Hopepunk

by Preston Norton

A novel about forgiveness and redemption, and about how hope is the ultimate act of rebellion.

Growing up in a conservative Christian household isn’t easy for rock-obsessed Hope Cassidy. She's spent her whole life being told that the devil speaks through Led Zeppelin, but it’s even worse for her sister, Faith, who feels like she can’t be honest about dating the record shop cashier, Mavis. That is, until their youngest sister hears word of their "sinful" utopia and outs Faith to their parents. Now there’s nowhere for Faith to go but the Change Through Grace conversion center…or running away.

Following Faith’s disappearance, their family is suddenly broken. Hope feels a need to rebel. She gets a tattoo and tries singing through the hurt with her Janis Joplin-style voice. But when her long-time crush Danny comes out and is subsequently kicked out of his house, Hope can’t stand by and let history repeat itself. Now living in Faith’s room, Danny and Hope strike up a friendship...and a band. And their music just might be the answer to dethroning Alt-Rite, Danny’s twin brother's new hate-fueled band.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBT, Music, Queer, Fiction, Realistic Fiction

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 2022

About the author

Preston Norton teaches environmental science to fifth graders. He is the author of Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe, Where I End & You Begin, and Hopepunk. He is married with three cats.

Reviews

[Anomaly]

DNF @ 40%

Guys (and gals and nonbinary pals), I thought I'd found the one. I thought I'd found the Holy Grail of books, made with people like myself in mind. I related so much to the main character, who was basically my teenage self but with more courage, that this book filled me with pure joy and made me feel validated for slightly less than the first third. I genuinely believed I'd found the book to drag me out of my reading slump.

Then things began to go downhill, fast. But let's not talk about that yet. Let's get the good stuff out of the way first, so you can understand my disappointment.

This book captured the feeling of growing up in an ultra-conservative household where one parent is not so religious but married into the zealotry perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that I honestly felt like nothing could spoil this book from being something I'd hold dear forever (oh, how wrong I was).

The main character, Hope, thinks in ways I think now (at times) and did at her age (when she's a little too juvenile for current-me). She's not a stereotypical girl, but she's also not one of those obnoxious girls who take pride in being 'not like other girls' - she just knows what she likes, and leans into it. Her older sister, Faith, is similar, except Faith is kind of a science fiction nerd... and a closeted lesbian. I saw a lot of myself in her, as well, especially with regards to the fear and uncertainty related to being queer in the American "Bible belt."

Everything relating to early handling of Hope and Faith, their family interactions, and the story of Faith being outed and fleeing to escape her mother's bigoted tyranny felt raw, honest, and handled with a perfect balance of realism and sensitivity. Hope gets pushed to the edge, driven so deep into disgust and hatred for the mother who, for all she knows, got her big sister killed (nobody knows where Faith ran away to and she's gone no-contact), that she takes upon herself a massive act of rebellion and invites a now-homeless gay kid to live with her family. I know that sounds like a spoiler, but it isn't; the book blurb basically telegraphs it.

Unfortunately, this is where the book began to spiral out of control and leave me wondering what the fuck had happened to ruin something so perfect. See, we get tons of lead-up where Hope is going on about how she'll fight her mother - even to the death - over her new friend being able to stay in their home since his bigoted father evicted him. And then... her mom, the woman who was going to torture her own daughter just ten months prior to get the gayness out of her, is totally okay with it and has experienced a complete morality shift into believing God does not, in fact, hate gay people. The closest shown to any hint of this turnaround is that the mom started attending a Christian therapy group with a gay priest.

I'm sorry, but all this nonsense about Hope being ready to fight her own mother leading into an unrealistic, complete morality shift instead of a screaming match is just ridiculous. I was all geared up for the catharsis of Hope telling her terrible mom that she owes it to the daughter she failed to make sure nobody else ends up in the same position, but then I just got a completely unearned redemption arc... without the arc. Sorry, but no. I'm not okay with the "teehee the bigot is now reformed because it's convenient to the plot" development. Make her work for redemption, damn it!

But okay, so what, right? One little thing wasn't going to ruin this for me. I kept reading. And it kept getting worse.

So, for me to explain the next thing, I need to back up a little. Danny, the now-homeless boy, is a long-time crush of Hope's. This and her sister's disappearance make her care more than she probably would otherwise about his home life. Yep, we've got the "her crush is gay" trope up in here! And you know what? I didn't mind it at first. Crushes aren't exactly things people can control having, and I respect the honesty of Hope not being able to magically turn off the crush just because she found out he isn't ever going to be available to her. That's fine! I don't mind that.

