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rihannajane's review
2.0
Graphic: Racism
vagaybond's review
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Transphobia, Vomit, Dysphoria, and Classism
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, and Medical content
Minor: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Trafficking
glorytowers05's review
- 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? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Cursing, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Vomit, Alcohol, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
katrinaeames's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
That said, it is a white queer book. Aside from our love interest, the non-white characters don't really have as much depth as the white characters. And although I am happy to bash the anti-Asian racism that is the entire premise of Thourghly Modern Millie any day of the week, alluding to the racism of the show that will likely still have thousands of high school productions this year is not a stand-in for actually looking at the way race is impacting the people in the narrative here. This novel can look at the glaring and obvious examples of racism, but it doesn't handle the topic of race with any real nuance.
I would also say as someone who works in politics - the dream of a high schooler to move to DC, become a member of congress, and change the world is relatable; but the constant dismissal of other theories of change, of work that makes a difference in our communities everyday, and the way that Finch's stubbornness caused them to look down on doing actual political work was disappointing at best. It presents a narrative that I think harms teenagers' ability to see themselves taking action.
I think this is a book that tries. It could have been better. At its core this is a friends-to-lovers YA romance that feels a bit rushed in places. But the first-person POV let's us really dig into the feelings and complicated relationships of a support system that exists even when you don't feel like you have a lot of support.
Graphic: Transphobia and Dysphoria
Moderate: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Racism
Minor: Vomit
kahi_cow's review
- 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
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Transphobia
maxwell7373's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Outing, and Alcohol
greenlivingaudioworm'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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Transphobia
Moderate: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Vomit, and Dysphoria
daycia's review
- 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? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
Moderate: Homophobia and Vomit
anniereads221's review
1.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Antisemitism, Outing, and Gaslighting
_micah_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
Perfectly nice in craft: it didn't blow my mind, but everything was fine. Decent plot, the voice picked up after the inciting incident, decent dialogue, so-so characters (weird to see Kevin Gnapoor from Mean Girls is still around in the character Nasir) I wish there was more setting (I haven't seen white dreads in Oly in ages, but what do I know), but really nice use of PoV (ie a character's knowledge base only being that of a news-obsessed teen), big props for use of texting to tell story and convey voice.
Onto themes: As someone who came up as a radical queer, I personally found the politics somewhat strange. Outside of a pretty major misunderstanding of what 'mutual aid' means (hint: it isn't unidirectionally giving money to someone, that's actually charity) it felt genuinely hopeful in American politics, which strikes me as an assimilationist take. In addition was a page or two about Obama = mostly good, Trump=all bad, with only a few paragraphs dedicated to their mutual suckage, and no breakdown of why someone would assume 'Obama=good' in the first place. No one with power that cannot be immediately revoked is to be trusted, little babies!
In addition, as a young queer I would have found the parsing of hetero vs. homo in trans identities contrived, I sort of despise the current need for people to put thirty labels on themselves. Maybe you want to sleep with people, if it's mutual follow it up and like, don't worry about it otherwise; a label doesn't change capacity for kindness or ability to rage in the street. That said, a lot of things about this title feel autobiographical, and I definitely can't speak first-hand to the HRT FTM teen experience, so maybe it's mirroring that.
Really, I don't want to come off too harshly towards fellow queer and writers (wtf is up with us being harder on each other than those that would hurt us?) So hi, this book is not the best but not the worst. Overall it's very sweet, if very, very liberal. I would definitely recommend this book to any librarian or reader looking for some medium-light QuILTBAG+ YA reads.
Edit: lol I had no idea the hatred this writer stirred up. Just looked at some of the Thomas drama on tumblr and wow. It still feels like the worst parts of middle school on that platform.
Minor: Racism