I saw so much hype in the book that while I found the book endearing, I was left disappointed if a few big ways.

Let's start with the good: the way we see a healthy version of masculinity and community and format of this quaint graphic novel. I absolutely loved the found family vibes and the lack of homophobia in the world of a traditionally very masculine sport, showing that these sports don't have to be this way. Everyone on the team treated everyone else like family, and the book felt like a warm hug. The format was also unique in the vlog-esque style, leaving each episode/chapter feeling whole in it's completion yet part of a bigger story. I often have trouble with pacing in graphic novels, but I didn't have this trouble other than one major plot that felt rushed.

First of our issues, the romance. There is not much build up among the relationship. We can see a few sweet moments, but it seems not super differentiable from other genuine moments between the teammates. When I got to the last few pages of the book where we see some of the tweets that Bittle writes, we see so many more hints toward their relationship blossoming. I wish these tweets had been introduced at the end of each chapter instead, or incorporated into the chapters entirely. I see more of a mentor role in Jack to Bittle than a sustained romantic interest.

Additionally, there were several ableist, antisimetic, and faphobic jokes or comments shown throughout the book. I get that there is a lot of toxic masculinity in sports and that these may be realistic, but this book is shown as a more wholesome community than the typical stereotypes of these more masculine men. Some of these include a slur for little people, saying how they'd rather be dead than have seizures, a fatphobic joke, and referring to someone with a phrase somewhere around the ballpark of "hockey nazi" where we don't need to be referring to characters we are supposed to love with that language. These were not overwhelming the book, but they certainly took me out of the moment and caused me a moment to pause for each of these incidents.

Overall very happy that I read this book, but please be cautious if anything in the last paragraph is a trigger for you, and do not go into this book expecting the romance to be center stage.

Themes: found family, identity, confidence, coming of age, new adult