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A review by perpetualpages
Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
CWs: Homophobia, some bullying/harassment, religious bigotry, mild slut shaming (challenged), underage drinking and intoxication, some sexual content, accidental outing, and homophobic parent/unsafe living situation
You know me, I hear about a queer YA romance between a track star and a beauty queen and I come running. (No pun intended.) I thought this was a quick, enjoyable, and thoughtful story exploring queer visibility and discovering queerness, and I liked it overall!
The two characters in this story are in two very different places when it comes to understanding and accepting their queer identity. Morgan is the star of the track star and starting over at a new school after the last Catholic school she attended claimed that her queerness violated their student code of conduct, thus putting her running career on indefinite hold. Ruby, on the other hand, is just trying to survive living in a relatively unsafe home by doing beauty pageants like her mom wants and keeping her head down. She's just discovering her bisexuality for the first time when she nearly runs Morgan over with her car and can't stop noticing the new girl after that.
While Morgan is someone who would happily join the Pride Club and wear graphic tees that loudly proclaim her interest in girls, Ruby isn't ready to be out yet, and that difference between them—while not inherently a bad thing—is a source of tension in their relationship. In that way, the story sparks a conversation about queer visibility—whether it's necessary, practical, or safe for every queer person to take that step, and what the upsides and downsides are to being "visible" and out.
I think that's the heart of the story, and it's a really important discussion that challenges readers to rethink the idea that coming out is the end goal for all queer people, or that being out is what makes queer people "real." Ruby doesn't know whether her mom is safe to come out to, and she can't risk coming out and possibly being thrown out of her home when she isn't financially stable and is, in fact, depending on a scholarship from a local pageant as being her ticket out. Morgan is of the opinion that getting involved with a closeted girl will "take her a step back" from where she's fought to be, and she has a very different perspective as someone who's trying to leverage her visibility as a means to effect social change and challenge the homophobic rules of her old school for the sake of other queer athletes coming up behind her.
Over the course of the story, Morgan is learning to be more empathetic for what Ruby is going through, and realizing that coming out is something that can't and shouldn't take precedence over someone's safety and well-being. Even though it takes a long time to get there, I think that's a really important message to internalize, especially for young readers.
While I enjoyed this story thematically, I found myself wanting a bit more from the main relationship. Morgan and Ruby have great chemistry, and I enjoyed watching their relationship develop, especially as they're tested and continue challenging each other, but I was missing that emotional component. As I mentioned, Ruby is just discovering her bisexuality for the first time throughout the story, and so she's very confused to begin with. And to be absolutely clear: that's valid, and there's nothing wrong with that. But not only do Morgan and Ruby get off to a not-so-great start with a near car accident, but then Ruby is sometimes playing games with Morgan and going back to her old friend-with-benefits, just because that's the easier choice. So it's not that Ruby "can't make up her mind," but that there's a lot of animosity between these two characters that they end up working through quickly in order to get to the romance part.
So it was hard for me to feel fully satisfied with their relationship, because they spend a lot of the story hurting each other—both intentionally and unintentionally—and I didn't really feel like they took the time to through those issues by the end. Especially with Morgan being adamant in her belief that she is "owed" Ruby's coming out if they're gonna be together (a belief that she holds for a majority of the book), that's something that changes very quickly and suddenly, with very little of the book left to fully explore that realization and how it would then impact the relationship.
Again, I think the story sparks a very necessary discussion about queerness and coming out, but because of the disconnect between the characters, it was hard for me to fully get behind the romance aspect of it. I don't think romances need to be "happy" to be "good," but I do hope that they're satisfying and mutually beneficial for both characters, and while Morgan and Ruby found a happy medium by the end, I was left wanting a bit more in their connection and in they way they reconciled with their mistakes.
As I said in the beginning, though, I still enjoyed this book! It's a story that explores social justice, queer community, coming out, untraditional family structures, and so much more. It is exactly what it says on the tin as a sapphic romance between a track star and a beauty queen on two very different paths, and I can say I was fully engaged as I read through it. I still enjoy this author and her writing (and I definitely recommend her debut, Hot Dog Girl) and I'm excited to see what she writes next.
