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zabeishumanish's review against another edition
I thought the concept of this book was super interesting and something I can relate to. At times my queerness has felt like my entire identity, and I've just wanted to escape that. But the way that has formed drama in this book is just bad. It is a bit odd that our hero decided to shove himself back in the closet, but overall pretty understandable. The first big red flag this book had for me was how horribly his mother reacted to him closeting himself. I just don't think there is a place for that many big parental emotions in what is strictly categorized as a coming of age book. The second red flag was how strongly he clung to the 'jock' label, it was like watching him completely lose his sense of self. Red flag three was how negatively he responded to other queer characters in the book while he was pretending to be straight. The final straw for me what that he chose to lie about being in a relationship and in doing so took advantage of his best friend whose friendship he had already damaged by choosing to move to the boarding school. I'm sure many of these issues would resolve themselves satisfactorily, but I can't imagine them being satisfying enough to be worth the pain of getting there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Outing, and Racism
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Self harm
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