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A review by tamarina
Between Perfect and Real by Ray Stoeve
3.0
There is something missing in this book that I found hard to point out at first, but thinking about it a little more I think what I miss is character depth. The characters all felt kind of flat and unoriginal:
- trans guy who uses theatre to figure out his gender
- helper Black gay friend who likes sewing
- good bisexual ally who likes drawing and OF COURSE ends up with a non-binary person because that's what bisexuality is all about
- disappointing lesbian feminist girlfriend who likes coloring her hair
- asshole jock with disinterested parents
- liberal dad who lacks courage
- conservative mom who wants to live her life through what she thinks is her daughter
- non-binary person with no character whatsoever
- and then Jade, the only person who I found a bit more original as a radical Black trans girl.
I felt like it was all a bit cliche, and the characters felt like puppets instead of real people with complex inner lives.
That said, I did want to read on just to find out how everything would play out. I liked the scene during the play where Dean and the asshole jock kind of seemed to process their shit together, even though it still felt a bit unresolved. And there was a certain sweetness to the book, all those young queer kids figuring stuff out.
I liked Ronnie the most but was also pissed about him being portrayed almost solely in the service of his white friend. The storyline about his parents first not allowing him to attend a creative college and then changing their minds was totally boring and not enough of a stand in for actual character development and storyline.
So yeah. Sweet queer kids, but could have been written so much better in terms of character development.
- trans guy who uses theatre to figure out his gender
- helper Black gay friend who likes sewing
- good bisexual ally who likes drawing and OF COURSE ends up with a non-binary person because that's what bisexuality is all about
- disappointing lesbian feminist girlfriend who likes coloring her hair
- asshole jock with disinterested parents
- liberal dad who lacks courage
- conservative mom who wants to live her life through what she thinks is her daughter
- non-binary person with no character whatsoever
- and then Jade, the only person who I found a bit more original as a radical Black trans girl.
I felt like it was all a bit cliche, and the characters felt like puppets instead of real people with complex inner lives.
That said, I did want to read on just to find out how everything would play out. I liked the scene during the play where Dean and the asshole jock kind of seemed to process their shit together, even though it still felt a bit unresolved. And there was a certain sweetness to the book, all those young queer kids figuring stuff out.
I liked Ronnie the most but was also pissed about him being portrayed almost solely in the service of his white friend. The storyline about his parents first not allowing him to attend a creative college and then changing their minds was totally boring and not enough of a stand in for actual character development and storyline.
So yeah. Sweet queer kids, but could have been written so much better in terms of character development.