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riecaloca's review
1.5
The trans rep was cool, but the racism was not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
garbutch's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Classism, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Body shaming, and Transphobia
Moderate: Medical content, Transphobia, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, and Sexual violence
glorytowers05's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Racism, Vomit, Cursing, Dysphoria, Alcohol, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
katrinaeames's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This book is emotional and plot-driven. It is a book with characters that actually feel like teenagers - teenagers who are imperfect humans, occasionally self-centered, self-righteous, and irritating. People who make mistakes even when they're trying their best.
That said, it is a white queer book. Aside from our love interest, the non-white characters don't really have as much depth as the white characters. And although I am happy to bash the anti-Asian racism that is the entire premise of Thourghly Modern Millie any day of the week, alluding to the racism of the show that will likely still have thousands of high school productions this year is not a stand-in for actually looking at the way race is impacting the people in the narrative here. This novel can look at the glaring and obvious examples of racism, but it doesn't handle the topic of race with any real nuance.
I would also say as someone who works in politics - the dream of a high schooler to move to DC, become a member of congress, and change the world is relatable; but the constant dismissal of other theories of change, of work that makes a difference in our communities everyday, and the way that Finch's stubbornness caused them to look down on doing actual political work was disappointing at best. It presents a narrative that I think harms teenagers' ability to see themselves taking action.
I think this is a book that tries. It could have been better. At its core this is a friends-to-lovers YA romance that feels a bit rushed in places. But the first-person POV let's us really dig into the feelings and complicated relationships of a support system that exists even when you don't feel like you have a lot of support.
That said, it is a white queer book. Aside from our love interest, the non-white characters don't really have as much depth as the white characters. And although I am happy to bash the anti-Asian racism that is the entire premise of Thourghly Modern Millie any day of the week, alluding to the racism of the show that will likely still have thousands of high school productions this year is not a stand-in for actually looking at the way race is impacting the people in the narrative here. This novel can look at the glaring and obvious examples of racism, but it doesn't handle the topic of race with any real nuance.
I would also say as someone who works in politics - the dream of a high schooler to move to DC, become a member of congress, and change the world is relatable; but the constant dismissal of other theories of change, of work that makes a difference in our communities everyday, and the way that Finch's stubbornness caused them to look down on doing actual political work was disappointing at best. It presents a narrative that I think harms teenagers' ability to see themselves taking action.
I think this is a book that tries. It could have been better. At its core this is a friends-to-lovers YA romance that feels a bit rushed in places. But the first-person POV let's us really dig into the feelings and complicated relationships of a support system that exists even when you don't feel like you have a lot of support.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria and Transphobia
Moderate: Racism, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Biphobia
Minor: Vomit
kahi_cow's review
funny
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Transphobia, and Homophobia
maxwell7373's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I picked this book up randomly at a book store and had hoped for this to be good rep, but unfortunately it was a mess for me. The main character is very flawed and often is rude or acts like he knows better than others. I had hoped this would be brought up as a big negative of his actions, but nope. His mistakes and flaws really end up being glazed over, and he doesn’t learn much at the end. Most of the characters were a stereotype of some sort, some more in your face than others. The trans aspect was quite relatable for me, but the rest of it was disappointing and harmful. There is some good in there, but it’s grossly outweighed by the constant undertones of racial stereotypes and general (snootiness? self righteousness?) of the main character. I’m planning on painting over the book and turning it into a decorative box -because I don’t like wasting- and really, really don’t recommend it to anyone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Sexual content, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Cursing, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Outing
greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia
Moderate: Mental illness, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, and Racism
daycia's review
emotional
tense
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? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Transphobia, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia and Vomit
anniereads221's review
1.0
Dont read this
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Racial slurs, Racism, Hate crime, Outing, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Violence, and Vomit
_micah_'s review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
Peppered with a cultural reference a page, this was a perfectly nice story about a poor white trans teenage boy in Olympia coming to terms with who he is, falling in love and demanding equal rights through his debate experience. It's a palatable book for anyone trying to understand what kinds of experiences trans teens might be having today.
