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thebookishskies 's review for:
The Passing Playbook
by Isaac Fitzsimons
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
what i liked
- i'm always happy to see supportive sports teams and especially teams who are welcoming of their queer team mates. unfortunately, we all know that in *real life* this doesn't happen as often and sports can be a really homophobic space, but the passing playbook features a team who's supportive & very kind which i loved.
- i liked that spencer was a character that knew how to stand up for himself when things became hard. i liked how the book showed through his character how hard it can be to carry this weight of "coming out" and how it sucks that this is something that only queer people have to think about.
- the romance was adorable, even if they don't start liking each other at all, the transition was well done.
what i disliked
- i really did not like spencer's parents. not because they were terrible parents, in fact, they were pretty nice, but i think we saw too much of them and i don't like to read about parents in YA in general lol.
- i also found the autism rep to be a bit... idk. spencer's little brother is autistic and i think the way spencer acted around him/talked about him during some scenes was fairly questionable.
- for a book that really wanted to hammer down the idea that coming out should be about when you feel safe and supported to do so, especially as a teenager, it was weird how that seemed to only apply to spencer. justice was clearly *not* in a safe space, as his parents were very religious and he did rely on them to pay for his education, and yet he does come out? maybe if there was more of a discussion on how, even if he could identify that he wasn't in an ideal situation, he still felt this need to be open, i would've found it more believable. but we're just supposed to accept that justice is out even though his family is not supportive at all, but it's okay, because he's away from them at a boarding school. lol, okay?
- i'm always happy to see supportive sports teams and especially teams who are welcoming of their queer team mates. unfortunately, we all know that in *real life* this doesn't happen as often and sports can be a really homophobic space, but the passing playbook features a team who's supportive & very kind which i loved.
- i liked that spencer was a character that knew how to stand up for himself when things became hard. i liked how the book showed through his character how hard it can be to carry this weight of "coming out" and how it sucks that this is something that only queer people have to think about.
- the romance was adorable, even if they don't start liking each other at all, the transition was well done.
what i disliked
- i really did not like spencer's parents. not because they were terrible parents, in fact, they were pretty nice, but i think we saw too much of them and i don't like to read about parents in YA in general lol.
- i also found the autism rep to be a bit... idk. spencer's little brother is autistic and i think the way spencer acted around him/talked about him during some scenes was fairly questionable.