I absolutely loved this book! The main characters were everything that you can ask for! A gang of high school friends standing in their purpose and fighting for their rights. I think that this is a great novel for not just young adults, but also adults to read about LGBTQIA+ and how it affects their everyday lives. This definitely did give me a bit of a peek into what occurs and the ignorance that they have to battle. It inspired me to be more cognizant of what is currently going on in today’s political climate.

Loved the representation in the book. From autism to queer to trans you get multiple areas represented. Having a queer autistic character was so unique and loved that. Some parts were slow but overall a good read.

I went into this book blindly -- only knowing that it is black queer YA fiction, and I was so so delighted when I discovered that the plot revolves around a drama club??? I am a performing arts enthusiast and THIS SLAPPED. Also love how you can apply I genuinely can't get enough of the world, I NEED a series I can binge watch, I need to see the rooms of all these characters, I need to know what they are upto like a few years from now, I would binge all amounts of spin offs.

I love reading realistic and authentic teenagers and high school experiences and Kamryn DELIVERED. I love the flaws of these characters, I love how dramatically realistic everything felt, trust, I am in uni and I come across so many people with similar experiences every other week like this was SO WELL DONE that I was screaming. Screaming at the characters to get their shet together, and at the bigots to GROW A FEW BRAIN CELLS.

Yes some teensy bits were predictable and messy, no I don't care cause LIFE is like that, okay? give me the TV series :/

(This isn't a complaint, I understand why publishers might do this but gosh I wish this wasn't a PDF ARC lol my poor eyesight 😭 , it makes more sense for illustrated books)

I wanted to love this one so bad but unfortunately it just fell really flat for me. Most of this book is centred around a play Ari, Ya, and Atlas are putting on but yet we spend pretty much the entire book not knowing anything about the play except for the fact it is Queer and that's the reason there are protests happening to try and cancel the play. We do know that it has drag queens but honestly that's about it. Even at the end when the play is being put on we don't see really any scenes from it nor see how the protestors react to the play getting to run as scheduled.

Ari as a character felt very dull and her queerness and autism was what made up a big part of her personality. Which I have no issue with but I just wish her character was explored more as a writer, as a student, and just as a teen.

Ya just annoyed me. I know that was the point of part of her character as the "cishet saviour", and I am glad that her falling into this stereotype was addressed, but it still didn't help me feeling frustrated with her through 90% of this book. It was like she was incapable of taking anything seriously and just could not see the fear, danger, and discomfort Ari and Atlas felt about just trudging through to finish the play regardless of of the protests, hate comments, and threat to the teacher's life.

Atlas on the other hand was my favourite. I really enjoyed his character and felt like he was the most reasonable and he also felt the most realistic of the 3 friends.

I just felt like there was so much conversation and filler that didn't need to happen and didn't add anything to the story. Plus, the points I felt like it should focus on more in the story were just skimmed past. I honestly think this story would've benefited putting the play at the end of the second act and using the last bit of the book to address the response the protesters, social media, and students had to the play. Letting the play happen with no sort of resolving conflict in regards to the protesters just didn't really make much sense to me as that was a big conflict throughout the book.

Overall I think this story had such potential but fell flat by dumbing down the stakes and severity of topics it was trying to handle and instead filled the space with forgettable character interactions. I'm just very sad this story fell short as I truly wanted to love it and it had such good potential.