Reviews with content warning for Dementia - Can't Take That Away

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Can't Take That Away by Steven Salvatore

14 reviews

the_true_monroe's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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apfelkistenbuch's review against another edition

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medium-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

2.0

ohhhhhhh good god.
i wanted to like this so bad, but. no.
i really wish i’d DNF’ed it but i was curious and stupid enough to keep reading.

this was a LOT.
if you like mariah carey (an unreasonable amount), or completely avoidable drama, congrats, i’ve got a book for you!

tbf: if this had been an ACTUAL musical, it could have worked.
the randomly-bursting-into-song (CRINGE), creating a whole movement because of one (1) queerphobic teacher (i wish!) and insta love turned heartbreak were insufferable to read, but as a movie — maybe!

there was just so much ~there~ …

pop culture references AAAALL around (they CAN be done well but this is not how you do it!)
anonymous school gossip blog (SERIOUSLY! what is it with YA novels and this trope?? is that an american thing,?? what school actually HAS that)
“omg im shy 🥺” main character who is very much Not shy and actually a little embarrassing in their confidence.
dialogues that feel copy pasted from bad romance novels
a whole ass revolution in a high school? i am once again wondering if that is an american thing but it seemed incredibly unrealistic

let me give examples.

1. mariah carey and sam smith..? i mean oookay, but: these two are not ACTUALLY a thing with teens. so the fact that everyone understood carey’s references / info dumping was just not realistic. (also it was unnecessary and annoying to actually print all that wikipedia-type info. i get it they like mariah carey. please give me a break)

3.

…but i'm no drummer or guitarist or background bitch. I'm a fucking diva.

… what?

carey to me was just such a strange character, they weren’t exactly self centered and not exactly unlikeable either but just so .. melodramatic? (literally lol).
all of the relationship drama was so forced it didn’t even make any logical sense. just talkkkkkk to each other

4.

You're the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night, and when we're not together I want to be with you.

ITS JUST NOT GOOOOOD WHAT CAN I SAY

5. a walkout that is suddenly a huge protest and BAM suddenly there’s a lot of police (i saw another reviewer say that that the way cops are portrayed here is also lowkey problematic and, fair) now oops! suddenly the news are there and investigating IN FAVOR of you (unlikely?) and next thing you know (spoiler) mariah carey wants to meet you. (????)
what even went on.

i could keep going with all the things i didn’t like but it feels so mean, so i’ll just say SOMEthing positive:

mr kelly, we love you. a supportive teacher we love to see it!
carey’s mom, we love you too.
i liked the bracelet idea and that they still made room to criticize the fact that colors are gendered. i also liked that their gender identity was more casual than i expected, like at least there wasn’t big drama with coming out to friends and family, they were all quite sweet
salvatore CAN write !! their writing style isn’t bad at all i just did not like the tropes they were writing

—> two stars just for these reasons.

i was just happy to have finished this. good representation does not make a good book; and idk what the other reviewers liked so much about this, i was really disappointed. (but good for them !!! genuinely !!! i don’t wanna say don’t read this book just because i hated it, maybe it’s just me.)

🤠🤠🤠

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pm_corbett's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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merlesstorys's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

My first introduction to a genderqueer person outside of the Hollywood biz as I don’t know one irl (at least as I know of) and it was really good.

I liked the writing style of Steven Salvatore as their depiction of queer youth today resonates with stuff I’ve experienced so far and they take a deep look at the feelings of their main character, Carey as well as the ones of their friends.

Which brings me to the characters in this book and I honestly love them all so much, it’s indescribable. Carey with their love for music and musicals, Cris with his unbelievable Charme, Monroe with her amazing fashion taste, Joey just for being a good ally, and Phoebe with -again- her love for musicals. They all get their peaks throughout the book and that is just amazing - and the most important thing in “Can’t take that away” is the friendship, not the ‘boo-friend’… I love it.

Next to the starting situation: it’s such a good idea, to show the main character in their natural habitat aka music/als with their ambition to become Elphaba, and just as well as her, defy gravity. Pun very much intended.

The only critic I have is that the ending is a bit too much for me. (Not the actual ending, but what happens after Carey and Cris are reunited. I don’t want to spoil more)
This small section means unfortunately a quarter star down from five stars, but that’s literally the only thing I didn’t like.

Also, can we please talk about the hardcover artwork? It’s insanely gorgeous (please insert the Gaga meme here about being amazing etc. :D)

Content Warnings

misssleepless's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Content Warnings

melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This book is a heavy-hitting YA contemp about a genderqueer teen dealing with extreme homophobia from classmates, teachers, and school board members. Throughout it all, Carey manages to stay hopeful and strong and surrounded by a few people that make their life better. I was so angry at the school. As someone who works for a small school district, I 100% know the likelihood a similar queer-phobic incident occurring, and the saddest part about that is most of the time things don't get changed like they did in this book. I'm glad for the hope of that, and I loved seeing Carey grow throughout the novel!

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endemictoearth's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

I really liked this a lot. It was a pretty straight-forward ya contemporary, tho the romance plot was kind of oddly paced. I wouldn’t read this for the romance alone, but I did enjoy the characters. The villains are fairly villainous, but like, in a way that allowed for some social commentary. Just something about how the whole thing hung together worked for me.

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There's a lot of ways I feel about this story and how I relate to it, but I'll try not to go on too long. I sincerely hope this book was as validating an experience to write as it surely will be for the genderqueer people who read it.

I began this story feeling that I couldn't see much of myself in Carey and was somewhat at odds with their melodramatic perspective of the world. Yet after reading further, I quickly became invested in their life and their dreams. Their wish to just exist authentically without having to make a political statement to do so is painfully close to my heart. I loved that as Carey grew kinder to themselves, they learned to apply similar kindness and understanding towards the people they were close to. It's very rewarding to watch a character who's a self-described diva learn to de-center themselves and prioritize their loved ones, along with those they have the power to inspire. Carey's love towards themselves and their friends and family made me love and respect them too as a reader. The supporting characters don't feel like props in Carey's play of life. Instead they are written with their own dreams, and anxieties they learn to overcome over the course of the story.

Really my only significant criticism of this story was that some of the character's speeches read more like a well-plotted lecture than organic dialogue that would realistically occur between people. However, I understand how difficult these moments must be to create as a writer, especially when your character is representing a piece of yourself. For the most part I felt this story was refreshing and inspiring, and the characters' voices will likely stick with me for a long time.

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caidyn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Wow, what a damn good book. When I heard about this book, I was worried that this would be like another Stay Gold. Not a bad book, but not one I enjoyed. It crammed too many hard topics in it and then held up themes I strongly disagree with up as a great thing. So, I was happy that this book wasn't like that. It was overall hopeful and happy. Did it have dark and hard themes? Hell yes. But it was handled right and with a very satisfying conclusion.

Content Warnings

ramunepocky's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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