vlmollylv's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Homophobia and Transphobia
Minor: Blood and Injury/Injury detail
smasson13's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Technically, there was nothing wrong with it. A little cliche and as though it was filling up with as many tropes and plot devices as possible. Yet, it was so boring. The characters and writing lacked so much depth and detail.
I was expecting a YA novel and instead got a middle grade or lower reading level. As a result, the pace was slow, detail non existent, and characters were empty and unrelatable.
This might be a great option for a teen who has a lower reading level, like a high interest/low level book, but that might be it's niche.
Minor: Homophobia, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Blood, Bullying, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Medical trauma, and Outing
emmaward55's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Transphobia and Homophobia
Moderate: Religious bigotry
Minor: Outing and Blood
A minor character reveals that someone they knew died of a drug overdose, but this happens before the book is set. It's just one brief mention.nightgoesblack's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Homophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia
Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse
caseythereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
- This book tackles so much heavy stuff: transphobia, religious bigotry, governmental bigotry, poor allyship and more. Somehow, though, it remained a gentle, caring story.
- I had a hard time buying that Spencer would be quite so oblivious as to why Justice's deep closetedness made him act the way he did, but also, sometimes teens don't see the whole picture, I guess. Definitely still a very worthwhile read even if that bit was a little forced.
Graphic: Bullying, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Excrement, and Homophobia
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Deadnaming, Drug abuse, Racism, Addiction, and Blood
prongs_little_king's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Transphobia and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Bullying, Deadnaming, and Homophobia
Minor: Blood, Chronic illness, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, and Hate crime
matheo's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Outing, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Racism, Vomit, Death, Addiction, and Drug abuse
yarnbug's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Bullying, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia
Minor: Blood, Cursing, Drug abuse, Death, and Hate crime
valereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I was really excited for this book so I’m sad to say it ended up being a disappointment.
I will start off with the positives. This book had a strong start. It was fast-paced and I liked the writing style. I really liked Spencer’s character at first and it’s always good to see some well-written trans characters in books.
That said I had some significant problems with this book. Firstly the portrayal of Spencer’s autistic brother. I wouldn’t normally refer to him like that but that’s all he was to the narrative: Spencer’s autistic brother. He felt like a prop, used first as something for Spencer to feel guilty about (a plot point that never really got resolved) and then to make Spencer look like a good person for loving him. He was also a flat character; the only things I could tell you about him are that he’s autistic, he likes animals and he has an ipad he takes everywhere. If he had more character development and relevance in the narrative he could have been good representation but as an autistic reader I’d rather he wasn’t included than be portrayed like this. It wouldn’t make any difference to the overall story if he was left out entirely.
My next issue is something of a sensitive subject: religious bigotry, abuse and victim-blaming. If you haven’t grown up surrounded by religious bigotry and with abusive and controlling parents you may not understand the issue I have here. As someone with personal experience with these things I was very uncomfortable with the way Justice’s family was portrayed and Spencer’s reaction to them. Justice comes from a conservative family who are part of a cult-like right-wing Church. His father is emotionally abusive and controlling. Spencer breaks up with Justice for not standing up to his abusers for their homophobic bigotry and is depicted as in the right.
Thousands of queer people are subjected to conversion therapy, abuse and even exorcisms by abusive family members for coming out. Justice is a 15/16 year old kid. Expecting him to stand up to his family and Church is victim-blaming and the narrative shows little empathy to the situation Justice, and many very real queer young people, find themselves in.
In addition to these things there were some amateur writing mistakes in this book that became more and more grating to me as it went on. I may have been able to ignore these issues if it weren’t for the other issues I had with the book.
I’m sorry to say that I found this book to be a disappointment. I won’t tell anybody not to read it if they’re still interested but it gets a no from me.
Graphic: Ableism, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Transphobia
Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Transphobia
Minor: Ableism, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
Victim blamingxoodlebooks's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Blood, Medical content, Drug abuse, Drug use, Bullying, Addiction, Ableism, and Racism