Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Act Cool by Tobly McSmith

10 reviews

imstephtacular's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.25

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kayladaila's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

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housedominic's review

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense 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

3.0

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beca_reads's review

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hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I have so many feelings about this book, it's hard to put it into words. We follow August who has recently come out as Transgender to his family. Unfortunately his parents are not understanding, and results in his Aunt taking him under her wing and moving him to New York where he can attend performing Arts school. August has always wanted to perform on stage and this gives him the chance, though his parent's actions still control some of his decisions. August ends up putting on a persona that is not him, this honestly makes him quite a unlikeable character for most of the book but it is clear that deep down this is not the real August. We follow him as he works out the actor he wants to become, and the people he meets along the way that helps him.  The book discuss transphobia within school, and the theatre, as well as discussing conversion therapy which his family want to put him into. This is not a light read at all and has trigger warnings for: transphobia, conversion therapy, homophobia, dead naming, and miss gendering. 
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spottedcow's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing 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

3.75

This book was a very quick fun read :D i loved all the theater references and it was nicley written. There are some parts that were odd, but it was an extremely fun  read. (Dont get scared by the trigger warnings, it dosent go into to much detail and is mostly light harted)
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sunsetcity's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful 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

3.5

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theboywithallthekeys's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring 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

3.0

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heartbookmark's review

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-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

Despite all the LGBTQIA+ books that I have read and own, this is the first one I've read with a transgender protagonist. I live in a small, religious town, so I have to drive out of my way to find and purchase these kinds of books. 

Anyways, I actually really enjoyed this book. I would have given it a full five stars, but there were times where the pacing felt off (I'm not really used to reading books with so many small time-skips in them.) and, in my personal opinion, had some minor side plots that seemed entirely unnecessary. 

There was also the fact that there was a pansexual character that was portrayed as a cheater and that made me uncomfortable as a bisexual person myself whose best friend is pansexual. It was a trope that I've had to deal with personally in real life where people assumed that's what bisexual and pansexual people always do when in a relationship. I'm not saying that there aren't bi and pan people out there who actually do that, but this is how we are portrayed in any type of media the majority of the time.


The entire section about conversion therapy made me very emotional and I cried near the end. I have never personally be threatened to be sent to conversion therapy, but that's because I was lucky enough that my very religious grandparents weren't so cruel that they would send their only grandchild to be tortured and "fixed" just because of who she is. If they had been that cruel, conversion therapy would have been my reality. I get super uncomfortable and emotional when conversion therapy is brought up because of how horrible it is and how lucky I was to avoid something like that when others weren't so lucky in past and possibly present. It's a well-written section of the book that was meant to make people emotional while reading it and it was successful at doing so, for me at least.


That being said, this is a book that does need some recognition because there's not much transgender representation in YA novels as protagonists. Transgender characters are usually side characters or even characters that show up once and then are never seen again.

Also, I want to note that I loved that there was a content warning inside the book. There needs to be more of that. I am so used to seeing tags on fanfiction (which are essentially content warnings) and not seeing them in actual books that I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it. 

For anyone who wants to read this book, I recommend that you go ahead and do so. 
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bookreviewsgr's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

Έχοντας διαβάσει το Stay Gold, είχα προετοιμαστεί για ένα εξίσου σκληρό ανάγνωσμα. Το Act Cool, αν και σίγουρα περιέχει εξίσου πολύ σημαντικά θέματα, είναι αρκετά πιο ευκολοδιάβαστο. Αν και πονάει, σίγουρα δε σου ξεριζώνει την καρδιά με τον τρόπο που το έκανε το Stay Gold. 

Ο August είναι από τους χαρακτήρες που έχω "υιοθετήσει" και πλέον τους αποκαλώ "τα παιδιά μου". Ξέρετε, πως ο κόσμος συλλέγει book boyfriends / girlfriends ε, εγώ συλλέγω book children. Υποτίθεται ότι οι γονείς δεν πρέπει να έχουν αγαπημένα παιδιά, αλλά ο August είναι σίγουρα ένα απ' τα πιο αγαπημένα μου. 

Ο August έχει περάσει το μεγαλύτερο μέρος της ζωής του να υποδύεται ότι είναι η κόρη που η μητέρα του νομίζει ότι έχει. Έτσι η υποκριτική είναι κάτι που κυλάει στο αίμα του. Τόσο πολύ που συνεχίζει να παίζει ρόλους ακόμα και όταν φεύγει από το σπίτι του. Και όχι μόνο ρόλους για τη σχολή υποκριτικής, αλλά ρόλους που πιστεύει ότι θα τον κάνουν αρεστό στους νέους του φίλους και καθηγητές. Έχει συνηθίσει τόσο πολύ να προσποιείται ότι είναι κάποιος άλλος που του παίρνει μεγάλο χρονικό διάστημα για να βρει το ποιός είναι πραγματικά. 

Νομίζω ότι αυτή είναι μια εμπειρία με την οποία μπορούν να ταυτιστούν, ως ένα βαθμό, πάρα πολλοί αναγνώστες. Οι περισσότεροι μεγαλώνουμε με κάποια ιδέα των άλλων για το πως και ποιοί πρέπει να είμαστε και στην πλειονότητά μας δεν μας ταιριάζουν οι ρόλοι και τα κουτιά στα οποία προσπαθούν να μας στριμώξουν. Ελάχιστοι όμως καταφέρνουν να αποτινάξουν αυτές τις ιδέες και να ζήσουν ως ο πραγματικός τους εαυτός. 

Για τον August, αυτή η μάχη είναι ακόμα πιο δύσκολη. Αν και έχει καταφέρει να φύγει από την οικογένειά του και προσπαθεί να αφήσει πίσω του τους ρόλους που τον ανάγκαζαν να υποδυθεί κι ενώ προσπαθεί να ταιριάξει στο καινούργιο του περιβάλλον, εκεί προσπαθούν να τον εντάξουν πάλι σε κάποια κουτιά, ανάλογα με το που πιστεύουν ότι ταιριάζει. Ο August όμως δε χωράει σε κουτιά, ούτε στα παλιά, ούτε στα καινούργια, και είναι τόσο μα τόσο υπέροχο να τον βλέπουμε να τα σπάει!

Και αφού τελείωσα με την ωδή στον August, να πω ότι η θεία του είναι ο δεύτερος πιο αγαπημένος μου χαρακτήρας στο βιβλίο. Μαζί με τη μαμά του  Felipe στο Here the whole time, είναι παράδειγμα για το πως πρέπει να φέρεσαι σε ένα παιδί. 
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thelovelylibrarylady's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I am obsessed with this story. August moves in with his aunt and starts attending a well-respected acting school in NYC after his parents refuse to accept his gender identity. At his new home and school, August is able to be his true self, but there is a problem. The move to New York came with one condition from his parents: he must not present as or transition to male. Obviously, August agrees to this but has no intention of keeping his promise. This is fine until they decide to come up to see him in his school's fall musical. This story is messy, dramatic, and a little unrealistic, but my musical theater-loving self just adored this title. I cannot recommend this one enough to others who enjoy LGBTQ+ fiction and/or the magic of Broadway! Please check out the content warnings for this book before picking it up, as it does deal with some heavy topics.
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