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smartie_chan's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia
Minor: Mass/school shootings and Drug use
victinerary's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
My first finish for the #TransRightsReadathon 2023: what a beautiful start!
This book addresses so much. First and foremost we get a look inside the mind of Spencer, a trans high school soccer star, as he navigates a new school, complicated family life, and his first crush. Those would be a lot of things to deal with for any kid... but Spencer also has to deal with the daily challenges of existing in a society that can be everything from dismissive to downright dangerous for a boy like him.
We get to see daily choices and actions made by Spencer, his family, and his friends and how differently the reality of those choices and actions effect Spencer. Everything from being able to pass as a boy at school to the challenges of navigating gendered bathrooms and locker rooms, it was definitely eye opening to see the thought behind so many situations most people would just take for granted as being easy.
While this could have just been a book about a trans kid navigating "normal" high school challenges (which would be difficult enough!), the author did a beautiful job of adding so many layers to Spencer's story to help illustrate the additional multi-faceted challenges that so many trans kids face. From growing up in a multi-racial household to having a sibling on the autistic spectrum, we learn how difficult and sometimes invalidating it can feel to interact with loved ones, even in an "accepting" family.
Then we meet Justice, Spencer's crush and fellow soccer teammate. They bond over a shared love of the beautiful game, but Justice comes from a very conservative, religious family who see the LGBT community as sinful. Through Justice and interactions with his family and church, we see how difficult it is for Spencer to separate Justice and his (more open-minded) beliefs from the hateful rhetoric most of his family believes in. Justice is on his own journey of self discovery and acceptance, and the connection between these two is beautiful, and also important to their individual and collective growth.
But don't worry, this isn't all intense emotional journey stuff. Shout out to great side characters like the soccer coach, the school GSA (gay-straight alliance) club, Spencer's rocker best friend, and of course, the boys on the soccer team. They all provide some endearing scenes, and the comic relief.
I hope this book can find it's way into the hands of trans and other lgbt youth across the country because it gives a voice, and a validation, to so many diverse aspects of the queer experience and how challenging it can be, especially in your teenage years. This is a beautiful story about community, love, and acceptance overcoming bigotry. I can't recommend it enough.
Some notes & TWs:
❤️ 🏳️⚧️ Trans MC
🧡 Gay MC
💛 Multi-racial family
💚 Autism rep (family member)
💙 Non-binary side character
💜 Little bit of side character bisexual rep
- TW: un-accepting church culture
- TW: drug use & death (discussion of past event / not current characters)
My first finish for the #TransRightsReadathon 2023: what a beautiful start!
This book addresses so much. First and foremost we get a look inside the mind of Spencer, a trans high school soccer star, as he navigates a new school, complicated family life, and his first crush. Those would be a lot of things to deal with for any kid... but Spencer also has to deal with the daily challenges of existing in a society that can be everything from dismissive to downright dangerous for a boy like him.
We get to see daily choices and actions made by Spencer, his family, and his friends and how differently the reality of those choices and actions effect Spencer. Everything from being able to pass as a boy at school to the challenges of navigating gendered bathrooms and locker rooms, it was definitely eye opening to see the thought behind so many situations most people would just take for granted as being easy.
While this could have just been a book about a trans kid navigating "normal" high school challenges (which would be difficult enough!), the author did a beautiful job of adding so many layers to Spencer's story to help illustrate the additional multi-faceted challenges that so many trans kids face. From growing up in a multi-racial household to having a sibling on the autistic spectrum, we learn how difficult and sometimes invalidating it can feel to interact with loved ones, even in an "accepting" family.
Then we meet Justice, Spencer's crush and fellow soccer teammate. They bond over a shared love of the beautiful game, but Justice comes from a very conservative, religious family who see the LGBT community as sinful. Through Justice and interactions with his family and church, we see how difficult it is for Spencer to separate Justice and his (more open-minded) beliefs from the hateful rhetoric most of his family believes in. Justice is on his own journey of self discovery and acceptance, and the connection between these two is beautiful, and also important to their individual and collective growth.
