pucksandpaperbacks's reviews
657 reviews

Speechless! So, so good. 

Content warnings pulled from the author's website. [https://tjalexander.com/#warnings3]

CW: Mentions of anti-trans legislation and growing anti-trans sentiment in Florida law; main character is a recovering alcoholic, sober/in recovery, doe not relapse; mention of parent death in a car accident a few years prior to the events of the book; Mentions of anti-Asian racism & stereotyping in the gay community and society more broadly, as well as allusions to institutional anti-Black racism in the public school system and politics;  a divorced couple who are amicable but develop a child custody issue; non-penetrative sex between a trans man and a cis man

CW: Body shaming, blood, bullying

I was sent a review copy from the publisher, Zando Projects through Hear Our Voices Book Tours. All of my opinions are my own.

*I do not give books star ratings. It's a personal preference of mine!*

A funny, light-hearted YA summer rom-com set in a small town bookstore about Bobby, a hopeless romantic and "book whisperer" who helps revive his uncles bookshop. After an incident at his college where he will start in the Fall, Bobby declares his love in an exuberant way. But when the feelings aren't mutual, he's embarrassed. The incident leaves him heartbroken, in trouble with the dean, and is fired from his job at the campus bookstore. This leaves Bobby turning to his uncle Andy who has a position open at his store, Corner Books. There, Bobby helps market the store and bring in more customers. When he recommends a book to a customer, he is quickly given the title, "The Book Whisperer" throughout the small town of Little Elm. 

In comes Luke, a customer at the store, sneakily reading a romance novel. We learn Luke is anti-romantic and pansexual. Due to his lack of believing in love due to his family's history of divorce, Bobby is blindsided by Luke's flirtations. 

I enjoyed this rom-com for the humor, small town vibes, characters, and the lighthearted story. I devoured this book! It was a fast paced and fun read. I also liked the integration of video game streaming as Bobby's friend, Wendy is a popular video game streamer. My only critique is the romance was too slow for me and I wish we had gotten more build up + time with Luke and Bobby to see more of their chemistry. The ending was fun, but I felt like it was too rushed. Coccia is a great storyteller and his characters are loveable. I would read more from him in the future. 

CW: Mention of gender dysphoria (not detailed or graphic, briefly mentioned)

I was sent a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

A light yet thought-provoking adult debut where a trans man approaching 30 goes back to his small hometown and has to confront his younger self in a bookstore time loop where the year is 2009. I've read Underhill's YA debut, Always the Almost and loved it. Needless to say, I was excited to read his adult debut and it delivered.

As a trans man myself, I loved how it made me reflect on what I would do if I were in Darby's shoes. What would I say to my high school self? I loved seeing Darby learning to appreciate his small town and seeing that queer people do exist there. 

The time travel aspect was light and did it's job. I didn't think it was too cheesy or over the top. This was quite a page turner and had me on the edge of my sea eagerly awaiting the next time we got to visit Young Darby. 

I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a light, reflecting read about small towns, childhood, adulthood and transness. 

TW: Outing, Transphobia, Deadnaming (mentioned and alluded to but the name is not on-page); unsupportive parent but comes around in the end, mention and detail of smoking weed, underage drinking, alcohol; a graphic scene where she is outed & the love interest is transphobic and shouts transphobic language at her (this is challenged and called out by other characters); cancer

I was sent a #gifted review copy from the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

Lucy, Uncensored is a YA contemporary coming-of-age novel following a teenage trans girl, Lucy in her senior year of high school. She loves theater (specifically directing) and is attached to the hip with her best friend, Callie. When a college trip to their dream school, Central isn't what they imagined, the girls become  uncertain of their college plans that have been set in stone for most of their life. When Lucy finds a women's college, Botetourt has an excellent theater program and would be a fresh start for her to get out of her small town in Central Pennsylvania, the girls embark on a road trip. During their visit at Botetourt, they fall in love with it for the theater program and learn it's filled with LGBTQ+ and trans students. But the school still has a long way to go with their inclusion of trans and non-binary students. Plus, they've never had a trans girl enroll before. Protests begin while the girls are on campus, making Lucy hesitant if Botetourt is the right fit for her.

Overall, I enjoyed the joy Lucy experiences while she's being hit with a lot of difficult decisions and learning how hard it is to be trans and be out. For Lucy, she wants to be stealth, but learns how risky and difficult it can be. This book is joyous and will make you smile but it's not a light book as there are many instances of transphobia that Lucy faces from her peers, her father, and a boy at Botetourt. There's also a storyline where the Shakespearean play she and Callie rewrote to be more LGBTQ+ and trans focused + directed gets shut down by the school board. 

*Spoiler, but please read if you're sensitive to reading transphobia.

There's a scene where she is messaging on Instagram with a boy, Ian who's mother works in the theater department at the women's college. However, she doesn't disclose that she is a teenager in high school whereas Ian is going into his senior year of college. Wanting to be stealth, she lies and tells Ian she's planning to transfer from Central (the college nearest to her) and attend Botetourt. While in person, she and Ian are intimate in make-out sessions. Lucy is outed when she has to pick up her wallet that she lost from the campus Lost & Found, but since her license and I.D. are not up to date with her current name and gender marker, she's forced to say her deadname out loud. Ian reacts very erratic and aggressive, spewing transphobic remarks toward Lucy. The characters around them do challenge this and call out Ian and the security guard's behavior. However, this scene made me wildly uncomfortable as Lucy doesn't learn much from this situation. It makes me wonder why the authors chose to add this into the story. I acknowledge this does happen to trans folks and trans woman, especially but there's really no learning lesson from this. At the end of the book, Lucy confides in a trans man, Ayden who she meets at Botetourt who asks her about being stealth and provides wonderful advice. I just wish she had more scenes where trans folks are having these important conversations with her. I do still find it uncomfortable that she was hooking up with an older dude. I would've preferred Ian's outburst to be about her age, not her gender identity. 

That's my only big gripe with this book. But besides that, I do think this is a good and important book for trans teens to read. I liked Lucy and Callie's bond & friendship. The end make me smile as well! 
 

CW: grief, cheating, car accident (graphic, on-page, in detail), death, homophobia, Islamophobia, underage drinking, alcohol, drug use - characters smoke weed (on-page), fatphobia and fatphobic comments from Rana's mother; absent father, Tupac's death mentioned (on-page); mention of antidepressants in a negative connotation as a character doesn't talk them and it leads to a bad situation; panic attack on page.

What a hidden gem!!! Set in 1996, Rana Joon is a lesbian Iranian-American teenage girl living in SoCal. She loves Tupac and writing poetry. When her best friend Louie unexpectedly passes away in a car accident, she starts her grief journey where she learns there were many things she didn't know about Louie. To honor him, she decides to enter a rap battle he would've participated in. She learns to enjoy writing her own poems and gains confidence as she is petrified of public speaking. This is a messy, fierce girl who finds herself learning about family secret's and stepping up to her strict father who lives in Iran while defying gender norms. 

This book is MESSY but so is grief! I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it, but please be advised of the content warnings because this is not a light book by any means. 

One critique I have is I didn't like the scene of her love interest telling her to "live her truth" and come out to her family while knowing it might not have been safe for her to do so. The coming out scene is not horrible, but her mother does gets upset and shuts her out for about a week. Luckily, she eventually comes around. 

Boring, not my thing!