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A review by graveyardpansy
Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith
2.0
this is going to be more of a rant than a review, because I really can’t be bothered to structure my feelings abt this book.
things I liked: Rocky as a character, the cover. that’s about it.
as much as I wanted to love this story, I’m in the camp of trans people who read it and were really, really disappointed. this book needs every trigger warning out there — transphobia, homophobia (esp. lesbophobia), slurs, sexual and physical assault, family abuse, suicidal ideation, etc. And sure, stories can be about that, but this is marketed as like a YA romance?? It’s not really that?? It is ownvoices, so that makes it marginally better, but it’s still extremely binary and trauma-filled. The summary and cover both scream YA romance, coming-of-age, whatever, and this is absolutely not that.
Pony, the main character, wasn’t very likeable for me; he constantly references pick-up artistry which leans into misogyny. He grows a lot as a person through the book, but that’s very much told and not shown. There are no apologies or actions that don’t come off to me as surface-level, and the conclusion is very much ‘he’s dating the popular cishet girl, is accepted by his cishet peers, and gets to medically transition, so now his life is perfect!’
Both Pony (our main character) and Max (pony’s best friend who’s also trans) feel like poorly-constructed stereotypes of trans people. Max is out, proud, and loud, and Pony is stealth. That’s fine, both of those narratives are real and deserve to be told, but their ‘friendship’ is so odd. Pony tells Max about not wanting to be out at his new school, and Max just doesn’t respect that decision, which doesn’t feel like an actual reaction that’d come from anyone so heavily involved in LGBT+ communities. He continues to push him to come out and be a loud advocate, and I understand his view because I’m a loud-and-proud trans person in my own life, but I also understand that many trans people can’t be that because of their own safety and comfort — and that’s okay!
The novel had so many great opportunities for Pony to discuss or even just address his internalized transphobia, but instead it’s all covered up with justifications for it. Pony’s transness was very much medicalised, which I’d be more comfortable with if he’d presented it as HIS story, but the way it’s presented feels like he’s making everything very matter-of-fact. The happy conclusion is that he’s going to raise enough for his top surgery, which is great, but having surgery is not the end-all be-all to transness, and it’s kind of presented as if it is.
The narrative as a whole also has a giant cis saviour trope, and Pony ends up with Georgia (obviously, everyone saw that coming) without her even apologizing for the awful way she treated him when he came out?? And after Pony comes out to his school, GEORGIA OUTS HIM TO THE ENTIRE INTERNET/WORLD WITHOUT HIS CONSENT WHILE HES IN A HOSPITAL BED. And that’s presented as a lovely, positive ally move. Georgia writes this article talking about being an ally and how much she admires Pony, but she never even addresses how she spent the vast majority of this novel being concerned about her social status if she dates Pony and how people might think she’s a lesbian (which is simply the worst possible thing people could think about you, according to her and her friend group.)
On the note of Pony & Georgia’s relationship, it’s averagely written at best? I feel some level of chemistry between them, but Georgia’s transphobia, as I’ve discussed, is just never countered. On top of that, the fact that Pony’s trans is presented as him “lying” to Georgia, especially throughout the beginning/first 3/4 of the book, and that viewpoint is never countered either.
I enjoyed the plotline with Ted London, but it did feel somewhat underdeveloped, and when that plotline ended, it felt messily wrapped up. I wish it was more substantial, I feel like there could’ve been more meaning there.
I know it’s #ownvoices, and I’m glad it is, but to me, it feels written to make cis people feel better. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this book to cis people, as I feel like they might pick up some really harmful and uncontested views on trans people. And I wouldn’t really recommend it to trans people either, as it’s full of microagressions that are rarely countered, medicalized transness, and violent, traumatic transphobia. This isn’t really a contemporary romance or a coming-of-age YA book.
Why is every trans YA novel a narrative about trauma?
Why is the turning point of every trans YA novel a hate crime?
things I liked: Rocky as a character, the cover. that’s about it.
as much as I wanted to love this story, I’m in the camp of trans people who read it and were really, really disappointed. this book needs every trigger warning out there — transphobia, homophobia (esp. lesbophobia), slurs, sexual and physical assault, family abuse, suicidal ideation, etc. And sure, stories can be about that, but this is marketed as like a YA romance?? It’s not really that?? It is ownvoices, so that makes it marginally better, but it’s still extremely binary and trauma-filled. The summary and cover both scream YA romance, coming-of-age, whatever, and this is absolutely not that.
Pony, the main character, wasn’t very likeable for me; he constantly references pick-up artistry which leans into misogyny. He grows a lot as a person through the book, but that’s very much told and not shown. There are no apologies or actions that don’t come off to me as surface-level, and the conclusion is very much ‘he’s dating the popular cishet girl, is accepted by his cishet peers, and gets to medically transition, so now his life is perfect!’
Both Pony (our main character) and Max (pony’s best friend who’s also trans) feel like poorly-constructed stereotypes of trans people. Max is out, proud, and loud, and Pony is stealth. That’s fine, both of those narratives are real and deserve to be told, but their ‘friendship’ is so odd. Pony tells Max about not wanting to be out at his new school, and Max just doesn’t respect that decision, which doesn’t feel like an actual reaction that’d come from anyone so heavily involved in LGBT+ communities. He continues to push him to come out and be a loud advocate, and I understand his view because I’m a loud-and-proud trans person in my own life, but I also understand that many trans people can’t be that because of their own safety and comfort — and that’s okay!
The novel had so many great opportunities for Pony to discuss or even just address his internalized transphobia, but instead it’s all covered up with justifications for it. Pony’s transness was very much medicalised, which I’d be more comfortable with if he’d presented it as HIS story, but the way it’s presented feels like he’s making everything very matter-of-fact. The happy conclusion is that he’s going to raise enough for his top surgery, which is great, but having surgery is not the end-all be-all to transness, and it’s kind of presented as if it is.
The narrative as a whole also has a giant cis saviour trope, and Pony ends up with Georgia (obviously, everyone saw that coming) without her even apologizing for the awful way she treated him when he came out?? And after Pony comes out to his school, GEORGIA OUTS HIM TO THE ENTIRE INTERNET/WORLD WITHOUT HIS CONSENT WHILE HES IN A HOSPITAL BED. And that’s presented as a lovely, positive ally move. Georgia writes this article talking about being an ally and how much she admires Pony, but she never even addresses how she spent the vast majority of this novel being concerned about her social status if she dates Pony and how people might think she’s a lesbian (which is simply the worst possible thing people could think about you, according to her and her friend group.)
On the note of Pony & Georgia’s relationship, it’s averagely written at best? I feel some level of chemistry between them, but Georgia’s transphobia, as I’ve discussed, is just never countered. On top of that, the fact that Pony’s trans is presented as him “lying” to Georgia, especially throughout the beginning/first 3/4 of the book, and that viewpoint is never countered either.
I enjoyed the plotline with Ted London, but it did feel somewhat underdeveloped, and when that plotline ended, it felt messily wrapped up. I wish it was more substantial, I feel like there could’ve been more meaning there.
I know it’s #ownvoices, and I’m glad it is, but to me, it feels written to make cis people feel better. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this book to cis people, as I feel like they might pick up some really harmful and uncontested views on trans people. And I wouldn’t really recommend it to trans people either, as it’s full of microagressions that are rarely countered, medicalized transness, and violent, traumatic transphobia. This isn’t really a contemporary romance or a coming-of-age YA book.
Why is every trans YA novel a narrative about trauma?
Why is the turning point of every trans YA novel a hate crime?