This was a fun queer YA rom-com. The basic plot is a bit predictable from the start, but the subplots are really well done and tie into the story in a way that keeps the plot moving at good pace. My only real complaint was that the family conflicts which were very serious and apparent throughout seemed quickly wrapped up and excused toward the end. The banter in this book was fun and quotable in a quirky way. The cast of characters all foiled well. I enjoyed this one.

Disclaimer: I received a gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a perfect book to start off the year. 'Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell' is an addicting read about a pair of gamers who have built a friendship but are unable to meet irl, and how one finds out that he can join a production of Chicago and likely meet the other. They fall in love, there's lots of lying, everything blows up, exactly what you'd expect.

I don't particularly like stories where someone's lie is a central plot device because I get really stressed out, but I found 'Take a Bow' kept me too hooked to care. There's a delicateness and sweetness and sense of acceptance built in here among the lies and bullying and family drama that won my heart over very quickly. The characters are just, lovely. Alex, Eli and Charly in particular just did it for me.

I was most bothered by Noah's school issues, which took too long to be explained and were anticlimactic when they were.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I loved this book. I read Madden's debut novel last year and was delighted to have the chance to see what he's brought us next. And it does not disappoint!! My theatre geek and gamer heart is happy.

Noah Mitchell is a bit of a loner. Ostracized at school and misunderstood at home, his one refuge is the online friend he plays his DND style RPG with, but whose name he doesn't know. But when he has a chance to potentially meet this freidn he's fallen in love with in real life he takes it, even if it requires being in a musical.

Noah's very intensely bullied at school, which gets him into trouble and I did find challenging to read at times (I felt this was well handled and addresses the very real bullying that exists in schools).

Noah makes a charming protagonist and I rooted for him throughout this journey. I really just want to give him a big hug.

Definitely worth a read!!

TW: bullying, cheating (another character), divorce, body shaming (and yes, skinny shaming is also body shaming!!!), talk about child pornography (news), sexual content (no details and fade to black)

Rep: gay MC, queer SCs, set in Australia


If you don’t like the hiding the truth/lying trope, then this book isn’t for you.
After a little incident Noah remains with zero real life friends. His only friend is his online gaming bestie MagePants69. Who is also gay. And really cute. And yes, Noah is kind of head over heals for him.
So when he sees the chance of finally meeting him irl, he takes it. Even if it means taking part in a musical production with his horrible mother.

This was one of the most true to real life YA book I’ve ever read and I really loved that!
The teenagers are moody, mean, fight with their parents, are a litttleee bit overdramatic (especially Eli omg) and they keep everything to themselves, creating a huge mess of everything. I mean why would you talk to adults?!
But Noah’s thoughts were hilarious! I laughed out loud several times.
For me the main focus wasn’t purely on the romance, but also and the bullying Noah’s experiences at school, his relationship with his parents and his new formed friendship.

None of the characters in this book were perfect, especially not the adults and I think that was so refreshing to read.
Not that I’m excusing Noah’s parents behaviour, especially towards him, but life is messy and humans are messy. Nothing is one sided and nothing is easy.
First love includes a lot of big feelings, passion and…drama.

It might sound weird, but I also loved the “first time” sex scene. Nothing worked as planned, it wasn’t movie perfect, but in the end they were simply acting respectful and nice and asked for consent for everything. I loved reading such a realistic scene in a YA book!

What I also “loved” was reading about the body shaming. Because I’ve never read a book that includes body shaming in that way. Being extremely skinny in my teens too I know what it feels like to get comments like this, that make you hate your body and your self esteem even lower. Skinny shaming is also a thing and every kind of body shaming is hurtful and not okay!
Going to the gym was also the thing that helped me a lot with my self esteem and make me feel good, not only in my body, but also for my mind.
I really liked to read about that!

I was hoping that in the end Noah’s situation at school would be a little more resolved. He didn’t deserve what he got and how people treated him.
I was also hoping for an open talk with his mother, her gaslighting was not okay and I would have loved to see it spelled out on page.
There’s a lot going on in this book and maybe it was a bit too much (bullying, his family issues, the body shaming thing, internet security and pedophilic behaviour?, the lying thing etc.).
For me personally especially the lying to Eli thing was dragging on a bit too long, especially because Noah kept adding little lies to hide his identity, which made the thing worse and worse.

