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valereads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was really excited for this book so I’m sad to say it ended up being a disappointment.
I will start off with the positives. This book had a strong start. It was fast-paced and I liked the writing style. I really liked Spencer’s character at first and it’s always good to see some well-written trans characters in books.
That said I had some significant problems with this book. Firstly the portrayal of Spencer’s autistic brother. I wouldn’t normally refer to him like that but that’s all he was to the narrative: Spencer’s autistic brother. He felt like a prop, used first as something for Spencer to feel guilty about (a plot point that never really got resolved) and then to make Spencer look like a good person for loving him. He was also a flat character; the only things I could tell you about him are that he’s autistic, he likes animals and he has an ipad he takes everywhere. If he had more character development and relevance in the narrative he could have been good representation but as an autistic reader I’d rather he wasn’t included than be portrayed like this. It wouldn’t make any difference to the overall story if he was left out entirely.
My next issue is something of a sensitive subject: religious bigotry, abuse and victim-blaming. If you haven’t grown up surrounded by religious bigotry and with abusive and controlling parents you may not understand the issue I have here. As someone with personal experience with these things I was very uncomfortable with the way Justice’s family was portrayed and Spencer’s reaction to them. Justice comes from a conservative family who are part of a cult-like right-wing Church. His father is emotionally abusive and controlling. Spencer breaks up with Justice for not standing up to his abusers for their homophobic bigotry and is depicted as in the right.
Thousands of queer people are subjected to conversion therapy, abuse and even exorcisms by abusive family members for coming out. Justice is a 15/16 year old kid. Expecting him to stand up to his family and Church is victim-blaming and the narrative shows little empathy to the situation Justice, and many very real queer young people, find themselves in.
In addition to these things there were some amateur writing mistakes in this book that became more and more grating to me as it went on. I may have been able to ignore these issues if it weren’t for the other issues I had with the book.
I’m sorry to say that I found this book to be a disappointment. I won’t tell anybody not to read it if they’re still interested but it gets a no from me.
I was really excited for this book so I’m sad to say it ended up being a disappointment.
I will start off with the positives. This book had a strong start. It was fast-paced and I liked the writing style. I really liked Spencer’s character at first and it’s always good to see some well-written trans characters in books.
That said I had some significant problems with this book. Firstly the portrayal of Spencer’s autistic brother. I wouldn’t normally refer to him like that but that’s all he was to the narrative: Spencer’s autistic brother. He felt like a prop, used first as something for Spencer to feel guilty about (a plot point that never really got resolved) and then to make Spencer look like a good person for loving him. He was also a flat character; the only things I could tell you about him are that he’s autistic, he likes animals and he has an ipad he takes everywhere. If he had more character development and relevance in the narrative he could have been good representation but as an autistic reader I’d rather he wasn’t included than be portrayed like this. It wouldn’t make any difference to the overall story if he was left out entirely.
My next issue is something of a sensitive subject: religious bigotry, abuse and victim-blaming. If you haven’t grown up surrounded by religious bigotry and with abusive and controlling parents you may not understand the issue I have here. As someone with personal experience with these things I was very uncomfortable with the way Justice’s family was portrayed and Spencer’s reaction to them. Justice comes from a conservative family who are part of a cult-like right-wing Church. His father is emotionally abusive and controlling. Spencer breaks up with Justice for not standing up to his abusers for their homophobic bigotry and is depicted as in the right.
Thousands of queer people are subjected to conversion therapy, abuse and even exorcisms by abusive family members for coming out. Justice is a 15/16 year old kid. Expecting him to stand up to his family and Church is victim-blaming and the narrative shows little empathy to the situation Justice, and many very real queer young people, find themselves in.
In addition to these things there were some amateur writing mistakes in this book that became more and more grating to me as it went on. I may have been able to ignore these issues if it weren’t for the other issues I had with the book.
I’m sorry to say that I found this book to be a disappointment. I won’t tell anybody not to read it if they’re still interested but it gets a no from me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia
Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Transphobia
Minor: Ableism, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
Victim blaminggardenstparker's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
I thought this book was cute but a bit fluffy ("fluff" in the sense of filler, not in the fanfic sense). The conflict presented in the synopsis, Spencer not being allowed to play because of his birth certificate, is first mentioned about 63% of the way in so the pacing is kind of weird. I liked Spencer and Justice a lot, they weren't perfect and they got to have their flaws but they never really did things out of outright malice (which is a difference some people can't seem to grasp). I wish we got to know them a bit better, it's good that being trans wasn't Spencer's whole personality but he didn't seem to have a lot of specific traits other than what was necessary to keep the story going (ex. "private," "brave"). The same can be said for Justice. One thing I didn't really get was when Spencer shows up to an event at Justice's homophobic church, which he knows is homophobic, and that Justice's homophobic parents force Justice to attend, and then is shocked at the church being homophobic and gets angry at Justice about it . There's a minor plot point about Spencer having another trans friend with a moderately large internet following that feels taken straight from Symptoms of Being Human and I Wish You All the Best. On the other hand, maybe it's a good sign for representation that trans YA books are developing their own tropes and cliches that aren't directly related to trauma. This is a nitpick but in some of the soccer scenes a lot of British terms are used (boots and pitch instead of cleats and field). It doesn't really take away from the story, it's just a thing I noticed. Spencer's younger brother is autistic and I loved how he was a full character with an arc instead of just something to complicate Spencer's home life (the bar is kind of on the ground for this one). Speaking of bars being on the ground, Spencer doesn't get sexually assaulted! Lastly, having finished the book I can appreciate how it wasn't super didactic (Spencer verbally explains his identity and experiences to other characters a couple of times but there aren't any page-long breaks in narration to explain things to the audience as though they've never heard of trans people before). Overall, it's cute, it's pretty light, I think it's a good read for early-high school age kids who want books with trans characters that aren't treated like aliens.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Religious bigotry
Minor: Mass/school shootings and Transphobia
mitzybitzyspider's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
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? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia and Religious bigotry
Minor: Deadnaming and Mass/school shootings
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