You know me, I hear about a queer YA romance between a track star and a beauty queen and I come running. (No pun intended.) I thought this was a quick, enjoyable, and thoughtful story exploring queer visibility and discovering queerness, and I liked it overall!
The two characters in this story are in two very different places when it comes to understanding and accepting their queer identity. Morgan is the star of the track star and starting over at a new school after the last Catholic school she attended claimed that her queerness violated their student code of conduct, thus putting her running career on indefinite hold. Ruby, on the other hand, is just trying to survive living in a relatively unsafe home by doing beauty pageants like her mom wants and keeping her head down. She's just discovering her bisexuality for the first time when she nearly runs Morgan over with her car and can't stop noticing the new girl after that.
While Morgan is someone who would happily join the Pride Club and wear graphic tees that loudly proclaim her interest in girls, Ruby isn't ready to be out yet, and that difference between them—while not inherently a bad thing—is a source of tension in their relationship. In that way, the story sparks a conversation about queer visibility—whether it's necessary, practical, or safe for every queer person to take that step, and what the upsides and downsides are to being "visible" and out.
I think that's the heart of the story, and it's a really important discussion that challenges readers to rethink the idea that coming out is the end goal for all queer people, or that being out is what makes queer people "real." Ruby doesn't know whether her mom is safe to come out to, and she can't risk coming out and possibly being thrown out of her home when she isn't financially stable and is, in fact, depending on a scholarship from a local pageant as being her ticket out. Morgan is of the opinion that getting involved with a closeted girl will "take her a step back" from where she's fought to be, and she has a very different perspective as someone who's trying to leverage her visibility as a means to effect social change and challenge the homophobic rules of her old school for the sake of other queer athletes coming up behind her.
Over the course of the story, Morgan is learning to be more empathetic for what Ruby is going through, and realizing that coming out is something that can't and shouldn't take precedence over someone's safety and well-being. Even though it takes a long time to get there, I think that's a really important message to internalize, especially for young readers.
While I enjoyed this story thematically, I found myself wanting a bit more from the main relationship. Morgan and Ruby have great chemistry, and I enjoyed watching their relationship develop, especially as they're tested and continue challenging each other, but I was missing that emotional component. As I mentioned, Ruby is just discovering her bisexuality for the first time throughout the story, and so she's very confused to begin with. And to be absolutely clear: that's valid, and there's nothing wrong with that. But not only do Morgan and Ruby get off to a not-so-great start with a near car accident, but then Ruby is sometimes playing games with Morgan and going back to her old friend-with-benefits, just because that's the easier choice. So it's not that Ruby "can't make up her mind," but that there's a lot of animosity between these two characters that they end up working through quickly in order to get to the romance part.
So it was hard for me to feel fully satisfied with their relationship, because they spend a lot of the story hurting each other—both intentionally and unintentionally—and I didn't really feel like they took the time to through those issues by the end. Especially with Morgan being adamant in her belief that she is "owed" Ruby's coming out if they're gonna be together (a belief that she holds for a majority of the book), that's something that changes very quickly and suddenly, with very little of the book left to fully explore that realization and how it would then impact the relationship.
Again, I think the story sparks a very necessary discussion about queerness and coming out, but because of the disconnect between the characters, it was hard for me to fully get behind the romance aspect of it. I don't think romances need to be "happy" to be "good," but I do hope that they're satisfying and mutually beneficial for both characters, and while Morgan and Ruby found a happy medium by the end, I was left wanting a bit more in their connection and in they way they reconciled with their mistakes.
As I said in the beginning, though, I still enjoyed this book! It's a story that explores social justice, queer community, coming out, untraditional family structures, and so much more. It is exactly what it says on the tin as a sapphic romance between a track star and a beauty queen on two very different paths, and I can say I was fully engaged as I read through it. I still enjoy this author and her writing (and I definitely recommend her debut, Hot Dog Girl) and I'm excited to see what she writes next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Car accident and Sexual content