Reviews

I loved Ziggy, Stardust, and Me. It is quite literally my favourite book of all time, but I could barely make it through this book.

Some of the dialogue was a little cringe, but I'll give it a pass because I'm 20 reading a YA book.

Spoiler

I was not a fan of how inconsistently they referred to Hella throughout the book, especially near the end. We end up finding out her new name and for the rest of the book, they deadname her as if it's a middle name or something? Like her literal obituary doesn't have her deadname ANYWHERE in it and you named a star after her using her deadname as a middle name??? And constantly referring to her as "Dad" even after you find out she was a trans woman and literally moved to a different country to start over as a woman kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I get that Isaac was trying to find his dad but you know. After you find out your dad is a trans woman, maybe start referring to her as one???

I also was not a fan of how shoehorned in the subplot about Max's self harm felt? I hate to say it, but I didn't really feel any reason to care about it. And the scene where Isaac rubs her scars and whispers in her ear while she sleeps feels a little weird. A little out of touch and sort of "I can fix her"? I was half expecting Isaac to say "Can you please stop?? For me?? 🥺🥺"

Also, I am not a fan of James Brandon's apparently running theme of gay teenage boys almost being assaulted by older men. It happened in ZSAM, it's literally one of my two criticisms of the book, and I don't like when it's written into queer books. Most of the time, it kind of comes out of nowhere, it adds nothing, and it plays into harmful stereotypes about queer people. And in the case of this book, it happens for literally no reason. It doesn't do anything for the characters it affects, it's brought up and immediately dropped. Literally NOTHING about this book would change if it were taken out. (And I think I feel the same way about the self harm tbh)

Just a little disappointed. I was really excited for this book and I had such high hopes for it. I really believe that Brandon's heart was in the right place, but I do think cis authors really need to take a step back when writing stories about transness and what it's like to be trans and let us do it ourselves. I don't think he did it out of any sort of maliciousness or anything, I really do think he tried his best, but he made a couple of mistakes that could easily be fixed.

Of course, I will be looking forward to Brandon's next book. I'm really hoping that this was a fluke and I enjoy his next book as much as I enjoy Ziggy, Stardust, and Me. He clearly has a lot of passion for the communities he writes about and does his best to support them outside of his writing as well. I truly cannot wait to see what he does next.

Content Warnings

adambwriter's review

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4.0

I love James Brandon and I’m glad I chose this book to be my first read of 2023 (although I still prefer and adore his first book, Ziggy, Stardust and Me.) The Author’s Note at the end of this one is a must-read.

whatever1441's review

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5.0

Beautiful story with beautiful characters. The mix of queer history and becoming yourself was perfect and this was amazing

kailowren_04's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative sad 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? No

4.5

nsprague1433's review

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4.0

I loved this book so much. I loved reading about LGBTQIA history and that Isaac was able to find himself through learning about his dad. This was so unlike any story I’ve read. I really wish Christopher and fig would have ended up together, but I’m happy with max too. I sort of wish the ending didn’t take the route it did with max, I felt like it took away from closing Isaac’s story. There could have been more bonding with his mom or reconciliation with Christopher. It was a great read nonetheless.

charlieeash's review

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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