Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Act Cool by Tobly McSmith

13 reviews

bumblemee's review

emotional reflective 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

4.0

First up: This cover is just so, soooo pretty, I love it a lot!! The colours, the illustration style, it's simply amazing.

As for the story itself, I liked it a lot. Books including theater will always have it easier with me than other stories and this was no exception (even though I don't know much about musical theater). A lot of aspects reminded me of my theater group in high school, which was nice.

I get why I read in a few reviews that some people didn't like August that much. He is so insecure of so many things, which causes him to be a little annoying sometimes. The way he's stepping into roles in his private life, trying to be whoever the person in front of him might want him to be (according to himself at least) .. ngl, you can roll your eyes at that. - I personally related to this aspect of him in a lot of ways, maybe that's why I didn't have a problem with him, because I have a lot of empathy for my teenage self. The amount of unnecessary lies were a bit much, but I understood where they were coming from so they didn't put me off too much either.
Sometimes I got a little overwhelmed with the amount of characters, because we spent little time with a lot of them, which made it a little hard to connect to some of the emotional scenes. I also thought the pacing was a little weird. I can't really put my finger on why that is, but it felt like there was so much going on with Grease and afterwards a shitload of character development happened in a very short amount of time. I would've liked a little more space fot it to happen instead of people just telling August time and time again to be himself and him refusing to do so. Again: Understandable, totally understandable, but since this is a book and not real life it would've been okay to speed it up a tiny bit.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Outing, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

Minor: Torture

skye_era_books's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring 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

4.5

What an amazing read about a transgender boy. The author did an amazing job at showing the challenges of being trans with religious, non-accepting parents and I could feel all of August’s emotions throughout the book. I also loved the theater aspect of this book. It fully took me back to high school drama club. Please check trigger warnings before reading and take care of yourself first and foremost. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Outing

aimzthereader's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Outing and Alcohol

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Abandonment

imstephtacular's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Outing, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Alcohol

kayladaila's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Cursing, Infidelity, Grief, Suicide attempt, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Forced institutionalization

anniereads221's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, and Outing

Misgendering Conversion therapy

hopelessforeva's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Outing, and Dysphoria

tinytrashqueen's review against another edition

hopeful slow-paced

• 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

2.5

The overall message was good, but the main character was so unlikeable through 80% of the book it made it hard to get through.  
I wish we had gotten more of his best friend from PA too- he showed up briefly again at the end and it felt really random after only hearing him mentioned in passing a few times. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Outing

Moderate: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity

t_swizzle's review

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Transphobia, Outing, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

beca_reads's review

hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I have so many feelings about this book, it's hard to put it into words. We follow August who has recently come out as Transgender to his family. Unfortunately his parents are not understanding, and results in his Aunt taking him under her wing and moving him to New York where he can attend performing Arts school. August has always wanted to perform on stage and this gives him the chance, though his parent's actions still control some of his decisions. August ends up putting on a persona that is not him, this honestly makes him quite a unlikeable character for most of the book but it is clear that deep down this is not the real August. We follow him as he works out the actor he wants to become, and the people he meets along the way that helps him.  The book discuss transphobia within school, and the theatre, as well as discussing conversion therapy which his family want to put him into. This is not a light read at all and has trigger warnings for: transphobia, conversion therapy, homophobia, dead naming, and miss gendering. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Outing, and Alcohol

Moderate: Self harm