A review by maxtiu
Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith

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

0.5

Both the protagonists are genuinely awful people. Nearly everyone in the book is transphobic, including the trans protagonist Pony, who  shirks all aspects of transness, instead actively choosing toxic cisnormative masculinity, and is written for that to somehow be a sympathetic quality. After Pony
gets brutally beaten for coming out
, somehow everyone around him is magically accepting of his transness. The (trans?!) author doesn’t even get the traditional order of listing pronouns correctly. This is the kind of book that I hope cis people completely stay away from, as it should by no means represent trans people. Trans folks should stay away from it too; I felt like I was being gaslit just by reading this. Just…no.
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