Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Sunset Springs

My feelings on this one are kind of... mixed? On one hand, the story was really immersive in many ways. I felt for Charlie, and a lot of the struggles he was facing felt viscerally relatable. His and my packages of intersecting marginalized identities don't fully intersect, but there were so many details here, like tensing up reflectively at the approach of certain people (white cis men, usually), constantly being on the defensive, expecting snide remarks and humiliation, being genuinely, warmly surprised by the barest minimum of basic respect, of getting seen as a human being and not a collection of all the ways I don't fit "the norm"—yeah. Very familiar, albeit for different reasons in different circumstances.

I normally like small town romances, when they're nice quaint small towns where people look out for each other. Sunset Springs isn't a town like that. There's a handful of decent people, but the overall vibe of ruthless bigotry and hostility to anyone who isn't like everyone else reminded me of the place where I grew up. It was honestly a very unpleasant place, and so I couldn't really understand Jack's insistence on loving it and wanting to stay there for good. Maybe it's a personal thing, a personal difference, but... what is a town if it isn't the people? He doesn't like big city life, well, surely there are in-betweens. There are perhaps friendlier, more inclusive places where one could still work with horses but be mostly surrounded by people who won't ostracize you for being queer. Yeah, you can't completely escape bigotry, but honestly, stumbling upon it on occasion and knowing you have a bunch of safe people around you to lean on is way, way better than constantly navigating a cesspool of hate with only a couple of somewhat awkward allies. The reasons Jack gives for staying—wanting to change the town by his presence, to make it better for the next generation—are noble and good, but I'm uncertain about the angle he's taken. Then again, maybe the town doesn't look that wholly terrible through his lens, since he's still a white cis man even though he's queer. But seeing it through Charlie's lens, well, for me it wasn't even a question whether Charlie should leave again given an option!

As for the romance itself, it was nice in parts—I loved the clear communication, for example. But I think the "friends with benefits to boyfriends" dynamic, the way it played out here, didn't quite work for me. I'm too ace for this shit. :D I also felt like some conversations between the leads weren't really natural. The way they were written, it was like the purpose of exploring the characters and their budding relationship was secondary to using them as mouthpieces to explain in detail how racism, homophobia, and transphobia are bad. Don't get me wrong, they are bad! They are awful! And there are moments in this very book that show that way better than these conversations about how they're bad describe it.

I actually liked the somewhat open bittersweet ending, and how it came full circle to Charlie venturing back into the world he'd left back in the first chapter, hopefully intending to do things slightly differently. But there were a couple of moments that were too much on the bitter side, and even though the leads stayed together and all, their future feels a little too nebulous to fit into the genre convention. Maybe there'll be a sequel?

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saphfics's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

3.75

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glens's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

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cooper_reads_books's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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anniereads221's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

5.0

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dalmavatai's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-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

3.5

This was a very sweet and well done short story about two men finding each other and falling in love as they both grapple with prejudice and discrimination in their small town of Sunset Springs.

I loved many things that this book had to say, including modern-day loneliness and experiencing hook-up culture as a trans man of color and facing a lot of transphobia within the LGBTQ+ community (as well). I also loved the discussions around white privilege and especially white privilege as a facet of being a gay cis white man, and how that is vastly different from being a trans man of color, especially in a small town with a lot of traditional and discriminatory attitudes, including racism, homophobia and transphobia. I appreciated that Jackson was receptive to his white privilege being pointed out and acknowledged that he can't possibly understand what it's like to be a Black trans man in Sunset Springs. At the same time, as Charlie points out, it is very sad that the state of the world is such that people of color have to be grateful for the bare minimum from white people, i.e. the acknowledgment of inequality. I don't think this is an issue with white people per se, I think it has more to do with a sociocultural context that divides people into good and bad and does not in the slightest encourage people to confront their own biases, prejudice, privilege, etc.

Another thing I found interesting and heartbreaking at the same time was how Charlie had to gauge at every interaction with a white and straight person whether it was safe to bring up the subject of widespread racism and anti-queerness in society. This I think echoes the experience of many marginalized individuals where if they interact with someone from the dominant group, they have to be careful in bringing up the very fact of their subordination. I think this is super interesting but extremely sad at the same time, and is very emotionally taxing for marginalized persons, especially the multiply marginalized.

Some things didn't work for me perfectly here, firstly I don't tend to give short stories 4 or 5 stars because I don't get particularly invested in the story or the characters in such a short period of time. Secondly, as with Felix Ever After (this author's novel that I read earlier this year), I thought the characters were not as fleshed out as they perhaps could've been, and I felt that their marginalized identities were their only identifiers and not much else. I also find Kacen Callender's commentary in his books to be pretty heavy-handed, it feels very much like the characters are a mouthpiece for the author's own experiences, which is very valuable to read about but I wish it were a bit more subtly delivered.

All in all, though, this was such a lovely and much needed short story that I really enjoyed listening to, and would highly recommend if the synopsis sounds like something you would enjoy!

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bookiecharm's review

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3.0

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literary_lyette's review

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emotional funny inspiring relaxing 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

2.75

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