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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I think most things about this book have been said already and a lot of the reviews that align with my rating I’ve seen point out exactly what I thought.
To me the ‚authentic‘ depiction of cis gay (or let‘s say queer bc while Beckett was worse to me both of them were definitely guilty and other than the book itself I am not willing to disrespect the sexuality of one of its protagonists) teenage boys was a bit TOO authentic in this for my personal taste.
The casual cissexism/ transphobia, blatant misogyny, reeking biphobia. Sprinkle in a bit of racism too just as the icing on the cake. While some of it was tried to be challenged on page (but poorly so in my eyes) most of it wasn‘t. The whole gender-essentialist bullshit about body parts and how they defined someone’s sexuality made me wanna scream every time it was mentioned (and that was often). And the biphobia. The biphobia was so blatant in this and is probably the only reason I disliked Jax a little less, bc he had to deal with this shit constantly. Doesn’t mean I liked him. I don’t often go away from a book where I liked basically no character at all. I would‘ve given an honorable mention to the other mom hadn’t she been all about the gold star lesbian bullshit. And it’s not like I can’t appreciate flawed characters. There are a ton of books I gave 5 stars whose characters drew me up a wall for most of the story. The difference is they understood their flaws eventually and made a believable effort to change. These two (and anybody else in this book) just pulled lots of shitty moves and in the end walked away quite unfazed. I do wanna See flawed characters but I certainly don’t wanna see them reassured in their flawed behavior.
TLDR I want to see the day when the misogyny and transphobia of cis queer men is treated seriously and not as sth quirky and funny. I get wanting to show sth realistically but if reinforcing harmful thinking that is already so deeply cemented in all of society (in a YA novel nonetheless) I think it’s the wrong way to do it.
To me the ‚authentic‘ depiction of cis gay (or let‘s say queer bc while Beckett was worse to me both of them were definitely guilty and other than the book itself I am not willing to disrespect the sexuality of one of its protagonists) teenage boys was a bit TOO authentic in this for my personal taste.
The casual cissexism/ transphobia, blatant misogyny, reeking biphobia. Sprinkle in a bit of racism too just as the icing on the cake. While some of it was tried to be challenged on page (but poorly so in my eyes) most of it wasn‘t. The whole gender-essentialist bullshit about body parts and how they defined someone’s sexuality made me wanna scream every time it was mentioned (and that was often). And the biphobia. The biphobia was so blatant in this and is probably the only reason I disliked Jax a little less, bc he had to deal with this shit constantly. Doesn’t mean I liked him. I don’t often go away from a book where I liked basically no character at all. I would‘ve given an honorable mention to the other mom hadn’t she been all about the gold star lesbian bullshit. And it’s not like I can’t appreciate flawed characters. There are a ton of books I gave 5 stars whose characters drew me up a wall for most of the story. The difference is they understood their flaws eventually and made a believable effort to change. These two (and anybody else in this book) just pulled lots of shitty moves and in the end walked away quite unfazed. I do wanna See flawed characters but I certainly don’t wanna see them reassured in their flawed behavior.
TLDR I want to see the day when the misogyny and transphobia of cis queer men is treated seriously and not as sth quirky and funny. I get wanting to show sth realistically but if reinforcing harmful thinking that is already so deeply cemented in all of society (in a YA novel nonetheless) I think it’s the wrong way to do it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny
Minor: Child abuse, Transphobia
This is, in one sentence, a reverse Parent's Trap with two boys who find themselves falling in love with each other as they try to ruin their parents' budding relationship.
More review to come soon!
4☆
Trigger warnings: homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny, slut-shaming, bullying, religion/Westboro Baptist homophobia, hate crimes, homophobes are just closeted gays, outing without consent, sexual harassment/assault, molestation, objectification, mentions of Islamophobia, suicide, fat-shaming/bullying related to being fat, domestic abuse, child abuse, suggested/possible sexual abuse, pedophilia
More review to come soon!
4☆
Trigger warnings: homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, racism, misogyny, slut-shaming, bullying, religion/Westboro Baptist homophobia, hate crimes, homophobes are just closeted gays, outing without consent, sexual harassment/assault, molestation, objectification, mentions of Islamophobia, suicide, fat-shaming/bullying related to being fat, domestic abuse, child abuse, suggested/possible sexual abuse, pedophilia
tw// biphobia, homophobia, transphobic slurs, graphic sexual imagery, objectifying women, slutshaming, fatshaming
im so disappointed. i really wanted to like this book. but wow biphobia says hi.
there were a few moments that i liked here and there, but overall most of this book just got on my nerves. the characters were really unlikeable and walking stereotypes.
