Stay Gold

368 pages

English language

Published Sept. 6, 2020 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-06-294319-4
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(6 reviews)

Debut author Tobly McSmith delivers a coming-of-age teen love story about a transgender boy who’s going stealth at his new Texas high school and a cisgender girl who is drawn to him, even as she’s counting down the days until graduation. Perfect for fans of David Levithan, Becky Albertalli, and Jenny Han.

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, …

5 editions

Review of 'Stay Gold' on 'Goodreads'

I have. A lot of feelings on this - very conflicting ones. I’ll only say that I really did not care for the literal hate crime that occurs in the last forty some pages. But like, a trans person wrote this. Dude has a right to, and it’s the kind of thing that should be talked about. It just felt extremely out of place and ultimately unnecessary.

None

I'm standing in the middle of a tornado of feelings and thoughts that I've never had to deal with before this moment. 


I have about twenty different emotions about this book, and they're all conflicting.

The cover, the blurb, and even the first chapter all suggest this is a lighthearted contemporary YA romance, something cute, hopeful, and optimistic. And yet, even though there are plenty of cute and lighthearted moments scattered throughout the book, it's anything but. It made me cry, seethe, want to hit someone, and I barely got through that one scene by the end, the one viscerally depicting a physical assault against the trans character. Yes, this is probably a spoiler, but I feel it's a spoiler you need to know going in, especially if you are a trans/nonbinary reader. I'm grateful that I knew about it going in. It still left me shaken.

Mostly, when I …

Review of 'Stay Gold' on 'GoodReads'

I received a DRC from Edelweiss
TW: transphobia, dead naming, lesbophobia, suicidal thoughts
3.6

For Pony a new school is the perfect fresh start. When he came out as trans he received plenty of attention- some of it bad, some of it just annoying- definitely more than he actually wanted. Now, he can just be Pony, and maybe even cheerleader Georgia's boyfriend. The only problem is, he hasn't told anyone at school that he's trans yet.

Yet again I'm in the position of reading an educational book and appreciating the education its attempting to give, while also being wildly not the target demographic, so I can't say confidently whether or not it succeeds. However, the main goal of this book is not simply educating cis people, but to be the kind of book the author would have wanted to exist when he was younger. My answer to that, no matter …

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