I think this is great for fans of Simon James Greens books!

Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell! by @tobias_madden. This is a 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @pagestreetya for granting me a copy of this book ahead of its US release date. Also thank you to @jimmyjizzim for being my hand model whilst away from home 😁.

I really enjoyed this book and the mini-Ballarat Literary Universe that it sits in. Accordingly, I would recommend reading Anything But Fine first.

I loved Noah, he is so very relatable and extremely funny. Was his plan terrible from the start? Yes. But does the guy have conviction? Absolutely!

I appreciate a book that still surprises me in the YA genre and though most of it is predictable, Tobias certainly got me good with one of the late reveals.

There is body image struggles. As part of a C plot, a 'reformed skinny boy' takes Noah under his wings. For me it was done well enough, some others might be a bit off putting.

Take A Bow, Noah Mitchell is a beautiful LGBTQ+ contemporary romance about Noah’s journey of jumping out of his comfort zone and trying to find true-love and happiness. Noah is an incredibly charming, shy guy who really discovers himself in this book. I really enjoyed his character development and his personality had me laughing out loud multiple times. There were so many moments when I was literally cringe laughing because Noah is so naively funny and he honestly has no clue sometimes. I loved him and Eli’s dynamic and I really enjoyed the ending. I do wish there was a bit less miscommunication in this, but overall, this was a very heart warming story and I think this book is going to be a huge hit with fans of Love, Simon. I really hope this book receives all the praise it deserves.

This is a story about connection.  Noah Mitchell, 17 years old, currently has only one friend — and he has never even met him in real life.  After an incident in Year 9, Noah has no friends at his high school.  He spends all his spare time playing online games with a fellow gamer, MagePants69.  Noah knows everything about MagePants69 except for one thing — his real identity.  MagePants69's parents rule for him playing online games is that he never reveal anything, least of all his name, that someone could use to discover his true identity.  

Noah is convinced that if he and MagePants69 could meet in real life, it would be true love.  When MagePants69 uncharistrically lets it slip one night that the reason he was late for their gaming session was a rehearsal that ran long, Noah is (mostly) sure he finally has a clue to his online best friend's identity -- Noah's mom is staring in a community theater production and she was also late getting home that night.  So even though he has never done theater before (and does not like leaving his room any more than necessary), he agrees to his mom's request that he join the show.  After all, anything is worth the chance of forging a real-life connection with MagePants69.  

Joining the cast, Noah fairly quickly identifies his cast mate that is the real MagePants69 -- and comes up with a plan, or rather "The Plan," to make the real-life MagePants69 fall in love with him before coming clean that the two are online best friends.  

But between his struggles to learn the show's choreography and songs; pressure from his mom; trouble with his cast mates, including the sister of one of his former friends and a hard-to-understand tension between one of the actors Noah befriends and real-life MagePants69; and continued bullying from his former friends in high school; all while nurturing his burgeoning relationship, Noah finds himself needing more and more deceptions to keep The Plan going.  He is sure he can keep juggling all the lies on his way to achieving The Plan. But, as Noah soon finds out, the one sure thing in theater is something is sure to go wrong on the way to opening night.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which had me laughing and tearing up in equal measure!  The premise was so clever, and the author did a terrific job of executing it.

Noah is a delightful main character, even when he is making a series of questionable choices.  To that point, the book deftly makes clear not just why Noah is so drawn to MagePants69, both online and in real life, but also why, for Noah, the stakes of the relationship feel even higher than the typical first love.  In addition, the book also does a terrific job of making both Noah's gaming and his experience in the show come to life.  I so enjoyed going on Noah's journey of being in his first theater production, including all the lows and highs of that experience for a novice.  I also appreciated the book's depiction of Noah's relationship with his mother, and how both grew to learn the other was more complex, and also more deserving of grace, than they had initially thought.  Overall, I thought the novel really excelled at, over time, helping the reader understand the perspective of characters that at first seem questionable or objectionable, without excusing their troubling choices.  I was a huge fan of the author's debut, and I think I enjoyed this one even more -- I can't wait to see what comes next.