jaxon: a bisexual guy who's afraid to come out because he plays football and he's the most popular guy and his team is homophobic. dating the most popular girl in the school and he doesnt even like her.
oh yeah, he also gets turned on by every single person he sees. because yknow bisexuals have so much choice so they want to fuck everyone who moves.
beckett: an out of the closet gay guy, who wears minimalistic clothing, makeup,acts rlly feminine, and is a complete asshole.
so they pair up to separate their parents new relationship for their own gain. what a dick move.
theres so much biphobia in this books it actually pains me to read it. such as lines like "you say you want me now. what happens next week when you start craving vagina again?" or "how do you know that you're really bi? maybe you were just curious. a lot of horny straight guys experiment when they're young".
this ties in with the bi erasure in this book, when one of jaxons turns out to be bi, they refuse to accept it, "and she'll remember that she's and lesbian", "you do know what my mum is a lesbian right?".
theres also so much slutshaming and slurs like "whore", and objectifying women, like beckett calling jax's mum "big titties".
im so disappointed. i really wanted to like this book. but wow biphobia says hi.
there were a few moments that i liked here and there, but overall most of this book just got on my nerves. the characters were really unlikeable and walking stereotypes.
jaxon: a bisexual guy who's afraid to come out because he plays football and he's the most popular guy and his team is homophobic. dating the most popular girl in the school and he doesnt even like her.
oh yeah, he also gets turned on by every single person he sees. because yknow bisexuals have so much choice so they want to fuck everyone who moves.
beckett: an out of the closet gay guy, who wears minimalistic clothing, makeup,acts rlly feminine, and is a complete asshole.
so they pair up to separate their parents new relationship for their own gain. what a dick move.
theres so much biphobia in this books it actually pains me to read it. such as lines like "you say you want me now. what happens next week when you start craving vagina again?" or "how do you know that you're really bi? maybe you were just curious. a lot of horny straight guys experiment when they're young".
this ties in with the bi erasure in this book, when one of jaxons turns out to be bi, they refuse to accept it, "and she'll remember that she's and lesbian", "you do know what my mum is a lesbian right?".
theres also so much slutshaming and slurs like "whore", and objectifying women, like beckett calling jax's mum "big titties".
dnf @ 16%
honest to god reads like kevin keller's diary—this is really very bad. a big problem is the prose itself, which is blunt and awkward. some quotes!
→ "And since Mom left us, that's what I am to Dad—the last bit of glue holding his shattered world together."
→ "He assumes I'm a whore just because I'm queer, which is really gaycist of him."
→ "Still, I press onward, like my virginity is some kind of sex crazed homing pigeon with OCD."
→ [THIS QUOTE IS FROM ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTER'S MOMS TO HER SON] "Hell, you've probably seen more vagina in three years of high school than I've seen in my entire adult life. But if you're attracted to guys as well, what's the problem? You just doubled your odds of getting laid."
the thing that cemented that i do not want to finish this book was the misogyny, which primarily comes from beckett. he judges his best friend for not doing her hair or wearing makeup. he refers to his dad's girlfriend as "the thing" and "Big Titties." he also slutshames women constantly, calling his dad's girlfriend a "20 dollar whore" and saying about a popular girl in school, "Poor thing probably has a medical condition that causes her legs to spread apart whenever she comes in direct contact with testosterone. I think it's called 'whoreacea.'" all of the quotes in this review come from the first 16% of the book.
also very tiresome the way characters define being gay/lesbian as liking penis/vagina. i know this is supposed to be about horny teens, but my god these characters think about sex WAY too much.
honest to god reads like kevin keller's diary—this is really very bad. a big problem is the prose itself, which is blunt and awkward. some quotes!
→ "And since Mom left us, that's what I am to Dad—the last bit of glue holding his shattered world together."
→ "He assumes I'm a whore just because I'm queer, which is really gaycist of him."
→ "Still, I press onward, like my virginity is some kind of sex crazed homing pigeon with OCD."
→ [THIS QUOTE IS FROM ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTER'S MOMS TO HER SON] "Hell, you've probably seen more vagina in three years of high school than I've seen in my entire adult life. But if you're attracted to guys as well, what's the problem? You just doubled your odds of getting laid."
the thing that cemented that i do not want to finish this book was the misogyny, which primarily comes from beckett. he judges his best friend for not doing her hair or wearing makeup. he refers to his dad's girlfriend as "the thing" and "Big Titties." he also slutshames women constantly, calling his dad's girlfriend a "20 dollar whore" and saying about a popular girl in school, "Poor thing probably has a medical condition that causes her legs to spread apart whenever she comes in direct contact with testosterone. I think it's called 'whoreacea.'" all of the quotes in this review come from the first 16% of the book.
also very tiresome the way characters define being gay/lesbian as liking penis/vagina. i know this is supposed to be about horny teens, but my god these characters think about sex WAY too much.
