Pleasantly surprised

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As an adult white male cisgender Baptist preacher, I am far from the target audience of this book! However, Isaac Fitzsimmons did a marvelous job of writing a protagonist that is relatable and easy to empathize with, despite his obvious differences from myself. All of us struggled with highschool, puberty and relationships, and the Passing Play Book shows us that LGBTQ+ teens are just like the rest of us... Except for their struggles over basic human rights.

The book did fall short in many ways. It came to an end quickly and tied up so many loose ends with so much ferocity I may have gotten whiplash reading the last five chapters. Sure the part after the climax is called the falling action, but it's not supposed to feel like skydiving. This book could easily have been 100 pages longer and I would have kept reading it.

Finally, while the main characters were dynamic, any christian character was a wooden stereotype (including the protagonist's love interest). I understand these stereotypes exist for a reason, but it gave the book a pigeon holed view that's not going to win support from those who share that faith.