But don't worry, this isn't all intense emotional journey stuff. Shout out to great side characters like the soccer coach, the school GSA (gay-straight alliance) club, Spencer's rocker best friend, and of course, the boys on the soccer team. They all provide some endearing scenes, and the comic relief.
I hope this book can find it's way into the hands of trans and other lgbt youth across the country because it gives a voice, and a validation, to so many diverse aspects of the queer experience and how challenging it can be, especially in your teenage years. This is a beautiful story about community, love, and acceptance overcoming bigotry. I can't recommend it enough.
Some notes & TWs:
❤️ 🏳️⚧️ Trans MC
🧡 Gay MC
💛 Multi-racial family
💚 Autism rep (family member)
💙 Non-binary side character
💜 Little bit of side character bisexual rep
- TW: un-accepting church culture
- TW: drug use & death (discussion of past event / not current characters)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry
Minor: Death, Deadnaming, and Drug use
Deadnaming - only past descriptions of it happening, not current Drug use / death - character related to a side character, story told about them but the events do not happen in the book.mxbluet18's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
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? No
5.0
Trigger warnings for The Passing Playbook include: transphobia, bullying, religious propaganda, homophobia and misgendering.
☆
☆
This book has so many important elements to it. It had both open and stealth trans characters, as well as a non-binary character, and gay and bisexual characters.
~
It also showed the importanance of acceptance from a community, as well as how shit passive acceptance actually is for a community. The QSA as well as the principal of the school were accepting until it was inconvenient for them, and it would take more work to make a change. Acceptance shouldn't be conditional, or until it makes problems or makes it challenging.
~
I loved that it showed more than one perspective to the trans experience. How being open can be a benefit, not just for that person but for all the trans people who might come after them. And I liked that it openly said that non-binary people deserve to be able to use the bathroom, and that gender neutral bathrooms benefit lots of people, not just non-binary people.
~
The scene for Transgender Day of Remembrance was really touching for me. The idea of one person saying their names and it echoing around until everyone was saying it felt really special. And it also felt fitting that it started pouring rain as the names were being read out, and it stopping when they were done.
☆
☆
This book has so many important elements to it. It had both open and stealth trans characters, as well as a non-binary character, and gay and bisexual characters.
~
It also showed the importanance of acceptance from a community, as well as how shit passive acceptance actually is for a community. The QSA as well as the principal of the school were accepting until it was inconvenient for them, and it would take more work to make a change. Acceptance shouldn't be conditional, or until it makes problems or makes it challenging.
~
I loved that it showed more than one perspective to the trans experience. How being open can be a benefit, not just for that person but for all the trans people who might come after them. And I liked that it openly said that non-binary people deserve to be able to use the bathroom, and that gender neutral bathrooms benefit lots of people, not just non-binary people.
~
The scene for Transgender Day of Remembrance was really touching for me. The idea of one person saying their names and it echoing around until everyone was saying it felt really special. And it also felt fitting that it started pouring rain as the names were being read out, and it stopping when they were done.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Deadnaming, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, and Homophobia
Minor: Drug use and Death
deadgirlwalking23's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Deadnaming and Drug use
criticalgayze's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I read this in preparation for a discussion on the 2022 Lambda award nominees, and I came away really enjoying my reading experience. This one really highlights the importance for marginalized people to be on the forefront of telling their stories because there's an intense specificity in the detail of Spencer's interior monologue about homosexuality and self and external transgender body politicking.
This does suffer from some of the "stereotypical" attacks lobbed at "Young Adult" literature, which I believe are just the key faults of any poorly edited book. First, it has a big problem with being overstuffed on points. First, I think focusing on both transgender athleticism and homosexual dating as a transgender person is a lot in one book. This likely should have been developed as a series, akin to the Darius books by Adib Khorram, where each issue could be tackled in its own text.Further, I think that including a closeted dating relationship that includes intense religious bigotry being faced by the love interest was too much for a book that was really a single-perspective story. Fitzsimmons does not give the time here to truly flesh that out, and it ends up with this weirdly rushed, "But it's all mostly alright!" ending. For me personally, there are also some issues with hokey canned "I realize I was being small minded" one-liners, and, given the sociopolitical aspects of the story, Justice's acceptance of Spencer's gender identity seemed maybe a touch beyond logic.