I read an essay by the author where he talked about the tendency of LGBT YA books to steer away from sex and their protagonists are typically, for lack of a better term, "straightpassing", which I definitely agree with so I thought this book would be a pretty good read. Wrong call.
In the first chapter, apart from casual cissexism and misogyny among other things, there's like a page at the very end of it with a woman who is referred to as "a thing" the whole time and "a whore" a couple times throughout it. That pretty much did it for me to be honest, but I still read the whole book.
Misogyny, cissexism, biphobia, transphobia, racism; you name it, this book probably has it.
The two protagonists are just not likable. Beckett in general is such a hypocritical character. He doesn't like when Jax's mom uses the t slur but is regularly transphobic and never shows any sign of learning not to be. You're supposed to think he cares about women but is constantly incredibly misogynistic towards those he doesn't like. Tracee especially is a constant target of his for the sole reason that she's dating his dad and he really only stops thinking of her as a whore, or "Big Tits" as he calls her in his head, when he starts getting friendly with her son. The fact that Beckett uses a detail from Jax's abusive childhood (that was clearly personal because Jax multiple times lied about not remembering) to make Jax's mother think that his father was abusing him did not help him. Now is this all probably a realistic portrayal of a cis white gay teen? Yeah, but there's just so much bigotry I can look past under that excuse.
Jax is maybe not as awful from what we get on his point of view, but he also fakes a hate crime to scare his mom which is wildly inconsiderate, to say the least, of someone who isn't straight himself.
Also, if the entirety of all that wasn't enough, this book falls into the "closeted gays are the real homophobes" trope by having Beckett shut down the religious protesters of the LGBT prom by exposing their leading pastor for being gay. I'm not sure what that scene was trying to achieve, other than maybe making us laugh at the religious fools who had to leave their hateful protest with their tails between their legs because the pastor turned out to be exactly what he preached against. I don't think I laughed, though.
I'm sure the intentions of this book were good, and I can't say I don't appreciate it for its honest portrayal of gay teenage sexuality, but those few positive details were heavily overshadowed by its flaws.
A few choice quotes:
"... I know my mom is way gay enough that she’ll start missing the vag pretty soon."
I squint at him and drop the pizza crust on my tray. "Okay, ew. I’m eating here."
“I don’t get it. Mom said she’s always been with women. What changed? How can you just switch like that?”
JoJo chuckles. “Well, in my experience, it’s not that cut-and-dry with women. Not in every case, mind you. I’m a gold star lesbian and always will be."
"Gay stink eye is much worse than white girl stink eye. It’s actually more akin to black girl neck roll."
"Or maybe I feel sorry for her, because I know that her wife walked out on her and is now screwing my dad. To be cheated on is one thing, but to be cheated on with someone sporting body parts you can’t fully compete with must be a real kick in the cooch."
"You do know my mom is a lesbian, right?” .... "He takes a deep breath and cocks his head at me. “Well, I don’t think it’s that simple, Jax. I’ve always believed that women are more evolved than men in some ways.”"
"And no, he just can’t decide if he wants dick or pussy, and I’m not playing that game."
In the first chapter, apart from casual cissexism and misogyny among other things, there's like a page at the very end of it with a woman who is referred to as "a thing" the whole time and "a whore" a couple times throughout it. That pretty much did it for me to be honest, but I still read the whole book.
Misogyny, cissexism, biphobia, transphobia, racism; you name it, this book probably has it.
The two protagonists are just not likable. Beckett in general is such a hypocritical character. He doesn't like when Jax's mom uses the t slur but is regularly transphobic and never shows any sign of learning not to be. You're supposed to think he cares about women but is constantly incredibly misogynistic towards those he doesn't like. Tracee especially is a constant target of his for the sole reason that she's dating his dad and he really only stops thinking of her as a whore, or "Big Tits" as he calls her in his head, when he starts getting friendly with her son. The fact that Beckett uses a detail from Jax's abusive childhood (that was clearly personal because Jax multiple times lied about not remembering) to make Jax's mother think that his father was abusing him did not help him. Now is this all probably a realistic portrayal of a cis white gay teen? Yeah, but there's just so much bigotry I can look past under that excuse.
Jax is maybe not as awful from what we get on his point of view, but he also fakes a hate crime to scare his mom which is wildly inconsiderate, to say the least, of someone who isn't straight himself.
