the aspects about religion in this book hit so hard for me
ik this book doesn’t technically have a “happy” ending, but it has a hopeful one. this might be specific to just me, but i don’t mind queer books without particularly happy endings as i think we need those kind of books too (along with the fact that the non-happy ending queer books tend to be my more relatable ones lmao). to me even when i was a young teen, say around 15, reading queer ya i was disappointed by how many books had perfect happy endings with stellarly accepting people in them (obviously those books have their place too but thats not my point rn) and i would just feel sad and jealous because of how unrelatable it felt to me
the side characters in this did feel a tad flat (particularly Stella) but even so i really like B’rad and Beckett
sorry this review is kinda personal, but a lot of the topics covered in this book are extremely personal to me which is why i put it on my tbr!! this and Gay The Pray Away by Natalie Naudus were both very personal and emotional reading experiences for me that i deeply needed
(i really need to reread Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle and Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White. just go all the way and make 2024 my year of coming to terms with the fact that i have religious trauma from christianity)