What I do mind is that she obsesses over him sexually to the point she's somehow simultaneously fetishizing his sexuality (pondering which fictional straight guy he would hook up with) and simping for him harder than an e-girl's fans on the fart jar purchase page. No, really. She can't even sit near him without her engine revving, even now that she knows he's sad, being bullied, homeless, and gay. More than that, though. She realizes their rooms share a wall the beds are against and that gets her so worked up she masturbates by humping her favourite plushie. Poor thing doesn't even get a mention of being washed afterward, though she apparently gets off. 🤢 And she never even stops to realize how messed up and inappropriate that is, getting off on thoughts of banging her new gay friend who is having a horrible crisis and just got disowned by his own twin and father over his sexuality. Nope, she keeps behaving like a dog in heat who cannot possibly stop lusting over Danny.

It'd be comical if it didn't make me feel sick. There's a huge difference between a crush and unbridled lust she pretends to have no control over. It's gross. It's uncomfortable. It makes her seem like a bloody sociopath!

This is where the love I had for the book started to dwindle. No longer did I eagerly consume it; instead, I would stop in the middle of chapters to do other things. And honestly? I wish I'd quit there because it only got worse.

How worse, you ask? Well, the kind of worse that makes it feel like the author stopped caring enough to do the most basic of research, keep the main characters likable, or make the plot believable. It's clear he knows his music, but in this book we have the simultaneous mention of someone binging first person shooter gameplay by watching PewDiePie and Billie Eilish being a famous singer. Except Pewds moved away from being primarily a gamer (especially shooter games) before Billie even had a career, so... 🤦‍♀️ But that wouldn't have bothered me if I weren't already annoyed about Hope being such a thirsty horndog for Danny.

Similarly, I wouldn't have been so annoyed by the character whose name I can't be bothered to look up. I think it's Angus or Atlas or something like that. Anyway, he shames his boyfriend for watching PewDiePie, then turns around and whines about his boyfriend shaming him in return for the kinds of books he reads. I get it, teenagers can be ridiculous and hypocritical and maybe that's just a character trait. But I was too annoyed by everything else not to grit my teeth over that.

Then Danny's homophobic twin started a new band. And named it Alt-Rite. The group of songs they made was called "Special Little Snowflakes" and the songs included one that the author, through Hope, refused to even type because it contained actual racist and homophobic slurs. And another song literally referenced Faith by surname, taunting her for being a lesbian, and calling her Fugly Cassidy. These songs, their names, and how to listen to them were printed on flyers and spread all across a high school. Wherein the principal refused to do anything because "freedom of speech" - aka, because the author wanted to really drive home a point about conservatives.

And look, I'm not saying it isn't possible someone out there would want to do that, but it would never really happen. Even the most bigoted of principals would nip that level of insanely open bigotry in the bud because it included direct bullying and was intense bait for a lawsuit or other legal intervention. Plus, generally speaking, the kind of ultra-conservative being portrayed is actually far more pro-censorship (especially of youth) than they're willing to admit. You can't convince me that a small town in the Bible belt would let its teenagers go around printing and distributing and singing (on school property, in a school-sponsored event) music full of swearing and/or slurs. It's not gonna happen.

And thus, this book I once loved for its boldly honest realism lost me completely for picking the low-hanging fruit and deciding to go with a ludicrous caricature of a mustache-twirling supervillain literally named for the Alt-Right it was mocking. Like, seriously? This is the route taken when there are so many ways to make this plot more realistic and meaningful?!

I'm so disappointed right now. I feel like this book invited me to a party then spit in my face while I was enjoying my favourite song. My intelligence feels insulted. And I'm just sad that I couldn't even make it halfway before the magic died.

But I just... don't care anymore if Faith is ever found (I assume she's fine, since each chapter ends with an excerpt from the book she told Hope she planned to write someday) or who wins the stupid Battle of the Bands or whether Hope ever learns to turn off her horniness.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I deserve financial compensation from the author, and other participating parties that helped create this book.
This broke me, fixed me and tore me up again with NO remorse. I don’t think it’s enough for me to just pass this off as another 5 star book.

One word (and several more): HELP

WHY isn’t this book being talked about AT ALL?? HELLO? It’s just short a masterpiece I’d say.

