Seventeen-year-old Callie Canter knows all about screwing up-and being screwed over. After her so-called boyfriend publicly humiliated her senior year, taking a fifth year of high school at Beaufort Hills Academy is her second chance to leave behind a painful past. But her need for social acceptance follows, and going along with the in-crowd is the difference between survival and becoming a … target. Staying off the radar is top priority. So, falling for an outsider is the last thing on Callie’s “to-do” list. Too bad her heart didn’t get the memo.With his strict, religious upbringing and former identity far away in Florida, Jayden Morrissey can finally be true to himself at Beaufort Hills Academy. But life as a trans man means keeping secrets, and keeping secrets means not getting too close to anyone. If he can just get through his fifth year unnoticed, maybe a future living as the person he was born to be is possible. Yet love is love, and when you fall hard enough, intentions crumble, plans detour, and secrets are revealed.From multi-award-winning author Mia Kerick, comes a powerful, timely, and life-changing novel, which follows two teenagers nursing broken hearts and seeking acceptance, and who together realize running away isn’t always the answer.
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Callie is doing a fifth year of school at a private prep school in the hopes of reinventing herself after a disastrous experience in her senior year at her old school. She has the chance to fall in with Shawn and the popular crowd but finds herself more interested in quiet loner Jayden. Jayden is keeping his own secret. He’s given up his family, his home, and his softball scholarship to attend this school. And falling for Callie, or any girl for that matter, isn’t in his plans.
The story is told from the points-of-view of Callie and Jayden. Their voices are so similar it’s, at times, difficult to remember who’s narrating. Both characters have body image issues that they need to overcome. Callie is constantly putting herself down, and this becomes tiresome, especially as there is no evidence that there is anything “wrong” with her. It’s great to see the diversity in the characters – there’s even a Diversity Club at this school! However, there are also bullies, and your heart will ache for both Callie and Jayden, as they struggle to overcome the obstacles placed before them. At its heart, this book asks whether it is okay to keep secrets. It’s also about love – love for our friends and family, romantic love and, most importantly, self-love.
Warnings: mild coarse language, body image issues, sexual references, assault, LGBTQ themes.
I received this book in return for an honest review.
Blog post (18 July): https://www.booksdirectonline.com/2019/07/all-boy-by-mia-kerick.html
I didn’t know what I was getting into when I started reading All Boy. I wasn’t expecting a book that hit me right in the feels. I didn’t expect a book that made me cry, get angry, and then cry again. I didn’t expect a book that made me think about it long after I finished it.
I rarely do this, but I want to let everyone know about the triggers upfront. They would be bullying (viral, transphobic, homophobic), body image issues, emotional abuse, stalking, and assault. So, if any of these triggers you, then I suggest finding another book. If not, then read my review and determine if this book interests you enough to read.
There are two main storylines in All Boy before its merges into the main one. The first storyline is all about Callie. Callie is a hot mess when the book starts. She is at Beaufort Hills to repeat her senior year of high school. But, she seems to be hell-bent on repeating her mistakes from the previous year. Jayden is also at Beaufort Hills to repeat his senior year. Jayden is hoping that living at Beaufort Hills will ease his transition into living as a trans man. The only thing, he has to keep his trans status secret, which he has no problem doing until he meets Callie. As his relationship with Callie amps up, Jayden’s secrets become harder to tell her. Then something awful happens. Something that tests Callie and Jayden’s relationship. What will happen? Can they overcome it?
Even though I didn’t like Callie, I did feel bad for her. She was a hot mess when she came to Beaufort Hills. I was expecting her to repeat the mistakes from her senior year, and it looked like she was heading that way. By the middle of the book, I despised her. She couldn’t see past herself. She had no clue how her reactions to Jayden after the assault affected him. All she could think of was herself and how she was affected. But, after her talk with Lauren, I saw her character shift. She became someone who I wouldn’t have recognized at the beginning of the book. By the end of the book, I still didn’t like her, but I did respect her. Her actions in MA and Florida earned her my respect.
I loved Jayden. My heart hurt for him when he was explaining his backstory. No one should live with the level of anxiety that he did. I got his interest in Callie. I also got why he was playing it safe. He didn’t know how she would react if she found out that he was a trans man. I understood why he left Beaufort Hills after the assault. I also realized why he went home. I will say that I was glad that he had his sister to support him. He needed it. It hurt me to see how vulnerable he was, how hurt and scared when Callie showed up. My heart broke for him.
The end of All Boy had me alternately smiling and crying. I loved that Shawn and his group got what they deserved. I loved what happened between Jayden and Callie. I loved that there was somewhat of a happy ending.
This was a very interesting book. It really made me think. I honestly don’t even know where to start with this review. There was so much that went on in this book. I feel like we got a good look at the things a transgender person might deal with. That was the part that I really kept turning pages on, to try to learn, to understand. It was easier for me to understand Callie’s side. A girl, overweight, worried about food, and people treating her differently, and maybe even seeing herself as overweight, when in reality she wasn’t fat, just maybe not waif-like skinny. That strikes a nerve with me, knowing that I felt that way for years. But to see these two come together, even after the horrible things that they’d gone through in the past, and after they slowly got over the things that happened at their school was a wonderful thing to read. I know that it’s probably not realistic to have happy endings and things to go mostly smoothly as they end up, but I want it to be more like that for people in these types of situations. Really a great story, and I love the message it contained. I highly recommend this one.