I am NOT a football fan, but give me a book about a trans girl playing football and I will go feral for it. I can't say I like football any better than I did before reading this, but I respect why the sport was important to Grace. It gave her community, a built-in family. She was good at it, and damn do I get the high you get when you're good at something and others recognize you for that. My favorite part was Grace realizing that she has such a huge support system that she absolutely should lean on. I loved Grace's friendships with the boys on the team, as well as her with Tab and Riley. Her attitude in the beginning is "I'm just here to play ball and win" whenever she is asked about being the first and only transgender girl in the sport. She steers discussions away from her gender identity. But by the end, she starts to embrace her identity and become more outspoken. I loved witnessing her growth.

This book contains a LOT of deadnaming and misgendering, both malicious and in pre-transition/pre-coming out scenes. I honestly expected this from a lot of football players (I know, I stereotype, SUE ME). Grace is also very self-conscious about her appearance and not passing. If this sounds triggering to you, please proceed with caution and take care of yourself. This book will be here when/if you're ready for it <3

Thank you to the author and Levine Querido for the e-ARC! All thoughts are my own.

One of the Boys follows Grace Woodhouse in her senior year of highschool, as she deals with her transition and her football carreer. I'll have to admit i don't know anything about football at all, but the author does a great job to make sure the reader can follow along even if they don't really know the sport well.
I really enjoyed my reading. Grace's journey was beautiful to watch, and it was quite moving to see her friends and schoolmates rally with her when she was being discriminated against. Her struggles with wanting to stay friends with her teammates and fitting in with the queer kids felt quite relatable, and i felt it was handled really nicely.
A very important book considering the state of the USA right now!!!!

~Thank you Levine Querido and NetGalley for the ARC - all opinions are mine~

This was such a fantastic story and I need to get my hands on a physical copy of this so that I can make sure this story has the chance to get into the hands of some of my students that really could benefit from seeing themselves in a story like this. Zeller is definitely going to have a space in my classroom,

i really enjoyed this book! now i am not a sports girly, and this book involved a lot of sports, but i still found it easy to follow with my minimal sports knowledge. i loved how Grace’s football friends accepted her for who she was and didn’t make a big deal about her being trans. they just wanted her back on the team so they could win state together. they make me think that men can be good. and then i look at the transphobic coach and realize that all men are the same. fuck him by the way. Grace Woodhouse forever!!!

This is my perfect YA. The teens dialogue was so realistic, the stakes were just right, and the emotional beats hit without being preachy or too much. I'm not much of a football fan but this is still a win for the sports gays and girls everywhere.

Victoria Zeller has a talent for capturing what it feels like being a high school senior right now, trying to figure yourself out, and in this case, doing that all while being in the spotlight. I couldn’t put this book down and so look forward to Zeller’s future work.

Grace came out in the summer before her senior year, after quitting football and breaking up with her girlfriend. She’s adrift now without the steady rhythms of sports as she heads into the school year with a new name, bracing herself for how she’ll be received by her classmates and former teammates. She’s surprised when she’s offered a chance to come back onto the team, though, where her skills as a kicker are desperately needed — and goes for it. Zeller writes a good balance between all of the football talk needed to make this story work, and the “feelingsball” Grace encounters on the field and at school navigating her identity as The Trans Girl Football Player. Grace’s shifting relationships with her friends feel genuine and sweet, as does their support for her when things get rough.

Recommended reading for any current (or former) high school jocks, of course, but you don’t need to have a love for football to love this book, and Grace. Highly recommended.

When I saw this book, I feared that I would feel lost reading it. I know nothing about American football. But even tho this was a big part of the story, I did understand everything with the given context.

Even tho I was a bit scared picking this book up, I knew I had to. As a trans person, it's hard to find representation in books. And even tho I'm a trans man and not a trans woman like Grace, I felt seen. Of course, the trans masc character in the book also helped with that.

All the other representations in this book were amazing as well. Just to list some: teen parents, single dad, lots of queer people, a deaf person, women in sports, etc.

This is such an important book for our time, and I wish that everyone would read it.

"Nothing about this would ever be easy, because I wasn't delicate, or sweet, or pretty, or whatever. I was just Me, and that would have to be enough."

Pleasantly surprised with this book, a wonderful and raw look at what it's like being a trans athlete in high school. I loved reading about Grace's experience being trans as a person who experiences gender dysphoria myself. It felt real and raw and made me tear up several times. I could also really feel the passion of what it feels like to be on a team - I was never an athlete myself, but the fighting for each other and friendships forged really made me feel connected.
The cast of side characters were lovely - a diverse mix of kids who really come together to stand up for what they believe in - Grace, and her right to play football.

My only complaints about this book are very me problems. I found the football scenes a little confusing for someone who doesn't know the sport. Thankfully you don't really need to fully visualize the football scenes to understand the book, but I think it would have enhanced my experience more if I could really understand them.
The other complaint is about some of the language used - sometimes I couldn't tell if something was contemporary language, or football terms that I simply didn't know. I admit I am not necessarily the target audience for this book, as a person in their thirties, but I would say some of the language and in-jokes are so current to this time period that if you don't know phrases like "bet" and "cap" (plus many more that I don't know the meanings of), you may find yourself a little confused. Again, nothing that affects the book as a whole, but something I found a little confusing at times. (Let it be noted that I do often read YA, but it was the contemporary language used here, not the prose being too simple or anything; the prose is beautiful).

