It feels like this book is trying to piggyback off the widespread success of Heartstopper, and by doing so, does an incredible disservice to potential readers. This book felt incredibly unsafe (for reasons I'll dig into in further points). While Heartstopper does tackle some serious issues (including homophobia), there's so much love and care and support baked into the story and characters, that the reader/viewer always feels safe. The back pitches this book as " Heartstopper meets Friday Night Lights which is truly a horrendous comp for this book as it sets readers up for the completely wrong vibe. The homophobia on the team (from teammates and tolerated/perpetuated by the coach) is bad enough that Barclay quits the team & for basically the entire book, Barclay endures explicit homophobia and anger for "letting the basketball team and town down" by almost everyone in the book.ġ. See the end of my review for a full list of content warning descriptions prospective readers may want to be aware of.įor context, Barclay is varsity basketball captain at his rural (?) Georgia high school who comes out at a pep rally (an interesting choice), and the entire town is incredibly homophobic about it. Part of the success of recent queer media is because we're finally telling all kinds of queer stories - including queer joy - but this book is much more similar to the main queer narrative told in the 90s/2000s: one that centers coming out and homophobia, not joy. Overall, this book felt like a step back in time - not necessarily because the homophobia depicted has gone away, because it certainly hasn't - but because it's a tired queer narrative. I tried to piece together my biggest reasons for disliking it without turning my review into a rant. The more I read of this book, the more I disliked it. Note: I received a copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway Can he take a real shot at the love he was fighting for in the first place? He and Barclay have never been each other’s biggest fans, but as Barclay starts to explore parts of himself he’s been hiding away, they find they might have much more in common than they originally thought.Īs sparks turn into something more, though, Barclay has to decide if he’s ready to confront the privilege and popularity that have shielded him his entire life. Aggravating, fearless, undeniably handsome Christopher. And he does, but he also finds Christopher. She drags him to her voting rights group, believing Barclay can find a bigger purpose. But who is Barclay if he doesn’t have basketball? Suddenly he is at odds with his own team, and he doesn’t even have his grandfather to turn to the way he used to. Quickly.īarclay is faced with hostility he never expected. Until he decides to use the biggest pep rally in the town’s history to come out to his school. Here basketball is all that matters, and no one has a bigger spotlight than Barclay. In his small Georgia town, Barclay Elliot is basically a legend. Heartstopper meets Friday Night Lights in this keenly felt coming-of-age story about a teen hometown hero who must find out who he is outside of basketball when his coming out as gay costs him his popularity and place on the team.
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