Pony just wants to fly under the radar during senior year. Tired from all the attention he got at his old school after coming out as transgender, he’s looking for a fresh start at Hillcrest High. But it’s hard to live your best life when the threat of exposure lurks down every hallway and in every bathroom.
Georgia is beginning to think there’s more to life than cheerleading. She plans on keeping a low profile until graduation…which is why she promised herself that dating was officially a no-go this year.
Then, on the very first day of school, the new guy and the cheerleader lock eyes. How is Pony supposed to stay stealth when he wants to get close to a girl like Georgia? How is Georgia supposed to keep her promise when sparks start flying with a boy like Pony?
Funny and poignant, clear-eyed and hopeful, Stay Gold is a story about finding love—and finding yourself.
Please note that this review is coming from a middle aged cisgender woman.
This is a book I'd been looking forward to for awhile now, and I was happy to see it show up in a pandemic-delayed delivery of ARCs (advanced reading copies). While the basic premise is as described in the publisher's blurb above, this is much less of a fluffy rom-com than indicated. Those aspects and tropes are definitely present, and wonderfully done, but this is an #ownvoices story, and current reality is unfortunately very present in the form of transphobia, homophobia, slurs, dead naming, dysphoria, violent bullying, suicidal thoughts, and public outing, among other content and trigger warnings. Two of the characters closest to Pony, Georgia and his friend Max, react negatively to him going stealth in different but hurtful ways. Readers should definitely be aware of what they're getting into before starting this one.
That being said, I really did enjoy this story and some of the characters. I absolutely adore Pony and was very much cheering for him. I also enjoyed the dialog between him and Georgia. Unfortunately, I just couldn't like Georgia all that much. I felt she was written rather one-dimensionally; when we do get to see more of her than the facade she's erected for herself, you see the potential for character development. Regrettably, this comes only in the latter half of the book. The ending does come together a bit too neatly, but certainly fits within the rom-com format. In fact, most of the criticisms I have with Stay Gold would be par for the course if it were more firmly rooted in that genre. Despite my critiques, this book had me turning pages to see what happened next, and I'm very glad to see more #ownvoices stories out there. I definitely recommend Stay Gold with the warnings mentioned earlier, and I look forward to reading Tobly's next book.
Galesburg Public Library will be obtaining a copy of Stay Gold in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment