This is not the coming of age story I was expecting. The writing was good and I d the characters. I wanted to love the story more than I did, but I have to respect the realism the author went for. But when I read a queer story I want the happy ending since I see enough unhappy endings in the real world. Daya knows who she is, but she knows her mother and small town don’t accept that she s girls. Daya wants to be true to herself, but she is worried about the reactions of people around her. She bumps into a girl at a party and neither of them really belong there. Beckett belongs to the church world and took a purity pact and has a boyfriend. Things with her mother are tense when she tells Daya she is attending church with her, but she sees Beckett and can’t help but want. This was a good book and quick read. I definitely felt for Daya and I was interested in her story. Overall I gave this one 3.5 stars which I rounded up to 4 stars for being a unique story.
19 s Liralen3,016 220

Daya knows who she is—and she knows that her small Arizona town will never be fully on board. This is not a town where queer kids thrive; it's a town where conservative Bible culture is thriving and the safest thing to do is keep your head down and submit. To not be a girl crushing on other girls—and in particular, to not be a girl crushing on the girl who is the poster child for the local megachurch.

I'm drawn to stories of queerness and also stories of religion, and I intersections in my reading—and, better, I it when it's not all fire and brimstone, and even the...let's call them 'less sympathetic'...characters are allowed some complexity. Here, although Beckett's parents stay pretty one-note, Daya's mother is interesting—she reminds me a bit of Aunt Ruth in The Miseducation of Cameron Post: trying to do the right thing, but not always able to see that not everybody falls under the same 'right thing'. Or maybe Jeanette Winterson's mother in Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? (who asked the titular question, which...tells you something about her, no?)...in any case, she's trying, but not in a way that is helpful to Daya.

The thing that interests me most about the book is the end, and...well, to avoid spoilers I can't say too much about it. But I'm always glad when a book takes the expected ending and turns it on its head. (This is even more true for YA books, which—partly because of the common emphasis on romance—can start to feel predictable.) The Redemption of Daya Keane did not go where I was expecting it to, and although I wouldn't mind a clearer tying up of certain threads (let's call this 3.5 stars), a bit more mess and a bit less predictability than usual makes me a happy reader.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.2024 fiction lgbtq ...more17 s2 comments J R1,032 12

fantastic story and I loved daya's journey and arc throughout! I did not love the arc of Beckett and its ending but yeah thanks so much for the ARC3 s bean :p55

thank you to netgalley for providing me an arc of this book!

3.5/5 rounded down.

i have mixed feelings about this book... let me try to write them out.

i think that the writing style just wasn't for me, same with most of the characters. daya had her good and bad moments, but she just didn't register to me. it felt she was overly worried about the wrong things, such as how pretty and perfect her crush is, even though we have no context for her perfectness. at first she talks about beckett as a slight, vague crush, but by the time they're talking a bit more, daya is basically in love, and keeps going on and on about how she would never a straight girl but oh my god beckett is so perfect and ethereal and beautiful.

i had some issues with the friendship between daya and stella. they felt very superficial until the very end. when they got into a fight, it was nothing was wrong by the time they were both together again. some of daya's internal thoughts about stella felt very condescending as well. however, i did really love b'rad, though. i thought he was a really interesting character and i d his friendship with daya and eventually stella too.

i will say, major trigger warning for domestic abuse/violence and religious trauma. it was more intense than i was expecting, and the ending felt really abrupt and honestly sad. i will admit it was probably pretty realistic, but i'm just tired of tragic queer stories, and the way beckett and her family was handled at the end was honestly a little uncomfortable to me. This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full reviewarc queer young-adult2 s Hannah192 8

Daya Keane is a junior in Escondido, Arizona. For the last several years, at least since her father left when she was seven, Daya and her mother have co-existed, but are not really living. Daya's mother refuses to accept that Daya is queer and it's something the two dance around at all costs as rumors run around their small religiously conservative town. While Daya has always shied away from the megachurch gospel her mom sought following her divorce, she can't help but be intrigued by Beckett Wild, a beautiful, popular posterchild girl for Grace Reedmer's youth group. A chance encounter at a party leads Daya to wonder how much lies under the surface of Beckett's church going persona. When the two are paired for a school project, it becomes clear everything is not as perfect in Beckett's life as she would have the outside world believe. But how close can Daya and Beckett get with everyone watching?

Daya is a fantastic protagonist. There is something magical about her. I love her ability to define her own beliefs and faith when faced with the overwhelming "righteousness" of the megachurch, Grace Redeemer, whose kool-aid her mother and most of her small town have drank. The friend group of Stella and B'Rad are amazing and the queer community and support that Daya finds even in her small town is hopeful. That's not to say she isn't dealing with a lot of shit, but when she finds herself in the worst situations there is someone who comes through. That is clearly not the case for Beckett. I both admire and am driven crazy by the unresolved nature of Beckett's ending in this story, but in some ways that makes Daya's even more potent. There was a lot going on here and the unresolved bits of Beckett and B'Rad's stories when they felt so pivotal to their interactions with Daya are all that kept me from giving this five stars.2024 lgbtq ya-fiction1 Liz126 9

It must be hard being a baby gay with religious trauma in Florida right now.

I really Daya as a character, but I was left scratching my head after reading this. What happened to Beckett? I wish I could get more into Daya's head about her religious beliefs and possibly explore her trauma around having an unsupportive religious mother. I almost wish we could have heard this story from Beckett's point of view to see how she feels for Daya.

It's one of those books that could have gone deeper and dropped the ball by not doing so. It's set in Florida, where so much anti-lgbtq bills are originating. How is that affecting life? How does that transfer down from parents to teens? I'm so glad Daya had support outside of her family, but I wish the author would have driven deeper into these issues.

The writing is fun, but be wary of suggesting this book if some of these topics might be triggering to readers, with little to no payout by the end of everything.2024-reading netgalley-edelweiss1 A????? 129 8

This was a super interesting representation of queer Christianity that's definitely worth a read if you're into exploring further into queer YA lit. Pair with MILO AND MARCUS AT THE END OF THE WORLD. Not a starter title but one that adds nuance I think.

Full review available on Booklist.2024-to-know genre-contemp-cur has-misfits ...more1 Jamie190 67

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