As a queer person who spent my entire childhood in the South, in a town similar to False Beach, this book was a delight. I wish I had this weird little story hidden under the pile of pillows where I kept all the things I didn't want my parents to know about so that way I could come back to it on hard days when the weight was just too much.

Chloe's valedictorian speech, where she says "I learned that a lot of us -- a lot more than I thought -- are doing whatever it takes to survive in a place that doesn't feel like it wants us. I learned that survival is heavy on so many of us. And on a personal level, I realized I'd gotten so used to that weight. I stopped noticing how much of myself I'd dedicated to carrying it," resonated somewhere deep in my soul that I didn't even know I could reach, because how could it not. No one knows how hard it is to survive than people who are also trying to.

I can't even begin to unpack how perfectly CMQ captured life in red states and religiously conservative areas for queer kids just trying to make it through. From the back-and-forth of trying to figure out how God can still love you when everyone says you are sinning, to the magic of a slushy in a parking lot on a hot summer day, and to the undeniable queerness of high school football, I hope people who didn't live this life can begin to understand the nuance behind it. It's not all pain but it's not all roses either, and there's no changing that.

I'm having a hard time figuring out my favorite characters. It might be Smith and Rory; I love an emotionally-available football player, and I appreciate that them figuring themselves out came natural when they had the support they needed. It might be Georgia with her fiery speech about how the South ain't so bad if we stay and fight. It might be Chloe, who finally found the beauty of the South that I'm still struggling to admit to myself sometimes. But all of the characters were like people I knew, fighting to make it out. I'm thinking about the friends from high school who lived quietly queer and those who were brave enough to shout it from the rooftops and I hope they're doing well.

I'm rating this 4.5 stars; .25 off for the fact that Principal Wheeler did not experience enough pain for his crimes, and .25 because how Chloe and Shara fell in love was a little confusing on first read. This is yet another wonderful work by CMQ, and I am excited to add this work of theirs to my heart.