However, I do believe it’s for a certain demographic. And I DO make up that demographic, very well. And not only that, but it’s VERY unrealistic, as far as realistic fiction can go. I know that I don’t need a story to be “believable” for me to enjoy the hell out of it, but I know for a lot of people that is the case. But that doesn’t mean this book isn’t incredible.

TO ME.

SO. Let’s discuss.

This book is about Hope Cassidy, a rock/punk enthusiast who grew up in a VERY Conservative Christian household. And up until the age of 15, shes spent her entire life abiding by her religious mother’s wants and needs without a say in anything.

Hope is especially close to her sister Faith, who was a closeted lesbian until their youngest sister, Charity, outs her to their parents. Before Faith can be sent away to a conversion camp, she runs away.

After a few months of her disappearance, she turns 18, which means that legally, she doesn’t have to be home nor should there be any more legal urgency about her absence. Of course, this sends Hope over the edge, and she begins to spiral and rebel.

Months after Faith leaves, Hope starts a band, with 2 other musicians at school and Danny, a boy who’s she’s had a crush on basically her entire life that recently came out and was kicked out of his home.

Besides the fact that Hopepunk is so unique, I absolutely adorned the found family relationships, of course, because I’m an emotional reck first, and Hope is so insanely herself it makes me want to sob.

My absolute FAVORITE part of this book, is the SIDE story (I cannot explain further or else I’ll spoil it, and you do NOT want that) that goes alongside the main story. It’s so important and integral to Hope and her life, and it was so beautifully done.

To end, I’ll leave you with the moment that made me fall in love with the entirety of this universe:

“Faith was my older sister. Faith was my best friend. Faith was the coolest person I ever met.
When I say “coolest,” I mean that in a more genuine, intimate sense of the word. Faith was a nerd and a total introvert weirdo. By some fake fashion magazine standard, she was like the exact opposite of cool. Outside of one-on-one conversations, she wasn’t eloquent, she wasn’t TV-definition attractive, and her sense of style didn’t extend beyond understanding the difference between shirts and pants. But she was gleefully, recklessly, 100 percent herself, and if that isn’t cool, then fuck. I don’t know what is.”

[Starr ❇✌❇ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC from Edelweiss
TW: homophobia, threats of conversion camp, self inflicted wound (knife), bullying, self harm, alt-right mentality, abortion-shaming, verbal abuse
4.5

Hope Cassidy and her sister, Faith, used to be close- close enough that Hope was the only one who knew Faith’s secret. But when she was outed to their conservative christian mother, Faith ran to avoid conversion therapy, and Hope hasn’t seen her since. The thought that Faith would leave her behind without a word of warning feels impossible, but since Faith took along the laptop she’d been writing her sci-fi novel on, her prized possession, it was pretty clear she had- but she had to be coming back, right? In something of a fugue, just waiting for Faith, Hope gets woken back up to the world when she gets in the way of the homophobic assault of her long-term crush. An unlikely friendship sparks an unlikely band, and now, with politics and hate against them, they’ll fight for revolutionary hope.

I loved this book! I love the way Preston Norton writes, I love his characters, and this was the kind of cathartic, vibrant book that just makes you want to shake it in the air.
This book gave me a lot of feelings. It makes you angry, it makes you sad, but mostly it makes you feel a lot of hope and determination. It’s so impossible to stop yourself from turning to the next page and the next page, because it’s like you’re being emotionally pulled forward, building up to something you’re almost magnetized to.

Queer Resistance is such a good, relevant plotline right now, and it’s done so well. I love the showdown between good and bad being a battle of the bands, I love the in your face point of “if you’re staying quiet, you’re helping the other side”.

I also just really love Hope. Her narration feels like living directly in the vibrations of her head, she’s an interesting, outspoken, wounded character powered by spite, hurt, and a need to make the world safer for people conservative turn their back on. Her actions show her as this tough, hard person, but the narration shows you the flawed, funny, bewildered person within her, and they come together in this organic, genuine way.

Just like Hope’s flaws, this book doesn’t try to stay straightforward and easy- it’s messy. And I loved it! People are more 3-dimensional than they might first appear, Hope’s inconvenient crush on Danny muddles the waters, what is the right thing to do may be clear at first but the pathway there is confusing as hell.

There are also a series of excerpts from Faith’s lesbian sci-fi novel, which I thought were amazing. The writing & plot of them reminded me of Charlie Jane Anders, and they also helped break up the portions of the book well and bring in a new layer to the story. I found myself deeply invested in the story without even having all the details or contexts, and it made me really want to know more about Faith’s life.

