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cramaley's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Death of parent
missrosymaplemoth's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to love this book and went in with high hopes. The subject matter isn’t the problem, but the book itself is hard to follow. The pacing is odd and frequently changes and it was difficult to discern the timeline or what was happening and when. I didn’t feel like enough time was spent on any of the three main characters and didn’t find myself caring too much for either of them. None of the stories but Dawn’s was wrapped in in a real or satisfying way. Some of the plot points are handled poorly as well, with Dawn getting over a traumatic experience too quickly to be realistic. The writing itself seemed juvenile, even for YA. Overall I think this book had potential but squandered it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Alcohol
Moderate: Deadnaming, Pedophilia, and Grief
annethereader's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
i love talking about queer love. i love how we, as a community, are able to free ourselves from the restrictive definition of “love” dominated by white, heterosexual (including alloromantic and allosexual), cisgender and able-bodied thinkers. how we immerse ourselves in the love of our friends, our partners, our (sometimes chosen) families and anyone else we might love.
so what is queer love?
“it’s resistance.
your best friend in the entire world telling you something at 3:00 a.m. something they’ve never said out loud before.
yearning, dude, just yearning.”
“the queer girl is going to be okay” by dale walls is about a trans girl called dawn attempting to juggle finding (romantic) love and caring for her father with depression, while editing a short film for a festival to win a scholarship for film school. it’s a novel that shows us the many facets of queer love. queer love is the love dawn has for her friends, edie and georgia, who have their own struggles which are explored in this novel through multiple third person limited narrations, one for each of the best friends. edie’s christian parents expect her to be perfect: straight As, heterosexual, simply a daughter to brag about. georgia wants to be a writer, but her anxiety surrounding college applications and her friends leaving her is huge and all-consuming.
what i loved most about this novel is that queer friendship was at its centre, and one of the key answers to the question what queer love is. to me, queer love is not inherently romantic, it can be (and for many people, this is the main form of queer love they experience) platonic, finding community among other queer people, who you love deeply. (queer) platonic love is beautiful, and i love to see it being celebrated in fiction, so reading this was very validating.
the characters were all complex with unique issues that made it interesting to read about them, and i enjoyed reading from all three perspectives, although the slightly odd pacing of this novel made certain plot lines quite difficult to follow.
unfortunately, the rest of the book fell a bit flat for me. the plot felt a bit jumbled, and although i did appreciate seeing the three distinct point of views (in third person, which i always enjoy), it made the narrative feel a bit messy, as it would jump mid-chapter and leave me a little confused. some plot lines were satisfyingly resolved. others were resolved off-page and others were left hanging in the air by the end of the novel, which i did not enjoy as much. i usually like open ends, but in this case, the sudden ending caught me off guard and i felt like there could have been some more character development.
i also sadly did not really like the writing style. like the plot, it felt a bit jumbled, with confusing sentence structures and strange descriptions, as well as some jarring repetitions that took away from the flow of the novel.
dale walls clearly has many interesting ideas and a talent for developing endearing, flawed and lovable characters so i’m interested in what she releases in the future while acknowledging that this wasn’t for me in terms of plot and writing!
“people think it’s the same. they want to say we’re just like everyone else, but we’re not. queerness is itself. queer longing is specific”
and so is, in my opinion, queer love.
it’s beautiful, it’s revolutionary, it can be anything you want and i love talking about it.
thank you to netgalley for the arc!
so what is queer love?
“it’s resistance.
your best friend in the entire world telling you something at 3:00 a.m. something they’ve never said out loud before.
yearning, dude, just yearning.”
“the queer girl is going to be okay” by dale walls is about a trans girl called dawn attempting to juggle finding (romantic) love and caring for her father with depression, while editing a short film for a festival to win a scholarship for film school. it’s a novel that shows us the many facets of queer love. queer love is the love dawn has for her friends, edie and georgia, who have their own struggles which are explored in this novel through multiple third person limited narrations, one for each of the best friends. edie’s christian parents expect her to be perfect: straight As, heterosexual, simply a daughter to brag about. georgia wants to be a writer, but her anxiety surrounding college applications and her friends leaving her is huge and all-consuming.
what i loved most about this novel is that queer friendship was at its centre, and one of the key answers to the question what queer love is. to me, queer love is not inherently romantic, it can be (and for many people, this is the main form of queer love they experience) platonic, finding community among other queer people, who you love deeply. (queer) platonic love is beautiful, and i love to see it being celebrated in fiction, so reading this was very validating.
the characters were all complex with unique issues that made it interesting to read about them, and i enjoyed reading from all three perspectives, although the slightly odd pacing of this novel made certain plot lines quite difficult to follow.
unfortunately, the rest of the book fell a bit flat for me. the plot felt a bit jumbled, and although i did appreciate seeing the three distinct point of views (in third person, which i always enjoy), it made the narrative feel a bit messy, as it would jump mid-chapter and leave me a little confused. some plot lines were satisfyingly resolved. others were resolved off-page and others were left hanging in the air by the end of the novel, which i did not enjoy as much. i usually like open ends, but in this case, the sudden ending caught me off guard and i felt like there could have been some more character development.
i also sadly did not really like the writing style. like the plot, it felt a bit jumbled, with confusing sentence structures and strange descriptions, as well as some jarring repetitions that took away from the flow of the novel.
dale walls clearly has many interesting ideas and a talent for developing endearing, flawed and lovable characters so i’m interested in what she releases in the future while acknowledging that this wasn’t for me in terms of plot and writing!
“people think it’s the same. they want to say we’re just like everyone else, but we’re not. queerness is itself. queer longing is specific”
and so is, in my opinion, queer love.
it’s beautiful, it’s revolutionary, it can be anything you want and i love talking about it.
thank you to netgalley for the arc!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Grief and Death of parent