Stay Gold by Tobly McSmith

This was such a heartfelt and poignant coming-of-age story with a main character that immediately stole my heart! It’s a story about a transgender boy finding himself and his voice within and outside the LGBTQIA community, and learning to stand tall against intolerance, rejection, hate, bullying and violence (please be aware of the trigger warnings). But it’s also a warm and hopeful story about finding love and friendship, and being surprised by the good in people.

When Pony starts senior year in a new high school, he wishes for nothing more than to feel normal. Average. Nothing special. Not that the first thing people thought about him would be his gender. Tired from all the attention and bullying he got at his old school after coming out as transgender, he therefore decides to go stealth and keep his head down for the rest of the year. But on the very first day he locks eyes with the school’s most popular cheerleader, and going stealth is no longer an option if he wants to get close to a girl like Georgia.

Even though this book dealt with a lot of difficult and heavy topics such as dysphoria, transphobia and deadnaming of a trans character, homophobia, bullying, assault, suicidal thoughts, public outing and death of a loved one, it was nevertheless a warm and hopeful story, showing the power of love. There were so many amazing characters, and wonderful banter with adorable romcom moments!

This story pulled me in already from the start, and I read the whole book in one sitting, anxiously wishing for Pony to be accepted for who he was and get the love he deserved.

I absolutely adored the sibling relation between Pony and his sister Rocky and how they always supported each other. Especially when it came to their dad and his rude comments, transphobia and constant use of Pony’s deadname. I also loved Georgia as a character with all her fun flaws and quirks, but I didn’t like the way she always cared about what others would think of her and how she rejected Pony when he told her the truth and made it into a thing about Pony being a liar, rather than about Georgia herself being borderline transphobic.

I also had some issues with the very strong ‘out and proud’ theme, and all the criticism that Pony got for trying to just get on with his life for a while after his previous negative experiences. His best friend (the very out and proud) Max even cancelled their friendship when Pony didn’t feel comfortable to publicly support a petition and hence risk coming out in his new school. I absolutely do think it’s important to stay true to yourself, but I would have liked a more nuanced discussion about safety as well. The threat of intolerance and violence is, sadly, all too realistic (which also an event in the book clearly showed).

But luckily Georgia did some amazing character growth and made much better choices and actions in the end. And some of the other side characters really surprised me in their support for Pony and how they stepped up to do better and learn from their mistakes. I also truly enjoyed the way Pony grew during the year we got to follow him, and how he found the power to speak up for himself and the braveness to risk rejection for a chance of love.

All in all, this was such a gripping story with all the feels; sad but hopeful, painful but full of love and friendship! It was much more gripping and had some really intense and painful scenes than might be expected from the synopsis, but it wraps up on a positive note showing how everyone needs and deserves to be seen, worthy and loved for who they are.

Rating:
4.5 stars rounding up to 5

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​Author info:
Tobly McSmith