But this is all me with my critical English teacher/scholar brain. This one is very cute, and I think could be really helpful and necessary for Queer (particularly trans) youth, especially in our current moment. Put it in your classroom library!
Quotes:
As if Spencer’s thoughts were sending out a homing beacon, Justice looked over in his direction, making eye contact, and Spencer understood what Gimli saw when he gazed upon Galadriel. (30)
Just because the onus always fell on trans and queer people, didn’t mean it should. (262)
Spencer didn’t want to be tolerated. You tolerated a bad smell. You tolerated a leaky faucet until it got fixed. (278)
This does suffer from some of the "stereotypical" attacks lobbed at "Young Adult" literature, which I believe are just the key faults of any poorly edited book. First, it has a big problem with being overstuffed on points. First, I think focusing on both transgender athleticism and homosexual dating as a transgender person is a lot in one book. This likely should have been developed as a series, akin to the Darius books by Adib Khorram, where each issue could be tackled in its own text.
But this is all me with my critical English teacher/scholar brain. This one is very cute, and I think could be really helpful and necessary for Queer (particularly trans) youth, especially in our current moment. Put it in your classroom library!
Quotes:
As if Spencer’s thoughts were sending out a homing beacon, Justice looked over in his direction, making eye contact, and Spencer understood what Gimli saw when he gazed upon Galadriel. (30)
Just because the onus always fell on trans and queer people, didn’t mean it should. (262)
Spencer didn’t want to be tolerated. You tolerated a bad smell. You tolerated a leaky faucet until it got fixed. (278)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Homophobia
Moderate: Bullying and Religious bigotry
Minor: Drug abuse, Child death, Drug use, and Addiction
bookedandbusy's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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
5.0
I absolutely loved this book! Such a great story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Outing
Minor: Addiction and Drug use
mme_carton's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
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? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Child death and Drug use
xoodlebooks's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Blood, Medical content, Drug abuse, Drug use, Bullying, Addiction, Ableism, and Racism
pucksandpaperbacks's review against another edition
5.0
I was sent an ARC in exchange for an honest review through Net Galley courtesy of the publisher.
Content Warnings: Misgendering, transphobia, homophobia, religious fanaticism in the form of religious rhetoric, and mention of death by overdose and child death (not graphic)
The Passing Playbook shows why stories about trans kids playing sports is such an important topic. Spencer, a 14-year-old trans boy goes through obstacles as he joins the soccer team at his new school behind his parent's back. I loved Spencer's character and related a lot to his struggles with his family, and internally. I appreciated the author including Spencer being on hormone blockers and giving an educational moment for readers to learn more about this life-changing medicine. Also, I really admired the inclusion of other queer, trans, and gender non-conforming characters as the story also focuses on the importance of gender-neutral bathrooms.
Aiden was an excellent character for Spencer and I LOVED that Aiden gave him advice and didn't force him to come out.
The Passing Playbook is also about a trans boy just existing with his friends and having a romance with another boy. I really enjoyed this debut novel and would recommend it to anyone looking to read more sports stories and trans #ownvoices stories.
Content Warnings: Misgendering, transphobia, homophobia, religious fanaticism in the form of religious rhetoric, and mention of death by overdose and child death (not graphic)
The Passing Playbook shows why stories about trans kids playing sports is such an important topic. Spencer, a 14-year-old trans boy goes through obstacles as he joins the soccer team at his new school behind his parent's back. I loved Spencer's character and related a lot to his struggles with his family, and internally. I appreciated the author including Spencer being on hormone blockers and giving an educational moment for readers to learn more about this life-changing medicine. Also, I really admired the inclusion of other queer, trans, and gender non-conforming characters as the story also focuses on the importance of gender-neutral bathrooms.
Aiden was an excellent character for Spencer and I LOVED that Aiden gave him advice and didn't force him to come out.
The Passing Playbook is also about a trans boy just existing with his friends and having a romance with another boy. I really enjoyed this debut novel and would recommend it to anyone looking to read more sports stories and trans #ownvoices stories.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia
Minor: Drug use and Child death
Misgendering, religious fanaticism in the form of religious rhetoric, and mention of death by overdose and child death (not graphic)
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