Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith

15 reviews

mayenk's review against another edition

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medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I couldn't believe in the relationship in the end. I couldn't  believe in the ending. The book also felt very dated especially with the pop culture sprinkled. Also the end felt to easily resolved and I didn't believe that the characters would do certain things, also sometimes it felt like the characters were acting stupid for no reason.

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lixard's review against another edition

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challenging dark lighthearted medium-paced
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

  • advertised as a romantic ya story between trans boy and a cis girl of different parts of the hs hierarchy......... what we got was much darker and more traumatic than promised
  • i am not trans so i redirect you to check out some ownvoices reviewers but after reading/watching other such reviews,, i am better able to catch the unaddressed misogyny, (internalized and external) transphobia, and how the characters never seemed to grow out of that mindset or properly apologize for their actions and words
  • it felt like that era of fanfiction that wrote super traumatic whump for the angst that you would read and cry to, which is valid in its own way, but definitely not forewarned, which seems problematic, esp. when targeted towards young (trans) audiences 
  • extra 0.5 stars because their flirty banter was nerdy and fun and made me chuckle and the writing (audiobook) was able to wring some tears from my eyes; the rest of the banter was a little far on what "teen-speak" is, though based on my old croon's 4 year old memory of high school 

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eeriewater's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I entered into reading this book prepared for it to be a decent read but not anything special. Fair to say it exceeded my expectations. The dual POV made me connect with, and understand the characters reasonings, even when I disagreed with their decisions.
In my opinion stay gold had the perfect balance of angst, love and wholesomeness. 
The only thing I kind of disliked in this book is more about my personal preference and less about it actually being a bad thing. I did feel like this book, which is about a trans man, was mainly written for cishet people with little to none experience with LGBTQ+ people. At times the description of gender dysphoria, surgeries and other trans issues felt a bit too educational for my taste, but for someone who aren't educated on these topics before reading the book, this can be a positive thing.

LGBTQ+ rep: FtM main character, FtM side character (minor), other minor characters of varying sexualities and gender identities

I'm going to miss Pony a lot now that the book is over, and I truly wish there'd be a sequel where we could see him getting the money necessary for his top surgery and actually going through with it. I'd also love to see how Georgia slowly but surely becomes more comfortable being herself

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indianagranger's review

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I was very annoyed with Pony’s toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia and misogyny.  I hadn’t been enjoying his chapters for a while.  I was also getting anxious about all the hinting about what happened to Georgia without anyone saying what it was. 
the thing that drew the line in the sand was how Georgia responded to Pony coming out.  It felt out of character and like it was just there to cause problems between them and make them both  bad people so they are on even ground.  
. Basically this book was not what I hoped it would be based on how it was presented and I was worried about getting triggered constantly.

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xoodlebooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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