Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Act Cool by Tobly McSmith

15 reviews

mystic_bookwyrm's review

challenging emotional hopeful 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

I liked this book overall, but the thing I had trouble with was the way August was always acting a part…. Now it gets addressed later and it makes sense, I just didn’t feel like the author went about it quite the right way. A lot of times it didn’t feel like it was coming from a place of self preservation but of trying to get what he wanted from other people. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Self harm, Lesbophobia, Religious bigotry, Deadnaming, and Homophobia

thatbookwhisperer's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Transphobia and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Homophobia and Deadnaming

imstephtacular's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Deadnaming, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Homophobia, Grief, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Cursing, Mental illness, and Outing

Minor: Drug use, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Alcohol, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, and Sexual content

nibs's review

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A nice, heartfelt YA story. August is like any other teenager in that he's a bit all over the place identity-wise and winging it. Making friends, crushing on girls, I like how fleshed out the high school social dynamics were (even if some of the characters themselves didn't feel as fleshed out as they could've been). 
I bumped it down from 4 to 3.75 stars based on how rushed the ending felt. 

The other thing that I really noticed compared to some other YA books with trans protagonists is the lack of intersectional nuance. Yes, I know August is naive, but there is white privilege evident in the writing through. Only the Black characters had their race specifically mentioned, all other characters being assumed to be white in the lack of this descriptor and whiteness was only used as a descriptor in the same paragraph as a Black character was. Given a big part of this book is set in New York, a very multi-cultural place, and the story skimmed over the nuances of this. Maybe I'm just a bit critical given how well handled this is by the likes of Kacen Callender, NoNieqa Ramos, Isaac Fitzsimons, etc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Homophobia and Deadnaming

Conversion therapy - a character's family plans to send them to conversion therapy, and later a play is staged about conversion therapy.

kayladaila's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Grief, Abandonment, Infidelity, Outing, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Drug use, Drug abuse, and Forced institutionalization

hopelessforeva's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Outing, Deadnaming, Transphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

hopeful slow-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

2.5

The overall message was good, but the main character was so unlikeable through 80% of the book it made it hard to get through.  
I wish we had gotten more of his best friend from PA too- he showed up briefly again at the end and it felt really random after only hearing him mentioned in passing a few times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Deadnaming, Outing, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infidelity

almckay's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

Moderate: Drug use

aspring's review

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

this was…. insanely boring. there were no real relationships formed between any of the characters, no real plot or scene setting. the whole book felt both rushed and way too long at the same time. i was really excited to read this but very disappointed in what i read :/ the premise was so entincing but the book sadly fell short! also: the main character was so easy to dislike. as he was ‘acting’ all the time, i never really got a feel for who he was and therefore couldn’t empathise with the character the author tried to create. oh well! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

readingwithkelsey's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I thought I was done with YA contemporaries and yet, I always find one that pulls me back in and Act Cool definitely did that for me. August was a great main character and I think he worked for me in exactly the way people did not like when reading some reviews. August is flawed - he is fake, he lies and he is always putting on an act (both on stage and off stage). And he makes sure to tell you whenever he is doing so - but I loved that he was this somewhat unlikeable main character. This is my first McSmith book, but I really enjoyed how easy and real his writing felt to me. I enjoyed watching August grow as a MC and come into his own identity. I also felt as though this novel had the perfect balance between light, funny moments and really sad ones. I do feel as though some of the plot points are told to readers in a quick fashion instead of shown, so the pacing felt a tad weak but other than that I thought this was really good! I am definitely surprised and delighted with this read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Religious bigotry