A fantastic book for fans of football and sports, kids who feel like they don't belong, gender queer people, or people that just want to learn something. One of the best representations of trans focused media I have ever seen!
Thank you to Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

"I guess that was football, too: something beautiful, something violent."

I loved the representation in the book. It was a sweet story that wasn't all about how hard it was to be trans, which I appreciated (in that, trans people are so much more than the trauma they go through-- the story did a good job being real about the trans experience without focusing on the trauma). I thought there were WAY too many names for me to keep track of, so I finished the book not actually knowing who 50% of the characters were. An easy fix would be to either only call them by their nicknames, or only by their full names. The switching made it hard to keep track.
Without any spoilers/being as vague as possible: I wish there were more nuance to the thing she did that sparked action from her peers. It was tough to be on her side there.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc. I'd like to start by saying, to me, football is one of the most boring sports ever. I know that is a controversial statement to many but I don't think I've even been able to force myself to watch a whole game, and I've been at Super Bowl parties. Anyway, since this novel is full of football I wasn't sure if it would take away from the story. I'm happy to say it didn't. It didn't make me want to run to my TV and watch a game but I have a tiny bit more knowledge and a deeper respect for what the players go through now. Moving on....this was a great story with lots of emotion, introspection, diversity rep, 'teammates are everything' mentality, and a look at what it would be like to be the first transgender woman playing football in college. As a cis woman with a trans daughter I really empathized with Grace's decision to go back to the football team and try to blend in. She goes through a lot of crap that seemed very realistic to the situation. I enjoyed all the different genders, race, sexual identities and questioning going on among Grace's friends. There were a lot of side characters and with all the nicknames, real names and last names sometimes I'd get them confused. I also had no idea what was happening with all the game talk but me not caring about sportsball. I thought the ending was well done and respected the author's choice. There aren't many books written about young trans characters were they don't decide to live openly and deal with all the hate. I respected Zeller for letting Grace not play football and hopefully just live as a woman at college without all the attention on her because of her identity. A great young adult LGBTQ sports story that should appeal to many people. 4.5 stars.

I'm really, really happy this book exists. With the sheer amount of hatred trans athletes are getting from the U.S. and its administration, it's vital to tell stories such as Zeller's, especially for the trans girls/femmes.

Grace is a wonderful protagonist. She's messy, anxious, and is still struggling with everything that comes with being newly transitioned, but the bonds she has with her friends, her teammates, and her dad are some of the best parts of the book for me. The handling of the spectrum between casual/not intentionally hurtful and vicious/purposefully hurtful transmisogyny was also very fascinating to read, as well. The second person POV chapters about Grace before her transition was brilliant, because not only did it showcase the gender dysphoria that led to the current day, but it gave some meaningful backstory to some of her relationships.

Despite my love for the contemporary aspects, the sports part didn't keep my interest. I've never been a big football person, and even though I was impressed by Zeller's deep, personal knowledge of the sport in her writing, I still think it could have been trimmed down a bit to make more room for the story/drama. This is very much a me thing, but I still very much enjoyed reading this.

Absolutely loved this book. Well written and so heartfelt. This isn’t my typical read but I fell in love. It’s such a beautiful depiction of the experience of a trans teen just trying to find her place and learning she doesn’t have to give up everything she loves to fit in.

Phenomenal!!

One of the Boys is just such a genuine story about being trans and being an athlete. Victoria Zeller really captures the sinking feeling of anything gender/trans related coming up and feeling everyone’s attention silently shift to you.

This is one of those books that makes me tear up cause I can’t stop thinking about how much it would have meant to teenage me to read this.

Some of the football talk definitely went over my head a bit, but I think the love for the sport was so clear that it didn’t really matter. Sometimes when Grace would be talking about football mechanics, it felt like when a friend is raving about some show I haven’t seen. Like, I don’t really know what’s going on, but it’s clearly important to you, and I love that for you.

a perfectly queer YA book thst i can’t wait to recommend to everyone!!! this truly went at odds against the stigma surrounding girlies in sports (especially as a trans girly) and i thought it was handled wonderfully. this is one of my favorite reads of the year thus far and i would love to read more from victoria!!! 💕

Thank you to NetGalley and Levine Querido for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ugh, my heart hurts in the best way possible. Run and buy this book. Buy it for yourself and then buy it for your beloved queer and trans friends in your life. Buy it for your family member who just can't seem to Get It and makes 'transgenderism' the talk of the table at family gatherings. Buy it for your 9th grade nibbling, regardless if they're a theatre queerdo or have dreams of being Big Man on Campus in a varsity jacket. Buy it for your football obsessed coworker. Buy it for your dog groomer who doesn't think about sports or trans people, cause all they care about is dogs. Just buy the book, and then buy it again and again and again.

