This was just okay for me.
I love that Chomiak shared her story, and I can't wait to see this in print with her illustrations!
It wasn't exactly what I thought it would be, so my expectations kinda brought my rating down?
Looking at the cover, description and the length of the audio, I thought this would be a bit more loose? Yes I realize there are much question marks in my review. This one is hard to describe, since I think some of my issues with this may not have been an issue if I had read this in print, or had a different narrator carrying me along.

The narration was delivered in a cold and clinical way, that had detachment flowing out with her words. It took all the emotion out of the book for me. This is one of those instances where having the author read the book didn't work. Sometimes you get MORE emotion when an author reads their story, and other times it feels stiff because they aren't comfortable behind the mic and it reads in their voice.
While Stace was struggling to find her place in the world, I was daydreaming about what this would be like if Amanda Ronconi or Renee Dorian had read it?
I do hope people read her story since their is (sadly) a lot of kids out their dealing with the visceral hate and self doubt she felt throughout her formative years. No one needs to feel unloved for being who they are.
Just get the print copy.
Big thanks to NetGalley & OrangeSky Audio for my DRC.

This is Stacey's life story of discovering and accepting herself. The author did a really good job of capturing her battle with her identity and how it evolves throughout her life and its impossible not to feel for her. I loved watching her grow and learn to accept herself throughout this.
I'm glad towards the end of the book stace found the peace she was looking for and was finally able to embrace her queer identity.

This was an eye opener fior me as a fellow Canadian was surprised to learn how strict and conservative Christians are in Canada always heard this about our neighbours to the south. I think this is an important read fir youth in similar situation to understand their feelings and that god isn't mad at you for being gay.

🌟🌟🌟🌟

What a brave story and sadly, one that is experienced by many from the LGBTQIA+ community who feel guilt with regards to their sexual orientation and their faith.

I am glad her ending was on a more positive note but not many are so lucky.

Personally, I feel that my version of God would be more concerned on what kind of human being you are, i.e. good heart, kind, honest, faithful to the religiom and its teachings versus who you wanna get it on with. But... that's just me.

I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I find it hard to rate memoirs, but I was crying by the end of it so I guess it deserves 5 stars.
This memoir is brutally honest. Stace does a fantastic job at capturing the constant conflicting feelings that come along with being a queer or questioning Christian. Even though my story looks very different from the author's, reading this made me view my faith and relationships differently. Overall it meant the world to me to be able to read about other queer AND Christian people out there in the world. Whether you're queer or Christian or neither or both, I think Still Stace is a very thought-provoking story and reading it via audiobook has been a wonderful experience.

Thank you net galley for providing me with an arc of Still Stace: My gay coming of age story in exchange for a honest review.


I absolutely loved this. Staces journey full of confusion,anger, heartbreak as well as finally hope and peace was an absolute emotional rollercoaster to read through and I'd heavily suggest for everyone to take in mind that there is EXTREMELY homophobia excused by religion in this.

Stace through the book manages to captivate beautifully the struggle that is faith and sexuality as well as the difficulties of coming out to a homophobic social circle and household. Id strongly suggest this book to everyone as long as they think they can handle the homophobia related to religion in it.

Full disclosure: I immediately requested the book on Netgalley for the cover and the author's (also the narrator) voice alone. I'm so incredibly picky about voices when it comes to books. I didn't even care what the book was about. I just wanted to hear the rest. Then I read the synopsis and I felt that whole karma/fate feeling you get when you find something that was meant for you. As someone who grew up in the nineties, in the heavily conservative Southern Christian Bible Belt, Still Stace hit so close to home.

Still Stace is a coming-of-age story told in bits and pieces throughout the years of Stacey growing up. She is a Christian with her whole heart and wants nothing more than to follow the path her world tells her she should. (There's a song lyric this reminds me of: If you wanna hear God laugh, tell him your plans) But Stacey struggles internally for a long time as she tries to navigate the complicated complexity of her sexuality. She does eventually find peace. And that is the heart of the story. Hope and patience and love are universal. (But that also doesn't stop me from wanting to throw this book at every bigoted so-called Christian lol)

I really thought there was going to be more story involving summer camp because of the cover. Summer camp was an escape and where I came to terms with who I really was. Something I never could do at home or school. It was more home to me than home was. It's just a blip in the beginning of Stacey's story. But, for me, personally, it's probably one of the parts that will stick with me.

At times, the story got a little repetitive. But isn't that how life is? Constantly questioning if you're doing the right thing. Making the right decisions. You don't even have to be religious or queer to relate to that. I have not been involved in anything religious in years. But Stacey's story took me back to those confusing teenage years. It's a bittersweet (and maybe slightly traumatic) nostalgia. I'm glad that so many of us are getting to finally tell our stories. And that queer kids growing up today can read them. With all of the current world chaos, we need them now more than ever.

In conclusion, since I read an early copy via audio, I will be checking out the final hard copy because I didn't realize it's an illustrated memior. And there were so many passages and quotes I want to go back and save.


***Thank you to Beaming Books, Stacey Chomiak, OrangeSky Audio, and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review Still Stace.***

Still Stace was an emotionally charged book that tackles a variety of hard themes, such as internalised and externalised homophobia, hate speech, toxic relationships, harassment, guilt and more.

This book was very hard to rate, as it wasn’t a good or enjoyable book. I cannot say that I loved reading it, I felt heavy and scared after finishing it. Which is what the book set out to accomplish— it tells a very difficult story with an important message. It’s raw and it tells the story of a real person without sugarcoating it.