The only low points for me was that the ending- of both the book and the sci fi story- felt rushed and a bit too cleanly tied off, so that it didn’t feel complete to me, and that I had been expecting/wanting more of a focus on family, and it didn’t quite go there for most of the book. It does go deeper in that regard farther into the book, but I wanted more time to see what Hope’s family was actually like and what they were going through post-Faith and post-Danny.
I thought this book was fantastic! This is the punk, positive, queer-centric book that we need right now.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, bizarre, and I'm so sad it's over.

Preston Norton's latest novel is unlike anything I've read before, and it's a fantastic ride. It should be noted from the get-go that Norton's proclivity for crafting endearingly quirky characters (like near pop-culture savants in previous works) does not disappoint in Hopepunk. The eponymous narrator frames herself best in her own words early on, "I was born full of swear words." If there is a space in which an obscenities laced narrative with heavy helpings of the F-word can be charming, this is it. Hope explains, "I'm not saying there was anything inherently meaningful about the F-word. But sometimes, in a world that I completely failed to understand, it felt like the only word that understood me." And again, I find myself hooked on one of Norton's leads because I feel like I want to hear what she has to say. There's also something really interesting in the words Norton chooses censor, observing the arbitrary nature of language culturally deemed offensive versus hateful language used more casually but with greater capacity to harm.

And I find myself drawn in by the rich world of fully fleshed out characters where even those less relevant to the main narrative demonstrate the truth that people are complicated. Characters I expected to be painted in broad strokes reveal themselves to be people with messy lives. Life is messy, and the people in Hope's world make that clear. Part of what keeps me coming back for more is the way these people are dripping in humanity, and it validates that part of the self unsure of its relative normalcy. There is comfort in seeing the complicated, painful, and beautiful portraits of these people as they are, not as they ought to be.

It's so easy to get caught up in Hope Punk, the people, and the stories of their lives that you might miss the cleverness of the writing. Without giving anything away, there is a story within the story woven throughout that manages to hold its own and acts as a thematic compliment to the larger frame, enriching both. It allows Norton to approach issues surrounding and stemming from rejection of LGBTQ youth from multiple angles and make broader commentaries within both worlds.

Not everyone is going to be ready for this book. It unapologetically deals with themes that some would deem unsavory, and laughs with irreverent, unblinking humor to make it through a world where Faith is gone, Hope is searching for truth, and Charity has been hijacked by the villainous machinations of the Alt-Rite. But Hope Cassidy isn't interested in the people who aren't coming to her rock show. She is there for the kids who need to know that they are loved and wanted in the aftermath of rejection, when the world as you know it seems to fall apart around you. And for them, and everyone who wants to do better by them, this is the story we need.

(And sci-fi! And rock music! And Westerns! Just go ahead and read it already.)

[Eva B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tentative 3.5 stars
HOPEPUNK is a book thats biggest flaw is trying to do too much. And don’t get me wrong, I really liked what we got: Hope as a narrator was compelling and has a strong voice, and I really felt some aspects of it (the good aspects of Hope’s dad reminded me of my dad, and Mr. Britton reminded me of my creative writing teacher to a kind of unsettling degree), but others fell flat. The book felt like it but off more than it could chew and so a bunch of compelling plotlines were cobbled together into a story that didn’t give all of them due time and payoff. Elements are introduced and then abandoned, like Hope’s mom going to a therapy meeting with a gay pastor and then kind of just…not being homophobic anymore? I don’t need her to turn and monologue about how she’s changed, but her going from trying to send her daughter away to conversion therapy to letting a gay boy live at her house feels like a sharp change to go pretty much undiscussed. I also didn’t like the sci-fi snippets, mainly since their font was difficult for me to read.
Basically, if you want an empowering (and also emotional) book about a hopepunk band kicking ass and taking names and can handle a plot with a few too many threads, check HOPEPUNK out!

[✨Veruca✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It reminded me of one of my favourite books, Moxie, with a touch of The Miseducation of Cameron Post and a heaping tablespoon of rock/punk music. I loved every member of Hope Cassidy and the Sundance Kids because they were full of hope, humour and heart.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fucking hell this was genius

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is between a 3 and a 4 for me. I can’t decide. There were moments I loved and moments I was bored and had a hard time pushing through. I don’t know. It’s good but not mind blowing I guess?

