A review by livinthebubble
Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith
2.5
Sooo... this was not what I was expecting.
When I saw this cover and read the synopsis, I expected a cute romance. Although that's technically not incorrect, this is not very fluffy and cute. I'm not someone who needs trigger warnings but if you do, research them before reading this.
Firstly, I'm just going to mention that I'm not trans so I cannot say whether this was an accurate representation so I'd highly recommend reading own voices reviews. However, I do have some opinions.
Pony was a lovely character, loved his POV and his thoughts. I understood where he was coming from by the end of the book and I almost cried reading (no spoiler) a couple of scenes.
The rest of the characters? Garbáge rat. 90% were queerphobic/transphobic which ok, this is set in Texas, but Max, an out and proud trans man, was the most horrific character. Throughout the book he kept trying to pressure Pony to come out, guilt-tripping Pony basically saying that if you're not out, you are a disappointment to the queer community or just straight-out lying. For closeted queers out there, this is so untrue. Georgia was also not great, she didn't want to date a trans man because that would make her a lesbian and she cares too much about her image...bffr. Oh and neither Max nor Georgia are held accountable by the end of the book, they don't even apologise. Pony's new friends, Jerry and Kenji, although also problematic, did at least apologise for their behaviour promising to be better.
The romance was not to my taste, mostly because it was hard to root for Georgia. I wish Pony had hit it off with the tarot card girl instead. Other than that, the plot was predictable and this book had way too many references for my taste, including Harry Potter, which made absolutely no sense to me.
Overall, an engaging read with a singular great character that was ruined by shit characters, and I think the "be out or else" message could be harmful.
When I saw this cover and read the synopsis, I expected a cute romance. Although that's technically not incorrect, this is not very fluffy and cute. I'm not someone who needs trigger warnings but if you do, research them before reading this.
Firstly, I'm just going to mention that I'm not trans so I cannot say whether this was an accurate representation so I'd highly recommend reading own voices reviews. However, I do have some opinions.
Pony was a lovely character, loved his POV and his thoughts. I understood where he was coming from by the end of the book and I almost cried reading (no spoiler) a couple of scenes.
The rest of the characters? Garbáge rat. 90% were queerphobic/transphobic which ok, this is set in Texas, but Max, an out and proud trans man, was the most horrific character. Throughout the book he kept trying to pressure Pony to come out, guilt-tripping Pony basically saying that if you're not out, you are a disappointment to the queer community or just straight-out lying. For closeted queers out there, this is so untrue. Georgia was also not great, she didn't want to date a trans man because that would make her a lesbian and she cares too much about her image...bffr. Oh and neither Max nor Georgia are held accountable by the end of the book, they don't even apologise. Pony's new friends, Jerry and Kenji, although also problematic, did at least apologise for their behaviour promising to be better.
The romance was not to my taste, mostly because it was hard to root for Georgia. I wish Pony had hit it off with the tarot card girl instead. Other than that, the plot was predictable and this book had way too many references for my taste, including Harry Potter, which made absolutely no sense to me.
Overall, an engaging read with a singular great character that was ruined by shit characters, and I think the "be out or else" message could be harmful.