Strongly recommended!

I definitely enjoyed this book -- at least, until the ending. :/ Don't get me wrong; it wasn't a *bad* ending by any means. It simply wasn't the strong and positive ending I personally was hoping for.

Noah was a lovely MC. He was complex and foolish and brave and silly and loyal -- really, he was a wonderful kid (imo). Eli ... well, he wasn't as clear. After all, the book isn't from his perspective, so we get a fairly limited view of him (through Noah's eyes). That could be why I didn't like him as much and didn't find his actions (especially once Noah's mistakes were revealed) as sympathetic.

I had two main issues:
1. Eli's refusal to have anything to do with Noah (at least at first) once he discovered that Noah had 'planned' their romance. It just seemed OTT (his reaction), and I felt like he was nicer to Alex (after Alex essentially ghosted him) than he was to Noah. And I get that Noah lied about the *one* thing (ie, why he was part of the musical cast -- because it related, obviously, to their gaming), but I felt like Eli just handled it badly, especially once Noah shared his past (which was so sad).

2. I wanted more information about Eli's and Alex's relationship.

But really, this is definitely well written and intriguing, and Noah's characterization is well done.

This is one I think a lot of teenagers would enjoy and probably some adults too! I feel a little harsh giving it 3, but I personally really struggled with it.

Was just way too angsty for me. So many things frustrated me - the stupid bullying, the cheating, the lies and deception and all the little disagreements throughout. I can cope with some of those things if it’s balanced enough with lovely sweet moments, and there were a few of those. But, I just felt overwhelmed with the negative vibes and wanted to shake everyone through almost the whole book.

In a lot of ways the characters were very real: flawed and making mistakes, but trying to just get through life. Certainly captured a lot of teenage experiences and feelings. I just found most of the characters, teens and adult alike, very hard to like and connect with!

However, the exploration of body image and self-esteem was good. Plus, the depiction of community theatre was spot on!! Definitely captured what it was like when I took part.

Mixed feelings myself.
Yet, if you like an angsty queer teen drama type of read, you might get on well with this.

Okay sooooo I seem to be in the minority on this book, because so many people have written great reviews for it, but for me... it was a hard miss. I understand that as a book about musical theatre, it's going to be dramatic, but for me, it was just wayyyy too over-the-top dramatic and I really did not like the main character. He was whiney and self-centred and just got on every single one of my nerves. I was also expecting there to be some sort of big plot twist - maybe Noah had got his online friend's identity wrong - but that never happened, so I was left feeling pretty underwhelmed, but also with my back up.

But as I said, lots of people seem to love this book so it might just be a me thing!

I LOVED Tobias Madden's first novel, Anything But Fine, so I was really excited for this second one. And let me tell you something. Madden's incredible writing PLUS a gaming nerd (sorry, gayming nerd) AND Theatre? Be still my beating heart! This was every bit as brilliant as I had hoped it to be and I am so so exited to read more from this fantastic author.

Ahhhh this one was perfect! Queer, spicy, swoony, and full of wonderful banter. I read this in one day, I couldn't put it down!

Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Publishing for the chance to read this early!

WHEWWWW it has been a minute since I've read cringey teen romance and it was a time! Cringey is a positive in this context because I've missed it, but omg. Noah was such a fun MC, he feels every emotion in his body to the fullest, he's an absolute idiot with the best intentions and terrible followthrough, and I had a lot of fun with him. We may know he's questionable at best in terms of doing the right thing, but we, or at least I, so wanted him to find his happiness anyway. As a musical theater gay growing up, this ticked a lot of boxes, I'm really excited to see the sort of response it gets in publication.

Thank you, Page Street Publishing, for allowing me to read Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell early.

Just like Anything is Fine, Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell is an easy to read queer YA story. I flew through the pages and loved Noah and Eli. I didn’t like the bullying in the story but overall it was a great read and I would love to read Tobias Madden’s next book!