Also, if the entirety of all that wasn't enough, this book falls into the "closeted gays are the real homophobes" trope by having Beckett shut down the religious protesters of the LGBT prom by exposing their leading pastor for being gay. I'm not sure what that scene was trying to achieve, other than maybe making us laugh at the religious fools who had to leave their hateful protest with their tails between their legs because the pastor turned out to be exactly what he preached against. I don't think I laughed, though.
I'm sure the intentions of this book were good, and I can't say I don't appreciate it for its honest portrayal of gay teenage sexuality, but those few positive details were heavily overshadowed by its flaws.
A few choice quotes:
"... I know my mom is way gay enough that she’ll start missing the vag pretty soon."
I squint at him and drop the pizza crust on my tray. "Okay, ew. I’m eating here."
“I don’t get it. Mom said she’s always been with women. What changed? How can you just switch like that?”
JoJo chuckles. “Well, in my experience, it’s not that cut-and-dry with women. Not in every case, mind you. I’m a gold star lesbian and always will be."
"Gay stink eye is much worse than white girl stink eye. It’s actually more akin to black girl neck roll."
"Or maybe I feel sorry for her, because I know that her wife walked out on her and is now screwing my dad. To be cheated on is one thing, but to be cheated on with someone sporting body parts you can’t fully compete with must be a real kick in the cooch."
"You do know my mom is a lesbian, right?” .... "He takes a deep breath and cocks his head at me. “Well, I don’t think it’s that simple, Jax. I’ve always believed that women are more evolved than men in some ways.”"
"And no, he just can’t decide if he wants dick or pussy, and I’m not playing that game."
This LGBTQ rom com was just what I needed after a few so-so reads! Beck and Jax were very enjoyable as narrators and I loved their enemies to lovers relationship. Beck was hilarious with his comment and side notes to himself, I laughed out loud multiple times. Jax, as the popular QB trying to come to terms with his sexuality, was charming and brought the emotional feels. I liked the addition of him having two mothers and his past being added to the character, it helped to give him more depth. If you’re looking for cute love story that’s both funny and moving definitely pick this up!
This was a fun read! I would really recommend this audiobook particularly! Yes, it's partly because Michael Crouch is one of my favourite narrators, but it's also great regardless. This book flew by and I had a fun time. It was an interesting, cringe, dramatic journey. I don't think I would reread it and I think I would struggle reading it physically. There were definitely some classic tropes in here and whilst the character descriptions of Beck and Jax seem quite generic, they both have more depth than expected.
Jax's journey was a standout part of the book. Their slow understanding of their feelings and the evaluation of their life experiences were so raw and realistic. I know some people were concerned about the representation of bisexuality, but I found it to be a faithful and emotional view on Jax's sexuality. It definitely shows some examples of internalised homophobia but it was intentional and a very important aspect of the book. I also loved the best friend but her descriptions and the things Beckett put her through were very horrific at times. Very intense slut-shaming and fat-shaming which was very disappointing and harmful, which was the main unresolved issue in the book.
I do definitely agree that it's very much a White Gay book. It relied on some uncomfortable character descriptions and stereotypes, and whilst it did confront some of these issues, many were overlooked or unnecessary.
Jax's journey was a standout part of the book. Their slow understanding of their feelings and the evaluation of their life experiences were so raw and realistic. I know some people were concerned about the representation of bisexuality, but I found it to be a faithful and emotional view on Jax's sexuality. It definitely shows some examples of internalised homophobia but it was intentional and a very important aspect of the book. I also loved the best friend but her descriptions and the things Beckett put her through were very horrific at times. Very intense slut-shaming and fat-shaming which was very disappointing and harmful, which was the main unresolved issue in the book.
I do definitely agree that it's very much a White Gay book. It relied on some uncomfortable character descriptions and stereotypes, and whilst it did confront some of these issues, many were overlooked or unnecessary.
good romance and funny story but too many problematic things happened that werent properly addressed in the story
it’s a gay enemies to friends to lovers romance novel with a happy ending - something i’m a sucker for. it’s not a life changing read but it’s something light and fun to read. when straight romances are a dime a dozen it’s refreshing to read a book about a gay relationship. yes, the book has its problems and some passages i cringed while reading, but overall i didn’t hate it.
This book is absolutely, irredeemably terrible. Absolutely unsalvageable. Discounting all the biphobia, fatphobia and misogyny (not that you should, but since almost everyone agrees, I'll save my breath), the writing is pathetic. It reads like it was written by a college kid, fuelled by energy drinks and coffee, with just about 20 minutes left to the deadline. It is rushed, improperly paced, and altogether far too stereotyped to provide any real substance. The book was a massive waste of my time.