2.5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's for an eARC of this book, all opinions are my own.

TWs: transphobia, femmephobia, homophobia, microaggressions, cyberbullying, side character in a toxic relationship, mentioned racism

Riley Weaver has one goal in life: get out of Mountain Pass, the small town where his mother is mayor. He dreams of becoming a popular podcaster and seeking out stories from all kinds of people, and he can't do that from Mountain Pass. He has a plan: become a member of the Gaybutante Society, an LGTBQ+ organization that has launched the careers of dozens of queer teens. The process culminates in the Gaybutante Ball, where all the Gaybutante-Hopefuls are presented to society. Riley isn't worried until he overhears Skylar, an athlete from his school, say that gay guys don't want to date femme guys or else they wouldn't be gay. Riley, a proud femme, bets Skylar that he'll find a masc date to the ball or drop out of the Society entirely.

I am genuinely so heartbroken every time I give an OwnVoices book a low rating, especially one that could've been great. Having read OUT OF THE BLUE by Jason June and mostly enjoying it, I was honestly excited to read this. I love books where social media plays a principal role in the narrative, and *especially* when the main character is an influencer or attempting to become one. I also, of course, love books that are unapologetically queer, and this promised to be that from the beginning. However, there were many aspects that undermined my enjoyment, so I've decided to this review as a pros/cons list.

Pros:
- The book's message. This book focuses on homophobia, specifically femmephobia, *within* the queer community, which I found unique. The main character, Riley wears flamboyant clothing, full faces of makeup, exquisite nail polish; he is proudly femme. Riley's internal struggle when faced with Skylar's femmephobic opinion was so real, and I really felt for him. I also learned a lot about femmephobia and hatred within the gay community, something that I haven't seen tackled in other books I've read.

- Connery. Aside from that god-awful name, Connery was such a cute character. I can't say much without spoiling but his character was amazing commentary on expectations of masculinity. He was also an interesting foil for Riley, and I wish we got more of him.

Uh. That's about it for the pros.

Cons:
- The transphobia. For a book that mentions how gender isn't related to appearance or gender assigned at birth, Riley makes a lotttt of statements that contradicts that. I highlighted all the instances of gender being associated with genitals and it comes up five separate times, the first of which being on the SECOND PAGE. Five mentions may not seem like a lot, but this book is ABOUT how presentation doesn't equal gender doesn't equal genitals!! Riley even SAYS "it's not about genitals for me but it is for other people" which is not TRUE because HE HIMSELF BRINGS UP GENITALS!! As a nonbinary person, every single time it was mentioned I just sat there like ???

- This is just an extension of the first point, but there's an instance where Riley thinks he's looking at a woman and then the person turns around and Riley immediately goes "omg not a woman but a very attractive man" (not a quote) and I was again in shock because?? How do you know that person is a man without asking?? They could still be a woman??? It was incredibly shocking, especially considering that the MC in Jason June's previous work deliberately did not assume gender from appearance despite some characters being very masc or very femme from the beginning; they always, always asked before gendering. I thought for sure that Riley was about to be called out for making an assumption based on appearance, but he never was!

- The plot. Basically, Riley goes on a series of dates with a few guys in an effort to find a date for the Gaybutante Ball; the problem with this is that he isn't honestly approaching any of these guys. One of the conditions for the bet is that the guy can't know about it, so that they can't be swayed into asking Riley to the ball. This means, though, that Riley has both an ulterior motive and a deadline for talking to all of these guys. He doesn't genuinely *like* any of them, and I thought for sure that he would be called out on it. It's a classic trope: person A approaches person B because of a bet, person B actually falls, person B finds out it was a bet, angst ensures. I didn't necessarily want the angst, but what I did want was accountability. Riley essentially played with all the guys because he had no intention of actually forming a relationship with any of them! He just wanted a date to the ball for this bet! And I also know it's not that serious, since dating doesn't equal a relationship, but at the same time it's a little screwed up that Riley got off scot-free for this.

- Bringing up the issues of accountability, Riley is almost never held accountable! He is by all counts a selfish person and a horrible friend, and when he finally does experience consequences for his actions, the consequences fade away within a few chapters! Also, unbelievably, Riley believes that HE is owed an apology from that friend when HE"S the one who blew their friendship up! This is only one example of Riley's selfishness going unchecked, but it's the most egregious one.

- The Gaybutante Society itself. I have no idea how this works. It's stated a few times that the Society accepts anyone who tries to enter and that it's a very popular event, so my question is why aren't there like a million Hopefuls every year? You just have to be a Hopeful to have access to the Gaybutante's social accounts, and I feel like there would be so many more people trying to take advantage of that to launch their careers. Moreover, why is the Gaybutante Society even in this random small town?? The Gaybutante Society has branches in New York, LA, and a few other big cities, but they are all BIG CITIES. Why are they in this random ass village :sob:

- The diversity. This book approaches the "how do you state a character's race in narration?" question by stating every single character's race. The problem is, this makes it obvious how few characters of color there are. I read the word "white" so many times in comparison to any other race/ethnicity that I started to get a bit uncomfortable. This may be more nitpicky than my other comments, but newer books that lack diversity are a pet peeve of mine.

This review is now longer than some oneshots I've written, and I haven't yet covered all my issues with this book. If it isn't clear, I do not recommend this book. Despite its anti-femmephobic core, the issues outlined above make me regret reading this. This hasn't turned me off of Jason June's books completely, since I don't think this is a representative work, but it has made me warier of his future releases.