It follows the author from adolescence all the way to adulthood, and the reader is able to experience all her struggles, first loves, and heartbreaks alongside her. The lack of trigger warnings and the marketing as a YA coming-of-age story is alarming, despite the fact that it is emotional and real. Personally, if I were a young teen who hadn't accepted their sexuality and religion or someone who had gone through comparable experiences, it would have a profoundly bad effect on me. It might be effective for a more mature person who wants to understand more about this subject from the perspective of a real person.

I unfortunately had to miss out on the illustrations as I was provided with an audiobook, but from what I’ve seen they were really beautiful. The audiobook was narrated by Chomiak (the writer) herself, which I believe brought an extra layer of rawness into the book. The writing style was satisfying for a memoir, although it read as plain and repetitive at times. Overall, it was an interesting book with a lot to say, but please read it with caution.

My final rating would be 3.5/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Stacey Chomiak for providing a copy of this book.

There is a distinct lack of queer religious stories and obviously there are loads of reasons for this but I think that that makes this story even more important. I listen to the audiobook as a ALC through NetGalley and so I missed out on the graphic memoir part of this book but I saw a few pieces of the art through the author's social media and really enjoyed it.

There is some homophobia and internalized homophobia within the story so CW for that as well as a homophobia for religious reasons.

I always feel odd rating memoirs because this is someone's lived experience and I think that the audiobook was very well done and the writing kept me invested. I think that a lot of religious queers will find solace in the story and maybe some people will realize that there is a way to be both religious and queer.

This is marketed as young adult but it actually is a full-length memoir from childhood to adulthood and so I wouldn't necessarily count it as either YA or adult but I would push this towards the older side of young adults.

This memoir was so powerful. As someone who came from a very similar background to that of the author, I was particularly in tune with her. I did not experience the struggles with my sexuality that she did, but I saw myself in many of the side characters and it caused me to reflect a lot on the negative impact I may have unintentionally had on those around me. This is a wonderful memoir for all teenagers to read.

If I could rate this more than five stars I would in a heartbeat. Still Stace is poignant and tells the story of struggling as young queer person within the church. I wish that I could have read this when I was sixteen years old and convinced that God couldn't love me because I liked girls. There are so many teens and young adults struggling with this exact issue, and Chomiak puts that into words so much better than I ever could. There were times I cried, as her story brought back memories. But more than anything, it is a story of hope and learning to love yourself and be who you are while maintaining your relationship with God.

Thank you to NetGalley and OrangeSkyAudio for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Trigger Warning: religious trauma, homophobia, lesbophobia, suicide threats, harassment, shame, guilt

I’m not a fan of reviewing autobiography’s or memoirs, it just feels weird to try and rate someone’s personal experience. However this is an easy 5 stars in terms of saying what just needs to be said.

The book looks at Stacey Chomiak’s personal experience of growing up as both Christian and gay. The book covers 2 decades of her struggle with her identity. Stacey’s experience of homophobia and lesbophobia was horrible to listen to but is something that happens over the planet for queer people who are religious. Stacey does an incredible job of explaining her struggles through life and battling her identity for so many years.

This book is so important for queer teens but it does need to come with trigger warnings due to the topics it covers and how emotional the book is!

Some of the writing is a tad repetitive but that might be due to recalling past memories and experiences. I’m also gutted that I missed out on all the incredible illustrations due to this copy being an audiobook, but the story itself was amazing so I still understood everything.

Thank you to NetGalley and OrangeSky Audio for a copy of an e-arc of Still Stace in exchange for an honest review!

(Review on Goodreads)

I cannot say that I enjoyed this book…but I wasn’t necessarily supposed to.

Trigger Warnings: This entire book is drenched in religious trauma, homophobia, and internalized homophobia. Suicidal ideation, use of suicide as a threat, harassment, guilt, and shame. If these themes will cause you distress to read, I would not recommend the book, despite the underlying message.

This is a true story of the author’s journey in exploring and understanding her sexuality and reconciling this understanding with her faith. The main message of this story is that there is, in fact, a space to exist as both Christian and queer. However, depending on your circumstances that finding this space can be exceedingly difficult and often feel impossible.

The author tells her story from first exploring sexual feelings in adolescence to her eventually finding peace almost two decades later. Those two decades are the majority of the book and they are fraught with pain and trauma, which can transfer easily onto the reader. Feeling that reconciliation with her faith was so impossible that she attended a conversion camp and religious “counselling” with a “counsellor” who was a twat. Coming out to various friends/family over the course of two decades and the widely negative response she received leading her to feel “overwhelmingly unsafe.”

I wanted to DNF this book so many times (at 31%, 41%, and 65% to be exact) because these themes are hard for me to sit through due to my own personal experiences. However, I stuck it out because I hoped that by the end of the book I would see the Stace grow to accept herself, her sexuality, and even her religious beliefs and I felt the message was truly important. I am pleased to say that this does in fact happen by the close of the book, but not until approximately 83% and even then there was no magical happily ever after BECAUSE THAT’S NOT THE REALITY for this author and often for this community.

My primary complaints about this book are that there were no trigger warnings posted at the beginning (or even the end of the book) and that it was marketed as a YA coming-of-age book. This is not a book that I would recommend to a teen who is struggling with their faith and sexuality. This is a book that I would recommend to an adult who was interested in understanding the perspective, and lived experience, of someone who identified at both Christian and LGBTQ+. I might also recommend this book to someone who may resonate with and feel validated by this story.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author, via NetGalley. Which also means that I missed out on all of the beautiful illustrations that are in the hard copies of this book, and these illustrations likely would change the vibe while reading this book. This audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by OrangeSky Audio in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded down.