the best representation. I may live on the west coast, but I can acknowledge this choice will probably give heart and hope to a lot of LGBTQIA+ folx in the midwest, no matter what the age.
I was provided with a copy of this book by NetGalley and the author. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: LGBTQ Fiction/LGBTQ Friendly Reads/LGBTQ Romance/YA Romance/Young Adult/YA Book Series/Coming of Age/High School/YA Drama/YA Fiction
bookswithemily's review
5.0
I really enjoyed the final instalment of the Golden Boys duology. I am very sad it is over but it was a good ending to the duology. I re-read Golden Boys before reading this one so I could remember the events from the first book. I thought these two books flowed really well from the first into the second. This second book picks up from where the first one ended.
I absolutely love the characters in this book. I could see a lot of character development from the first book to this one. Although they were still worried about college as they were in the first book but their worries and priorities had changed. In Golden Boys, the 4 friends had spent their summers apart but in this book they had to prepare to spend even longer than that apart.
This book is set at the boys final year of school before they go off to college or begin working. This was definitely a good ending point for the series because although not all questions were answered, it was the end of an era for the boys. It was very realistic because I remember feeling this way when I left school and when to university. Some of the questions I had then, i still don’t have answers for and that’s been 7 years. I would highly recommend this book to those who are going through a similar scenario, this book doesn’t mask over the worries and anxieties, it shows the downsides to situations and of choices made.
I like how this book continues to be spoken in the POV of all 4 boys. They are all dealing with different things and it is nice to read about how they are coping with everything. Most people will be able to related to at least one aspect of the boys’ lives. I also have to mention the LGBTQ+ aspect of the book, it showed the difficulties they have to deal with and how even after everything that happened in the first book, they are still findings things that are wrong.
This duology is so good, if you haven’t read this or anything by this author before, I highly recommend it. This is such a deep and meaningful book, it definitely left me thinking.
I absolutely love the characters in this book. I could see a lot of character development from the first book to this one. Although they were still worried about college as they were in the first book but their worries and priorities had changed. In Golden Boys, the 4 friends had spent their summers apart but in this book they had to prepare to spend even longer than that apart.
This book is set at the boys final year of school before they go off to college or begin working. This was definitely a good ending point for the series because although not all questions were answered, it was the end of an era for the boys. It was very realistic because I remember feeling this way when I left school and when to university. Some of the questions I had then, i still don’t have answers for and that’s been 7 years. I would highly recommend this book to those who are going through a similar scenario, this book doesn’t mask over the worries and anxieties, it shows the downsides to situations and of choices made.
I like how this book continues to be spoken in the POV of all 4 boys. They are all dealing with different things and it is nice to read about how they are coping with everything. Most people will be able to related to at least one aspect of the boys’ lives. I also have to mention the LGBTQ+ aspect of the book, it showed the difficulties they have to deal with and how even after everything that happened in the first book, they are still findings things that are wrong.
This duology is so good, if you haven’t read this or anything by this author before, I highly recommend it. This is such a deep and meaningful book, it definitely left me thinking.