About the Book
-
Author:
- Isaac Fitzsimons
- Genres:
- Boy-Boy Romance
- Contemporary
- Voices:
- Gay
- Multiracial
- Trans Boy
Cover Story: Forward Pass
Drinking Buddy: Gatorade Toast
MPAA Rating: PG (language, transphobia)
Talky Talk: Middle Grade for YA
Anti-Bonus Factors: Transphobia, Hell Houses
Bromance Status: Teammate
Cover Story: Forward Pass
Cute little cover with Spencer and Justice holding hands. This was an incredibly innocent book, with Spencer and Justice’s romance barely progressing past the kissing stage. The occasional bad word threw me.
The Deal:
Spencer is just a kid who wants to play soccer. He’s good at it. When he transfers to a new private school, he’s quickly scouted by the coach. Despite the nickname ‘Twinkle Toes’, the other guys are happy to have him on board.
There’s only one problem. Spencer is a trans boy. He had to leave his last school when things got nasty and people made threats. His parents feel it would be better if he didn’t rock the boat by going out for the boys’ team.
But Spencer is good, darn it! Why shouldn’t he get to play a sport he loves? He’ll just keep his head down and play the game, and keep to himself. He’ll especially avoid Justice, the kid whose parents belong to a church that espouses transphobia. It’s not like Justice would ever see Spencer as a friend…or anything more.
Drinking Buddy: Gatorade Toast
I kept having to remind myself that Spencer wasn’t in middle school. Not that he was immature, just that this book was such a feelgood story, that we’re not reminded how crude and obnoxious teenagers can be. Spencer is just a boy who wants to be accepted as a teammate, a friend, a boyfriend, and a boy. When his well-meaning parents forbid him to go out for the boys’ team, he enrolls anyway. He’s protective of his neuro-divergent little brother. And he really does stand out on the playing field.
MPAA Rating: PG (language, transphobia)
A very innocent book with no sex or violence. I’m not sure this makes for a realistic book about high school sports, though it’s occasionally nice to read something with a little more of an innocent take to it. This book might have lost something if we got a true look inside the boys’ locker room. When so many of these books are about Issues with a capital I, it’s nice to have something light.
Talky Talk: Middle Grade for YA
This book was the selection for my FYA chapter and the audience was split on it. On the one hand, it’s nice to read a book about a trans character with no violence or on-the-page hate. On the other hand, this is a serious issue, and just about everyone in the book immediately accepted Spencer for who he was. It didn’t feel totally realistic that Spencer’s parents, coach, teammates, and boyfriend pretty much just nod and smile when he comes out. This was a happy book, but maybe not a true to life one.
Anti-Bonus Factor: Transphobia
So Spencer is recruited to play soccer on the boys’ team. It’s a dream come true. But there was unpleasantness at his old school, and his parents would rather he not do anything so rash. So of course he goes behind their backs and joins the team anyway. But there’s the little matter of his birth certificate, with the big fat F on it. If Spencer is found out, his entire team could have to forfeit.
With so many politicians turning trans people into the Boogeyman, this is pretty topical (though it’s usually trans women that gets the haters’ panties in a bunch).
Anti-Bonus Factor: Hell Houses
In case you’re not familiar with the concept of a hell house, it’s where a church puts on a haunted house…though it’s not the jump scare type. It shows the journey of sinners into the afterlife, where they’re tormented for eternity.
Justice, the guy Spencer likes, belongs to a dogmatic church that disapproves of the LGBTQ lifestyle. When Spencer and some other friends visit a hell house for ironic amusement, Spencer is horrified to see what the church says awaits people like him. He’s even more horrified to find Justice backstage with a bucket of fake blood. Could Spencer ever find happiness with a guy who participates in something like this, even if he was forced to by his family?
Incidentally, the one time I ever went to one of these things, we were shown the story of a young soldier who was killed in the Iraq War. In the final scene, her parents happily (frighteningly happily) relate how their kid converted right before being killed. However, they apparently switched actors sometime during the night, and the the parents kept talking about losing a son, casting a weird transgender vibe across the whole thing.
Bromance Status: Teammate
I enjoyed our time together and I look forward to more by this author.
Literary Matchmaking
The Trans-Fer Student by Elise Himes is also about another trans student trying to stay under the radar.
Michael Barakiva’s One Man Guy also deals with traditional families with non-traditional sons.
As does Jeffery Self’s A Very, Very Bad Thing.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received neither money nor the complete Crocodile Hunter box set for writing this review.
