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avokaitotoast's review
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
my advice before you read this book:
- go into it knowing that it is for teens (but also written by someone who doesn’t know what teens do now)
- know that there will be lots of (often cringe) talk surrounding sex and virginity
- embrace the cringe and let it come full circle into camp territory.
- do not take a shot every time u see the word „gawd“, „frack“, or „VSB“
- chapter 18/19 are fairly explicit
- 2 modern teen references are made in the entire book
don’t get me wrong — this book is a fine read. it kept me interested and id still recommend it to people looking for queer lit, there was just a cringy child-ness to the main character and his inner monologue. i’m also over reading (or watching) things strictly about teens and their sex lives.
jay sort of gave me kurt hummel from glee but in 2020 vibes (only out gay kid in a small town w a dad who works on cars? literally kurt) and i both loved and hated it. definitely a stereotype (which they are self aware of, it’s brought up how stereotypical jay is).
POS
- easy read
- enjoyable cringe to a certain point
- fun to hate read
MAJOR NEGS
- jay is supposed to be 17/18 but acts more like a 14/15 year old while discussing extremely adult topics (not a vibe)
- discussion of the impacts of stereotypes is mentioned but when covering the topic of racial stereotypes it gets really weird… aka the only POC in the books essentially says „i used to hate that i’m asian and do xyz but now i embrace it“ and coming from a white author it feels very „i’m supposed to discuss race in my book bc it’s the PC thing to do“ but did not hit the mark at all
i don’t like giving negative reviews to queer lit (and i don’t think this is entirely negative — like i said, i did enjoy it a lot!!) because there is so little of it and i always want to support queer art. that being said, while it’s no great work of fiction, it’s a nice quick and enjoyable read if you don’t mind the extreme cringe and constant (i mean constant) dialogue surrounding sex and virginity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
torispring's review
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
2.5
It was gay so of course it wasn’t bad. But the main character’s inner monologue was about sex every 3 minutes and I am a bit too asexual to really enjoy that. Jay is who people talk about when they say ‘being gay is your whole personality’ and while I don’t blame him and it is understandable, it was still quite annoying.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent and Car accident
soffimarie's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
relaxing
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
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
maggies's review against another edition
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
While the story deals really well with lots of difficult issues, from poverty to racism and homophobia, it didn't exactly make sense to me. 99% of the time, the characters were incredibly immature, like Jay's single-minded focus on hooking up and having sex, but then for the other 1% they consistently displayed amazing emotional maturity around these issues specifically. Definitely gave off the vibe that the author had an agenda (lol) in those moments, even though the characters didn't demonstrate that maturity elsewhere. Done differently, I can imagine it would have made the characters feel fuller, more real, but it just didn't quite pull off to me. I also can't identify with the sex obsession/using people as a means for sex, and that attitude really turned me off. Though, to be fair, Jay does figure out that it's problematic by the end of the book, so good for him.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit
Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, and Sexual content
Minor: Death of parent
aesantiago's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
Minor: Blood and Death of parent
moosereading's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- 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? Yes
5.0
This book has so many important messages and topics it talks about and criticises, while maintaining a lovely and adorable, hilarious atmosphere. It is full of representation and feelings as well as education. I don't know where to start with how I feel about this book. Though it was, at times, difficult to get through and continue, I believe it is an important milestone for the queer community and allies alike.
It is full of learning, loving, mistakes, honesty, communication, consent and boundaries that give a great outlook on how relationships ,platonic, romantic and familial, should be like. I believe it has a message for everyone that they can learn from and take to heart. 100/10 would definetly recommend.
It is full of learning, loving, mistakes, honesty, communication, consent and boundaries that give a great outlook on how relationships ,platonic, romantic and familial, should be like. I believe it has a message for everyone that they can learn from and take to heart. 100/10 would definetly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Infidelity
queerreaderchaos's review
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Vomit and Sexual content
crochet_bby's review
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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? Yes
4.0
Loved this book! It's definitely written for a younger audience than me, but it is so sweet & charming, and all of the character just feel so real. Definitely a good (and semi-emotional) read if you're queer and didn't get a chance to grow into that until you were older.
Only qualm-- the character Max explicitly states his pronouns as both he/him AND she/her, and then no character in the entire rest of the book ever uses the she/her pronouns for her. :/
Only qualm-- the character Max explicitly states his pronouns as both he/him AND she/her, and then no character in the entire rest of the book ever uses the she/her pronouns for her. :/
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Infidelity
1quillb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
3.3/5
Ooh, I dunno guys. I liked the concept, and I liked the writing style (Jason June is an awesome writer), but I don’t know how much I actually enjoyed the book. Most of the time I was reading jt, I was just yelling at Jay to not be an idiot (it didn’t work, he was an idiot anyways).
People who date more than one person at a time confuse me. Obviously if you’re honest with all the people involved it’s absolutely fine, but Jay was not honest with Tony or Albert at all, which I thought was really wrong. The book wasn’t endorsing cheating, or dishonesty, but it was still painful to read. Max also really annoyed me, just because I don’t like people who don’t think before they speak, and he also betrayed Jays trust a lot. Jay also got on my nerves, as did his “gay agenda” and how he thought it was okay to hook up with one person while he was dating another.
I really loved how this book was written, though, and all the representation it had (and Lu and Albert were wonderful characters!!). It was a nice read, but I just didn’t like the main character or his actions so that kinda ruined it for me.
I’d recommend this to fans of books like Boyfriend Material or Perfect on Paper, or just anyone who likes gay books (especially sex-positive ones!!).
Trigger warnings for this book include cheating (because in my opinion it was cheating) and vague sexual content (it’s more obvious than in most ya books so it might be weird for some people to read idk)
Ooh, I dunno guys. I liked the concept, and I liked the writing style (Jason June is an awesome writer), but I don’t know how much I actually enjoyed the book. Most of the time I was reading jt, I was just yelling at Jay to not be an idiot (it didn’t work, he was an idiot anyways).
People who date more than one person at a time confuse me. Obviously if you’re honest with all the people involved it’s absolutely fine, but Jay was not honest with Tony or Albert at all, which I thought was really wrong. The book wasn’t endorsing cheating, or dishonesty, but it was still painful to read. Max also really annoyed me, just because I don’t like people who don’t think before they speak, and he also betrayed Jays trust a lot. Jay also got on my nerves, as did his “gay agenda” and how he thought it was okay to hook up with one person while he was dating another.
I really loved how this book was written, though, and all the representation it had (and Lu and Albert were wonderful characters!!). It was a nice read, but I just didn’t like the main character or his actions so that kinda ruined it for me.
I’d recommend this to fans of books like Boyfriend Material or Perfect on Paper, or just anyone who likes gay books (especially sex-positive ones!!).
Trigger warnings for this book include cheating (because in my opinion it was cheating) and vague sexual content (it’s more obvious than in most ya books so it might be weird for some people to read idk)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity and Sexual content
alonlyfangirl's review against another edition
funny
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? Yes
2.0
i wanted to like this when i read it. i told myself that I liked it. i lied
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content