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A review by cryscries
Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
I’m being generous about the rating because genuinely the first half of the book was cute - cringe but cute. The second half was not as great and overall there was just a lot of things about this book that I wish was developed a bit better.
Pros: there is a trigger warning in one of the pages before the story begins in the paperback version.
Cons:
1. It was hard to root for the main two characters - especially the main love interest. Georgia is supposed to represent probably a typical cis person reaction but i found it so hard to feel bad for her and her issues. I find her to be rather self centered (even tho she is characterized to kinda be insecure) - throughout the story even though she “gets better” as a person it still doesn’t make up for how she’s acted in the rest of the book. Very passive with standing up for her friends and pony, thoughts of outing him out of jealousy, definitely needs new friends who should be supportive.
2. Everything kinda just works out in the end for pony but it feels a little lack luster in the end of how he gets to where he is - his change feels more said than done.
3. Major problems with the side character max- tho I feel there was a lot of stereotypes in this book, o felt Max’s character was rather toxic. FIRST THINGS FIRST, you do not need to come out if you are not ready and you do not need to come out to show that you are supportive of the community. Do things at your own time. I had problems with max being rather pushy towards pony in wanting him to come out when it is definitely not safe to, have him drop the friendship because pony doesn’t want to be out, and then says he’s proud of pony for coming out at the cost of being beaten up because “it happens everyday”
There were some cute moments in this book but there was too much problems to overlook that.
Pros: there is a trigger warning in one of the pages before the story begins in the paperback version.
Cons:
1. It was hard to root for the main two characters - especially the main love interest. Georgia is supposed to represent probably a typical cis person reaction but i found it so hard to feel bad for her and her issues. I find her to be rather self centered (even tho she is characterized to kinda be insecure) - throughout the story even though she “gets better” as a person it still doesn’t make up for how she’s acted in the rest of the book. Very passive with standing up for her friends and pony, thoughts of outing him out of jealousy, definitely needs new friends who should be supportive.
2. Everything kinda just works out in the end for pony but it feels a little lack luster in the end of how he gets to where he is - his change feels more said than done.
3. Major problems with the side character max- tho I feel there was a lot of stereotypes in this book, o felt Max’s character was rather toxic. FIRST THINGS FIRST, you do not need to come out if you are not ready and you do not need to come out to show that you are supportive of the community. Do things at your own time. I had problems with max being rather pushy towards pony in wanting him to come out when it is definitely not safe to, have him drop the friendship because pony doesn’t want to be out, and then says he’s proud of pony for coming out at the cost of being beaten up because “it happens everyday”
There were some cute moments in this book but there was too much problems to overlook that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Self harm, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Bullying, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Homophobia, Outing, Deadnaming, and Suicidal thoughts