Stay Gold (by Tobly McSmith)

This book had me absolutely weeping by the end of it. It is marketed as more light and fluffy than it is, so be forewarned, the main character, Pony, a trans boy, goes through some major shit in this book and it gets dark. There are very detailed content warnings on Goodreads so I won't go into it, but do give them a read-through if you like.

This is a love story between Pony, a transgender boy going stealth at his new school, and Georgia, a popular cheerleader with more to her than meets the eye. I absolutely loved their relationship, their chemistry, and these two characters, even when they broke my heart. Their friendship and banter really captures the chemistry of that high school friends-to-lovers energy.

There is a bit of "trans 101" content, which I don't think is a bad thing, and it helps make it very visceral. (Especially when a character like Georgia is completely ignorant at the beginning of the novel.) The Max character made me really angry in pressuring Pony to come out as trans. However, although there is a lot of "out and proud" messaging, I don't think the novel thinks Max is correct. He admits at the end that he was wrong and it could easily have ended horribly. But I can see why other readers (again, Goodreads) don't like the message that being stealth is somehow the same as "lying" when being out can be so dangerous. I think McSmith gets this but could have emphasized it more.

I was in tears at the end of it and will be buying my own copy in addition to making a donation to the Stay Gold fund, which helps transgender people get gender-affirming surgery.