I received this book from O'Brien Press in exchange for an honest review.

CW: Homophobic bullying, internalised homophobia, mild racism.

Rep: Gay teen in Ireland, trans character/trans coming out, drag shows, gay online dating, biracial family, biracial characters.

It's 2015 in Dublin, Ireland, and Ben is ready to begin his adult life. As he volunteers in a local school ahead of teaching training in September, he also begins to navigate the world of queer dating in Ireland and meets Peter - a dreamboat who happens to still be in the closet, and has a lot of issues connected to that. Ben has his friends Soda and Chelsea to help but Chelsea is becoming more and more distant and Ben soon finds himself navigating things alone.

This was a fun read that felt like a wonderful mix between Simon Vs the Homosapiens Agenda and Roddy Doyle's The Snapper. The fears and wonder of being a queer kid exploring your identity while also mixed in with the council estates of Dublin. Ben was a wonderful character and I really liked in this book he was already fully out and there was no shame or fear from him in that respect. He knew exactly who he was, and his parents accepted him and loved him fully for it. I also really loved the great relationship he had with his stepdad Nathan.

This book is set in Dublin, Ireland, and contains some of the highlights of what you would expect to see in the Dublin queer community like PantiBar. The book also doesn't portray this happy, rainbow filled land with dancing leprechauns and everyone happy and kind like you see in some books about Ireland. Ben definitely talks about all the things he loves about being Irish but also mentions that there's still racism, homophobia (a lot of it perpetrated by the Catholic Church), misogyny, poverty, etc.

I liked the parts of the book at PantiBar - though I was surprised they didn't go to The George, another very famous gay bar in Dublin. I'm presuming this was due to Ben's age. The drag shows sounded spectacular, and I enjoyed that Ben's friend Soda was a drag queen called Miss Ugg Lee.

Unfortunately, there is some homophobic bullying in this book from a old school friend of Ben's. There's a lot of use of the f-word and the d-word, and some of it by young children which I found a bit shocking. I even wondered if it was a bit much considering the book was being read by older teens who could find such bullying triggering. I will say though, the bullying is resolved and the bully apologises which doesn't completely make up for years of torment but is a good start (it did seem like the bully had a really quick change of heart though for no particular reason. He went from an utter homophobe to 'oh I guess it's all okay now).

There is a trans character in this book, and I really loved and appreciated how much this person was accepted and loved when they came out.

The romance near the end of the book wasn't surprising to me and I did like the chemistry that sprung up between the two but I found it very quick considering the circumstances around this romance, and wondered if it was the healthiest or if people needed more time. A part of me would have liked to have seen the romance creep in at the epilogue when more time was given to the characters to adjust.