Title: Act Cool
Author: Tobly McSmith
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Publication date: September 7, 2021
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Summary
August Greene just won a coveted spot at the prestigious School of Performing Arts in New York. It’s the first step in his journey to eventually becoming a famous actor. However, there’s only one problem: his parents won’t let him transition. In order to be able to stay at the school with his aunt, he has to promise not to change his identity.
So, August has more roles to play outside of the theater. He has to act like the child his parents want him to be. But also the confident new kid who has what it takes to make it in New York. What happens when August is playing so many roles he can’t figure out what’s real and what isn’t?
Review: Act Cool
Thanks to Quill Tree Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book to review! I am actually completely in love with this cover. The color pallette is amazing and I think it really fits the story. I also read Stay Gold last year and was interested to see what this author did next!
Unfortunately, this book missed the mark for me. I just don’t think McSmith’s writing style is for me. Stay Gold was a book that didn’t really seem to know what it wanted to do, and I felt much the same about this one. August acts so much in this story that it’s difficult to pick out what his actual identity is. He loses himself in his love for acting, and this isn’t quite resolved by the end of the book.
Additionally, the romance in the book felt forced to me. Honestly, I don’t even think this story needed the side romance; there’s so much here with August dealing with his parents that I think this plot line could have been completely removed. Instead, I wanted more from August and his Aunt. This was the best aspect of the book as the two of them gain the courage to breakaway from August’s parents. That’s the redeeming quality of book, in my opinion.
While I understand the acting was a huge part of August’s journey, I wanted to see more resolution in terms of breaking away from transphobic parents. Also, I thought we had finally gotten away from inculding deadnames in books with trans main characters, but I guess not. It’s been done in other books, so let’s keep that trend!
Anyway, there were good aspects to this book, but overall, it wasn’t really for me. I can see some teens relating to it, though!
3/5 stars