A review by armontheroad
Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

  • STAY GOLD is a book that has unjustly been reviewed negatively by readers who do not understand transness and the author’s message. I wish this was a case of cis readers being… well, cis, but trans* reviewers have also been reviewing this book poorly even if they have not finished reading it! This is highly reckless of reviewers. STAY GOLD is a book about a trans boy by a trans man. Our stories are already being spammed by transphobes who wish to silence us, so actively adding to that percentage when the book is not harmful or bad trans rep is irresponsible! A lot of the reviews state that both protagonists are unlikeable, which is far, but they are *meant* to be unlikeable at the start of the book so you can watch them deal with their internal biases and correct them by the end of the novel. STAY GOLD is about growth!!
  • Pony is meant to show young trans people that you do not have to internalize the transphobia society has towards you. His journey shows that you can be happy and love being trans, that you’re worthy of good things because of your transness, not despite it. It’s a story of self-acceptance and self-love. You may not like Pony’s internalized transphobia at the start of the book, but the facts are, a lot of young trans people are taught we have to hate ourselves to be trans. It’s something a lot of people have to actively work towards unlearning. Even if Pony didn’t have character development, which he does, we still have Max as another form of great trans rep. It was never Tobly McSmith’s intention to villainize the trans community. That is very apparent in his writing. Why would a trans man attack his own community?  
  • Georgia has gotten a lot of backlash from readers, as well. Lots of people are saying she is blatantly transphobic and calling it ridiculous that she is the love interest. Georgia is never intentionally transphobic to Pony. She is an allo-cishet white girl in Texas. Her knowledge of trans people is very limited and very skewed. One of the reasons she is written is to inform cis readers that there is nothing wrong with them if they are attracted to trans people. McSmith uses Georgia to show that being with a trans person does not change your sexuality, that you can have fulfilling relationships with us, and that you need to actively unlearn your biases to be a good ally. She also goes through a lot of character development. Not once is Georgia malicious towards Pony because of his transness. She is a sweet teenage girl who doesn’t know how to navigate high school after years of pigeonholing herself into the person she thought she had to be to achieve happiness. She says some…. Cis things, but makes the effort to learn, change, and grow from that behavior. Acting as if Tobly McSmith wrote a trans character falling in love with a transphobe is not only harmful misinformation, it also disregards all of the work that McSmith put into creating these multifaceted characters.
  • Let’s get something clear; just because you do not like a trans character does not make the book bad trans representation. We are allowed to tell our stories however we would like. We are allowed to be messy, just like cis people. If you only like our stories when we are palatable enough for you, then you are a bad ally at best and transphobic at worst.
  • Besides the character growth within this novel, I also adore a load of other things. This was a fun, quick read with lots of casual queer representation throughout the novel! I would love a novel all about Max because he is the GOAT. This book is going to change so many lives of young trans readers and that makes me unbelievably happy!! Although I hold this book highly in my heart, I still have my qualms about it. For instance: the fact we learn Pony’s deadname, the fact Pony has to be LITERALLY hate-crimed to be listened to, the outing of a sapphic couple, the Harry Potter references, and the way a few of the characters of color were written made me uncomfortable. I’m not a Black reviewer, so please see how Black reviewers feel about that rep in this book. I am, however, a Latinx reviewer, so I will speak about the fact the only Latinx character (to my knowledge) was mentioned to have a scholarship solely due to her being Latinx and that rubbed me the wrong way. Overall, I can overlook some of these things because I know it makes it more appealing to cis people, and, unfortunately, cis people are in charge of the publishing industry. I don’t blame McSmith for the writing of characters of color. Even the most well-intended white people still cannot perfect writing characters of color and that is okay. I don’t think any of the representation was harmful, and honestly, that is all that matters!
  • To make a long review short, STAY GOLD is 100% worth your time!! Please stop listening to non-trans men about stories about/by/for trans men. 

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