[Ally Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m still kind of processing this... I’m not even sure what to say. I can tell you that I was crying at the end. I can tell you that this was an uncomfortable read at times, but was ultimately hopeful. Wow.

[Roeki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did I hate this? Did I love this? I felt things, I felt nothing. Was it too messy, too neatly wrapped up, too much, too little?

Someone help me figure it out

EDIT:
Upon reflection I especially abhor the main character’s crush on Danny. Pretty sure she used the phrase “at least bisexual”. At LEAST? No.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well it's a bummer to end this year of reading on something like this... I would have DNF'd if I wasn't reading this for the MTCBA.

The sheer amount of name dropping and pop culture references alone will mean that HOPEPUNK won't age well, but this author lost me when they made multiple references to Harry Potter (that weren't negative towards HP or it's author) in a book published in 2022 for teens. Which is unfortunate, because there are really important themes within the plot, but in this moment knowing what we know now about JKR, I just can't support a novel that makes HP references as if they're ok.

A lot of the plot points require a suspension of belief due to how conveniently they match up (especially the ending) and while I see what Norton was doing interspersing the Andromeda and Tanks story within the greater story (and that it was supposed to be written by a teenager), I didn't like it at all and thought that it pulled you out of the narrative as a whole making the reading experience clunky and disjointed.

Overall, this was a solid idea with an important message, but could have done with more editing.

[The Rudie Librarian (Brian) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a perfect book, but it is a very good book. It is a very important book. It is a book that gives birth to and sustains hope regarding one of the most hopeless situations that a person could encounter. I love it and I want more people to read it.

[Layla Crowie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotional rollercoaster from start to finish.

This book left me all in my feels. Emotionally charged, filled with so much sadness and yet so much Hope. A love letter to the punk rock bands of old. Hopepunk is a story for anyone who has been left out in the cold and are searching for themselves. It's a story of strong familial bonds, growth and healing. I adored it.

[Buzzkill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my god what to say about this book

Well first off. While this book had a lot of relatable situations, I'm so grateful I have the family I have. I grew up in a Mormon home, but my mother and father were both liberal, college educated people. Homosexuality was still a sin in mormonism but that was never enforced or shamed in my family.

This book left me with a lot of questions, but I'd go so far as to argue that, THAT is what makes it a good book. The ending of this book was satisfying and heartfelt. It resolved what needed resolving. And damn I wish someone made these songs a reality!

[Trigger Warning Database]

Trigger & Content Warnings

Abortion-shaming
Homomisia
Conversion therapy mentioned
Self harm
Self-inflicted knife wound

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately as I was introduced to Hope as the narrator, I didn't get pulled in because it read to me like the start of the manicpixiedreamgirl who punky, funky ways of being in the world are so overt that I try to make some comparison somewhere to another person and just can't.

The heart of the story is a worthy endeavor about family relationships (this between three sisters in a super religious household), secret keeping, and finding freedom. However it was lost in a range of other elements that didn't keep me engaged. It felt done before. So maybe in a different time and place I would have fallen more in love with it, but this time around I didn't.

[ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I thought I hit the jackpot when I found it at my local library but it really fell short for me. I almost dnf at several points in the book but powered through in the hope of a revival.

I love punk, queer resistance, and the empowerment of the youth. This book has such a great concept and intention but I think it really tried to do so much. I think the book captured the feeling of small town conservative living well in a lot of respects, but it also lacks follow through and realism in situations like with the mom suddenly not being homophobic after a few vaguely discussed bible group sessions?

I really thought I found *the* book but this read left me more disgruntled than anything. This book sort of left me with the same bad taste in my mouth as the Netflix film Moxie: good message in theory but lackluster execution.

[jaz¿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could give it a 4 1/2 stars I would, but.....sadly you can't. If the story scrapped the whole Hope being in love with Danny early on then I would've loved it a whole lot more. But OH MY GOD, aside from that and some of the annoying scummy characters (I'm looking at you Shady Shawn) it was amazing and such a rollercoaster. I was jamming out to the songs written and going through grief 101 with Hope. Rock, protesting, & emotional unstableness do work well together!

[Amy Mahoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A raucous good time that makes me want to go hug a teenager and tell him/her/them how loved they are.