Perfectly nice in craft: it didn't blow my mind, but everything was fine. Decent plot, the voice picked up after the inciting incident, decent dialogue, so-so characters (weird to see Kevin Gnapoor from Mean Girls is still around in the character Nasir) I wish there was more setting (I haven't seen white dreads in Oly in ages, but what do I know), but really nice use of PoV (ie a character's knowledge base only being that of a news-obsessed teen), big props for use of texting to tell story and convey voice.
Onto themes: As someone who came up as a radical queer, I personally found the politics somewhat strange. Outside of a pretty major misunderstanding of what 'mutual aid' means (hint: it isn't unidirectionally giving money to someone, that's actually charity) it felt genuinely hopeful in American politics, which strikes me as an assimilationist take. In addition was a page or two about Obama = mostly good, Trump=all bad, with only a few paragraphs dedicated to their mutual suckage, and no breakdown of why someone would assume 'Obama=good' in the first place. No one with power that cannot be immediately revoked is to be trusted, little babies!
In addition, as a young queer I would have found the parsing of hetero vs. homo in trans identities contrived, I sort of despise the current need for people to put thirty labels on themselves. Maybe you want to sleep with people, if it's mutual follow it up and like, don't worry about it otherwise; a label doesn't change capacity for kindness or ability to rage in the street. That said, a lot of things about this title feel autobiographical, and I definitely can't speak first-hand to the HRT FTM teen experience, so maybe it's mirroring that.
Really, I don't want to come off too harshly towards fellow queer and writers (wtf is up with us being harder on each other than those that would hurt us?) So hi, this book is not the best but not the worst. Overall it's very sweet, if very, very liberal. I would definitely recommend this book to any librarian or reader looking for some medium-light QuILTBAG+ YA reads.
Edit: lol I had no idea the hatred this writer stirred up. Just looked at some of the Thomas drama on tumblr and wow. It still feels like the worst parts of middle school on that platform.
Perfectly nice in craft: it didn't blow my mind, but everything was fine. Decent plot, the voice picked up after the inciting incident, decent dialogue, so-so characters (weird to see Kevin Gnapoor from Mean Girls is still around in the character Nasir) I wish there was more setting (I haven't seen white dreads in Oly in ages, but what do I know), but really nice use of PoV (ie a character's knowledge base only being that of a news-obsessed teen), big props for use of texting to tell story and convey voice.
Onto themes: As someone who came up as a radical queer, I personally found the politics somewhat strange. Outside of a pretty major misunderstanding of what 'mutual aid' means (hint: it isn't unidirectionally giving money to someone, that's actually charity) it felt genuinely hopeful in American politics, which strikes me as an assimilationist take. In addition was a page or two about Obama = mostly good, Trump=all bad, with only a few paragraphs dedicated to their mutual suckage, and no breakdown of why someone would assume 'Obama=good' in the first place. No one with power that cannot be immediately revoked is to be trusted, little babies!
In addition, as a young queer I would have found the parsing of hetero vs. homo in trans identities contrived, I sort of despise the current need for people to put thirty labels on themselves. Maybe you want to sleep with people, if it's mutual follow it up and like, don't worry about it otherwise; a label doesn't change capacity for kindness or ability to rage in the street. That said, a lot of things about this title feel autobiographical, and I definitely can't speak first-hand to the HRT FTM teen experience, so maybe it's mirroring that.
Really, I don't want to come off too harshly towards fellow queer and writers (wtf is up with us being harder on each other than those that would hurt us?) So hi, this book is not the best but not the worst. Overall it's very sweet, if very, very liberal. I would definitely recommend this book to any librarian or reader looking for some medium-light QuILTBAG+ YA reads.
Edit: lol I had no idea the hatred this writer stirred up. Just looked at some of the Thomas drama on tumblr and wow. It still feels like the worst parts of middle school on that platform.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism