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cheriepie's review
emotional
inspiring
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? It's complicated
3.0
Pacing is odd in this one -- the comments from Manny Pacquiao don't come into the fray until the book is at the 80% mark, even though it's a big part of the synopsis. There's also something to your MC being a snarky, judgmental teenager, and especially one that's being abused by his peers, but it's also very grating to read after a while.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Violence
sfergie's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Chasing Pacquiao has a lot of promise as a YA novel. The premise of the story - that you can idolise someone who ends up embodying everything you stand against - is a powerful and intriguing one with which I’m sure many queer bookworms have been relating heavily (particularly since a certain once-beloved, transphobic author took to twitter). Unfortunately, where Chasing Pacquiao falls short is that this premise is not really what this book is about. The inner conflict that Bobby feels about Manny has surprisingly little time in the spotlight, given that “the reveal” doesn’t happen until the final quarter of the story, by which point Bobby is already well and truly deep into the actual A plot of the book (him trying not to be killed by his bully). Bobby’s relationship with Manny and his own memories of him could have been explored so much deeper had the reveal happened much earlier in the story, and the fact that nothing really comes of it is definitely a letdown.
This theme of unfulfilled potential carries through the entirety of the story, with the plot touching on ideas such as classism/wealth inequality, addiction, police brutality, complicated parent-child dynamics and a broken healthcare system while never actually exploring any of them meaningfully. This book has all the building blocks of a thrilling and scathing social commentary but ultimately falls flat.
One of my biggest issues with this book is that Bobby is very difficult to like. His inner monologue, particularly in the first half of the book, is constantly negative which makes it a challenge to get through. He’s condescending, judgemental and rude to countless people who try to offer him help – Bran, Rosie, Eric, his teachers, Jorge. He also displays an alarming amount of internalised homophobia – another really interesting concept which is never really addressed, and does not result in any character growth by the end of the book. While I understand that being a surly teenager is definitely a stage of life most of us experience, there’s very little to break up the monotony of complaining about his financial status, Bran’s financial status, Rosie’s presence, and just general snark. Snark is the default mode for Bobby. In his verbal conversations with his friends, he always finds a way to bring the conversation back to him and his issues, as though the other characters in this book exist purely for him; they seem to have no purpose or characterisation in the book outside of serving Bobby.
Another trait that makes Bobby rather unlikeable is his tendency towards lashing out at others by picking on their physical appearances. He makes fun of people for things that they can’t help (nose hair, acne etc) which is exactly what he is being bullied for – something he can’t control. This could have been turned into a character arc of growth with Bobby becoming more self-aware and less nasty as a defence mechanism, but Bobby unfortunately never experiences any progress in this area.
There are also several quite damaging aspects to this book. The biggest standout for me is Bobby’s toxic involvement with diet culture. He spends a large amount of the book heavily restricting his food intake and referring to himself as “dieting”. As someone who has struggled with disordered eating for well over a decade, not at all helped by unhealthy portrayals of nutrition in media, this was really disappointing to see and seemed like a very old-fashioned approach to physical improvement when two seconds on Google would have shown Bobby that he doesn’t need to eat a dozen eggs a day and cut rice completely out of his diet (hello 90s Atkins cult flashbacks) in order to gain muscle. I’m concerned that this blatant display of toxic diet culture could be damaging to young readers.
In terms of the actual writing of the book, it lacks nuance. Coming back to the poorly developed characterisation, it feels like there’s a lot of stereotyping in this book, both racially and with regards to queer people/relationships. Everything feels very surface level and tokenistic, and none of the characters outside of Bobby feel very believable. The humour in this story is also uncomfortable – there’s a definite sense that it’s boomer humour. The dialogue does not feel realistic and as though it were spoken by teenagers. There’s also an awful lot of signposting for the readers – things are overexplained and it doesn’t feel as though the author trusts the reader to form fairly obvious connections (i.e. explaining that “anak” is the Filipino word for son, when it’s very clear in the context of the text what this word means to anyone who doesn’t speak Tagalog). However, given that this is a debut novel, I’ll give the author some slack – but this is definitely a focus area for any future works. Trust your readers.
All in all, although the book definitely picks up in the second half, in the end it fell short for me. I will finish with two parting thoughts: “self-preservation” is not a motto, and PLEASE for the love of god don’t mix cleaning chemicals unless you absolutely know what you’re doing!