[✨Delaney ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It deleted my review for some reason but I fucking love this book so much mwah mwah I cried reading it it has everything I love

[Ava •°✧• · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wish it was a lot better- I think the concept of Hopepunk (as in, the genre/idea not the book) is so interesting and I love it so much but it just didn't deliver in my opinion. It felt really fake at times and didn't tie up some loose ends very well. But sweet and generally fun- weird amounts of sexual desire which wasn't great but ya know

[Cambree Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was an amazing book. I loved it all the way through. I loved Andromeda and Tanks Through Space and Time. Shady Shawn is horrible though saying all those things and writing that song that the title cannot be said, I would have kneed him hard in the balls if I were Hope.

[Jacob Gatz]

DNF 25%
To be completely honest, I picked this book up with some solid expectations. Neanderthal opens the door to the universe was THE book that resparked my love for reading in high school, and is still one of my favorite books I’ve had the joy of reading. So when I saw this announced a while back, I was ecstatic! More Preston Norton?? Punk premise?? More gay?? Sadly to say, this book really didn’t do it for me.
The super rushed shift of Hope’s mother accepting her gay friend, not even 70 pages after she tried to send Hope’s lesbian sister to conversion camp was honestly too much to overlook for me. I felt like I had so many questions about everything, that the book had no goal of answering. It felt like there was so many holes that it felt like I was trudging through mud most of the time.

[myblackbookish_life · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone else said it best. This book takes you through a roller coaster of emotions (at least it took me through it) and you'll want to rage, you'll laugh, you'll feel your heart is too big for your body sometimes. I loved the writing, and the main character Hope's voice is so visceral and real that you can't help but keep reading about her love for her older sister, her complicated relationship with her mother, her deep-rooted love for rock music, and the ups and downs of the band she becomes become part of.

The only thing I wasn't a fan of were the sci-fi chapters between the main story and while I understood why the choice was made, I find myself skimming through the side story to get back to Hope and her narration.

[Trish Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big thank you to the publisher for providing me with and ARC via Netgalley!

Preston Nortons latest book is more serious and heavy-handed than books I've read from him previously. Hopepunk covers so many current issues that are hard to handle on your own and this book felt like a friend that was there to help guide you through all of your complicated feelings regarding topics that are bigger than ourselves.
That being said, I also felt like the book tried to cover too much and therefor often felt unfocused. There were too many story arcs happening and that led to some falling by the wayside and loosing the attention and resolution they deserved. Especially when Hope's band members were introduced and a story that started with a path that was mostly family oriented suddenly flipped and we didn't hear about Hope's parents for the rest of the book. Astrid and Angus were so close in name and unimportance to the story itself that I could not keep them straight. I think a heavier focus on the family would have done the story better.
I still enjoyed this story very much, it felt like someone venting all of their problems and thoughts over the last few years into a novel, which led to Hope's pain and emotions feeling very raw and real

[Zara Brumana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This shit is cheesy af. It's always a bit of a let-down when a writer chooses to frame their story semi-realistically but twists it with a fantastical narrative. Are there kids who are being sent to gay conversion camps? Yes. Is it as easy as running away & then writing an income-producing story online to survive? Nope. Does a town with overt homophobic leanings suddenly change when the sister of the gay kid sings a goofy if well-intentioned "punk" song? Nope.

I understand the concept of a HEA story. I think it's possible to make it happen within the LGBTQ+ umbrella. But not in this network television implausible way. I'm sure there are kids who will read this & feel uplifted by its message but those kids were never in true danger of being sent to a conversion camp to begin with. Those kids are too afraid to go seeking out material like this because of their legitimate fear that the town librarian will tell their parents they checked the book out. Don't sugarcoat homophobia. It only downplays how ugly & truly serious it is for a large number of kids. It's tone deaf & misguided.

[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some things didn't add up for me in this book--like how Hope's mom suddenly changed her tune a quarter-way through the novel. A lot of Hope's personality, given how she was raised, doesn't make a lot of sense either. (No, this time I am not referring to the cursing.) And finally--WHERE WAS FAITH THIS WHOLE TIME WHAT GIVES

[GenericAnim8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Screw it, man. It’s clunky here and there, and there’s a million things in it you could point out as being “unrealistic,” but none of that matters, not really. This book gave me hope, and that’s more invaluable than just about anything.

[Abigail Selva · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished this book in one day.
Not in the way that “good things pass quickly” but in the way that physical torture isn’t particularly pleasant… and you want it over with

Message was good-but the writing was cringe worthy. In a women-written-by-men kinda way :/

[roman :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh