Can't Take That Away by Steven SalvatoreMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Finished on May 15, 2021
Favorite Scene/Quote: "It's unfair that politics seeks to politicize my identity because this is my life, and it's not up for debate."
I will freely admit that this book affected me more than I had expected it too. I picked it up without knowing much about it and was surprised to learn that it starred a genderqueer main character.
Carey Parker is our main character, a genderqueer teenager who wants to be a diva like Mariah Carey. For the sake of the review, I will be using they/them/their pronouns for Carey. They are out at school and they aren’t exactly thrilled with the situation they find themselves in. They are being bullied by a tenacious classmate, one of their best friends is (apparently) not okay with their coming out, and their grandmother has spiraling dementia. They meet Cris at a record store and Cris is quick to get Carey, something that Carey doesn’t feel like happens a lot. After this Carey gets the confidence to try out for Wicked, where they want to play Elphaba.
This book is amazing, even when it deals with the negative side of things. This book also highlights the reasons I was terrified to come out. This story does deal with things like homophobia, transphobia (against a genderqueer individual), misgendering, and various other things.
Carey is an amazing protagonist. They are nice and determined, but they’re also tired. They don’t get why they have to be the one to force people to change, and they don’t want to have to fight anymore. I loved reading from their perspective. Salvatore did a great job when they described Carey’s feelings during the story. I was more involved with this story and these characters than I had originally imagined that I would be.
This story is heavy. It focuses on having to deal with horrible things and having to fight against the school when the school won’t fight for you. But it’s also stunning. The drama is, unfortunately, realistic. Whether it’s typical high school romance drama or drama because of the homophobia.
I absolutely adored how the chapters were set up. This is the first time I’ve ever read a book that has specified the character’s pronouns at the top of the chapter. It was amazing. Even though this book is written from Carey’s perspective, meaning the pronouns only really come into play when other people are talking about Carey, it was nice to know that I knew how they were feeling that day. If they were feeling more masculine, more feminine, somewhere in the middle.
I adore this book. I eventually want to own it, but until then I will just recommend it to everyone else.
I will freely admit that this book affected me more than I had expected it too. I picked it up without knowing much about it and was surprised to learn that it starred a genderqueer main character.
Carey Parker is our main character, a genderqueer teenager who wants to be a diva like Mariah Carey. For the sake of the review, I will be using they/them/their pronouns for Carey. They are out at school and they aren’t exactly thrilled with the situation they find themselves in. They are being bullied by a tenacious classmate, one of their best friends is (apparently) not okay with their coming out, and their grandmother has spiraling dementia. They meet Cris at a record store and Cris is quick to get Carey, something that Carey doesn’t feel like happens a lot. After this Carey gets the confidence to try out for Wicked, where they want to play Elphaba.
This book is amazing, even when it deals with the negative side of things. This book also highlights the reasons I was terrified to come out. This story does deal with things like homophobia, transphobia (against a genderqueer individual), misgendering, and various other things.
Carey is an amazing protagonist. They are nice and determined, but they’re also tired. They don’t get why they have to be the one to force people to change, and they don’t want to have to fight anymore. I loved reading from their perspective. Salvatore did a great job when they described Carey’s feelings during the story. I was more involved with this story and these characters than I had originally imagined that I would be.
This story is heavy. It focuses on having to deal with horrible things and having to fight against the school when the school won’t fight for you. But it’s also stunning. The drama is, unfortunately, realistic. Whether it’s typical high school romance drama or drama because of the homophobia.
I absolutely adored how the chapters were set up. This is the first time I’ve ever read a book that has specified the character’s pronouns at the top of the chapter. It was amazing. Even though this book is written from Carey’s perspective, meaning the pronouns only really come into play when other people are talking about Carey, it was nice to know that I knew how they were feeling that day. If they were feeling more masculine, more feminine, somewhere in the middle.
I adore this book. I eventually want to own it, but until then I will just recommend it to everyone else.
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