This theme of unfulfilled potential carries through the entirety of the story, with the plot touching on ideas such as classism/wealth inequality, addiction, police brutality, complicated parent-child dynamics and a broken healthcare system while never actually exploring any of them meaningfully. This book has all the building blocks of a thrilling and scathing social commentary but ultimately falls flat.
One of my biggest issues with this book is that Bobby is very difficult to like. His inner monologue, particularly in the first half of the book, is constantly negative which makes it a challenge to get through. He’s condescending, judgemental and rude to countless people who try to offer him help – Bran, Rosie, Eric, his teachers, Jorge. He also displays an alarming amount of internalised homophobia – another really interesting concept which is never really addressed, and does not result in any character growth by the end of the book. While I understand that being a surly teenager is definitely a stage of life most of us experience, there’s very little to break up the monotony of complaining about his financial status, Bran’s financial status, Rosie’s presence, and just general snark. Snark is the default mode for Bobby. In his verbal conversations with his friends, he always finds a way to bring the conversation back to him and his issues, as though the other characters in this book exist purely for him; they seem to have no purpose or characterisation in the book outside of serving Bobby.
Another trait that makes Bobby rather unlikeable is his tendency towards lashing out at others by picking on their physical appearances. He makes fun of people for things that they can’t help (nose hair, acne etc) which is exactly what he is being bullied for – something he can’t control. This could have been turned into a character arc of growth with Bobby becoming more self-aware and less nasty as a defence mechanism, but Bobby unfortunately never experiences any progress in this area.
There are also several quite damaging aspects to this book. The biggest standout for me is Bobby’s toxic involvement with diet culture. He spends a large amount of the book heavily restricting his food intake and referring to himself as “dieting”. As someone who has struggled with disordered eating for well over a decade, not at all helped by unhealthy portrayals of nutrition in media, this was really disappointing to see and seemed like a very old-fashioned approach to physical improvement when two seconds on Google would have shown Bobby that he doesn’t need to eat a dozen eggs a day and cut rice completely out of his diet (hello 90s Atkins cult flashbacks) in order to gain muscle. I’m concerned that this blatant display of toxic diet culture could be damaging to young readers.
In terms of the actual writing of the book, it lacks nuance. Coming back to the poorly developed characterisation, it feels like there’s a lot of stereotyping in this book, both racially and with regards to queer people/relationships. Everything feels very surface level and tokenistic, and none of the characters outside of Bobby feel very believable. The humour in this story is also uncomfortable – there’s a definite sense that it’s boomer humour. The dialogue does not feel realistic and as though it were spoken by teenagers. There’s also an awful lot of signposting for the readers – things are overexplained and it doesn’t feel as though the author trusts the reader to form fairly obvious connections (i.e. explaining that “anak” is the Filipino word for son, when it’s very clear in the context of the text what this word means to anyone who doesn’t speak Tagalog). However, given that this is a debut novel, I’ll give the author some slack – but this is definitely a focus area for any future works. Trust your readers.
All in all, although the book definitely picks up in the second half, in the end it fell short for me. I will finish with two parting thoughts: “self-preservation” is not a motto, and PLEASE for the love of god don’t mix cleaning chemicals unless you absolutely know what you’re doing!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Eating disorder
dingokitty14's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
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? It's complicated
3.75
The queer Filipinx coming-of-age story we all deserve! The characters are so lovable and I felt the Pinoy community was so well represented. Also, I legit cried when I read that this book was written by a Filipino dad for his gay son, we don’t have enough Filipino men who love and support their queer kids so for that alone this book is always going to have a very special place in my heart!!! Two reasons why this didn’t get 5 stars:
1) The author explains Filipino culture to the audience every now and then and I wish he chose not to because it took me out of the story and google exists, let people educate themselves.
2) At times the high schoolers felt more like middle schoolers and/or more like this is what parents think their kids are like rather than how kids actually are. However, despite that, they were really loveable and fully-fleshed out.
1) The author explains Filipino culture to the audience every now and then and I wish he chose not to because it took me out of the story and google exists, let people educate themselves.
2) At times the high schoolers felt more like middle schoolers and/or more like this is what parents think their kids are like rather than how kids actually are. However, despite that, they were really loveable and fully-fleshed out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexism, and Violence
cryscries's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
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
Do read the trigger warning list before picking up the book.
A queer ya story centering a Filipino boy navigating his way from being outed and honestly terrible bullies (reading it made me wince and I honestly felt for the character) and cute comic references.
I picked this up because as a filam I understood the shock of finding out about pacquiao’s beliefs about queer people. I may not have been a big boxing fan but he was basically every filam kids hero in a sense. The idea of finding out your idol ended up being terrible and no longer being there for you really interested me.
It mostly picks up in the third act and I wish I had more of the character working through it but the ending note on it still felt like a good way to end.
A queer ya story centering a Filipino boy navigating his way from being outed and honestly terrible bullies (reading it made me wince and I honestly felt for the character) and cute comic references.
I picked this up because as a filam I understood the shock of finding out about pacquiao’s beliefs about queer people. I may not have been a big boxing fan but he was basically every filam kids hero in a sense. The idea of finding out your idol ended up being terrible and no longer being there for you really interested me.
It mostly picks up in the third act and I wish I had more of the character working through it but the ending note on it still felt like a good way to end.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Violence
The bullies are very homophobic and constantly address the character with Filipino homophobic slurs and beating him up . It also does bring up what pacquiao said in his statement when in a Q&A about same sex marriage rights quoting bits of what he said.darthchrista's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
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? No
4.0
This was a fast paced book tackling homophobia first and foremost as well as classism. I wish the flap copy had not revealed as much as it did. That is not an author issue. The writing was direct, fast paced, as I kept turning those pages. Themes at once super heartbreaking and very difficult to read how the main character is treated and talked about, however the hope and desire for change is propulsive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Violence
pey333's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Bullying, and Child abuse
Moderate: Cancer, Blood, Death of parent, and Physical abuse
Minor: Drug use, Racism, Sexism, and Lesbophobia
tkhenry99's review
3.0
the random gen z slang drove me insane. what do authors have against writing YA contemporaries that aren’t riddled with slang they don’t understand and don’t know how to use?
brandon sucks.
and just overall not particularly interesting. it’s not a particularly interesting or poignant exploration of… anything really. bobby’s reflection on pacquiao basically just comes down to “idk if he’s still my idol but i respect him as a boxer” 🤷🏼♀️ and he comes to that conclusion really quickly. lots of potential themes that could’ve been explored that are dropped or ignored.
brandon sucks.
and just overall not particularly interesting. it’s not a particularly interesting or poignant exploration of… anything really. bobby’s reflection on pacquiao basically just comes down to “idk if he’s still my idol but i respect him as a boxer” 🤷🏼♀️ and he comes to that conclusion really quickly. lots of potential themes that could’ve been explored that are dropped or ignored.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Outing, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia
Moderate: Classism
Minor: Grief, Drug use, Murder, and Death of parent
imstephtacular's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Classism, Homophobia, Cursing, Child abuse, Gore, Blood, Bullying, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content
Moderate: Physical abuse, Cancer, Grief, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Ableism, Body shaming, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Racism and Stalking
oldandnewbooksmell's review
adventurous
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Trigger Warnings: violence, assault, homophobic language
When Bobby is unwillingly outed at his notoriously violent high school, he no longer has the luxury of being invisible. After a vicious encounter with a group of boys from his school, Bobby must find a new way to survive (and fight back). Inspired by Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao, Bobby takes up boxing and challenges his attacker. But when Pacquiao publicly declares his stance against the Queer community, Bobby must figure out what and how he’s going to find the strength to continue.
Be aware there is a lot of homophobia and violence in this novel. It’s not dark or gory or anything like that, but it’s a book about boxing - so there’s fighting, you know?
It took me a bit to get a feel for Bobby. Male YA main characters and I tend to not get along very well to begin with so I wasn’t his biggest fan at the beginning, but he definitely grew on me.
I had also wanted to read this book because of boxing. I box myself so I’m always interested in how writers write about boxing and if the descriptions make sense or not. I feel like Rod Pulido did a wonderful job at describing the different strikes and foot movement needed to box. It’s not all just arm movements and that’s sometimes forgotten when writing about this sport.
Overall, I enjoyed this contemporary, queer, YA novel about a new boxer learning the sport alongside finding out what he stands for. I can see this having a little bit of everything for everybody, but again, it is a book with bullying violence, so keep that in mind.
*Thank you Viking Books for Young Readers and Edelweiss+ for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Homophobia
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