I loved so many things about this book that it's difficult to just name a few but I'll try. First, I love how well-rounded all the characters are. We get a splattering of queer pals in this book which is amazing. We also get some really fleshed out footballers, coaches, parents etc. Zeller's character work in this book is chef's kiss. Second, I LOVE the assortment of friendships in this book. I love Tab and Riley, and the rest of the lunch table crew. I love the football captains and how love just pours out of them. As a non-footballer who is very much so removed from the sports world (I would be in Tab's drama crew), it was so wholesome to witness these young teenage boys stand up for their friend. They support her as a trans girl in so many small but deeply profound ways. This is especially evident through their language and terms of endearment they use for Grace. A large theme of this book is about Grace struggling with pushing back against being 'that' trans and queer girl (blue-haired pronoun person) and working through that internalized misogyny, homo & transphobia. What I love is that those pressures to confirm to a palatable type of transness are not coming from her core football friends (or at least not directly), as you may expect. Instead, they work hard to see Grace for who she truly is and not only embrace her, but celebrate her within and outside of football. I deeply appreciated that the reader got to see glimpses of these boys doing The Work outside of Grace's presence, showing that there is often this expectation and pressure to trans folks to educate those around them. Instead, these boys did a lot of work on their own which was lovely to witness. Of course, these boys have flaws and sometimes they stumble, but seeing them recover from those stumbles makes this book so much more realistic and heartwarming. Third thing that loved about this book is how accessible it is for a wide audience. You can tell that the author has a deep love for football. I don't understand football, but I was INVESTED in the gameplay. That really speaks to the skill and incredible world building of Zeller. I think that 'senior football championship' is an accessible trope that can hook readers into thinking through themes about trans liberation. Trans kids, and trans athletes (especially trans women and girls in sports) is such a hot spot that encompasses so much anti-trans bias that is evident in so many other spaces / institutions. Having a YA book with so much heart that is a love letter to football, I think will really allow perhaps trans-hesitant readers who also love football a way in to developing their empathy towards trans people. And it also shows queer non-football people (like me and Tab) to allow room for the perceived hyper-masculine 'brotherhood' of footballers to be challenged. Like Tab, this book helped me challenge some of my stereotypical assumptions I held about football and male dominated team sports in general. A lesson I'm taking away from this is to give people space to surprise you. I am shocked to say that this football team stole my heart in a very queer, feminist, young joy kind of way.

I could continue to gush, but like, just read it okay? okay. <3

I would recommend this book to literally anyone, but more specifically I think queer & trans readers will especially love this read. I also think if you're a football queer, this is gonna be a special book for you! I also recommend this to any highschooler. Alongside the plot points about football, transition etc, there is a lot in here about growing up, hesitancies about the future, navigating high school peers, coming of age trying to know yourself angst. These kids in this book also have a lot of agency which is really cool to see. We also get to see these highschoolers wrestle with some big life pressures which I believe a lot of teens can relate to.

Anyways, read the book and spread the word! We have a fantastic debut novel on our hands, folks!

One of the Boys is the story of Grace, who is encouraged back onto her American football team after leaving when she came out as trans. I thought the deep strength of this book is in its inclusive and all-round queerness. The author writes with confidence and skill, and I will be following Zeller's future publications with interest and excitement. Grace is a lovely protagonist, rendered with care and love. My personal favourite parts of the book were the Before chapters, which are nicely interspersed with the main storyline and written with respect. I felt more could have been done to flesh out Grace's life beyond sports, although this is clearly meant to be a sports book, so perhaps that comment is a little unfair, it's simply a personal preference of the balance of what I like to read.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of One of the Boys in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked One of the Boys! The book follows Grace, who recently came out as trans, as she returns to play with her old high school football team. She navigates a lot, with decisions to make about college, old and new friendships, transphobia, gender dysphoria, football and self discovery. It’s heavy and deals with tough topics, and has a lot instances of misgendering, deadnaming and slurs. But it also focuses a lot on friendships, acceptance and people that push back against the hate. On top of that Grace’s friends are very queer and wonderful, and the football was interesting and not too overwhelming for someone not too invested in football. It had me gripped from the first couple of pages, and is a book that I definitely think is worth a read!


I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This book was so good! The cover is stunning and was gripping and the ending was pretty good too. I’m definitely gonna get my hands on a physical copy when this comes out

I was given the opportunity to read this book curtesy of Netgalley, and unfortunately this is a very rare occasion where the book was not my cup of tea (DNF).

Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad book at all, not in the slightest.

I absolutely loved the Trans rep as well as the Gay Rep in this book (hence the 3 star review).

However i could not get into the story, i gave it my best shot as i never like DNFing a book and i got to chapter 13 however this book just wasn't for me.

If Victoria Zeller see's this review, i want you to know that you are an amazing author and an amazing trans woman, so its not you, its me.

If the book had of been maybe a bit less sport-related and more about Graces personal life, i probably would've continued reading and finished it.

Would i recommend this book? Sure, if you're a Trans/Queer and a fan of sports, specifically speaking American Football, this book is for you.

I'd like to thank Victoria Zeller and Levine Querido for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
By all means, i will keep an eye out for more of Victoria Zellers works in the future.

This book was so good!! It's simultaneously feels very YA and not YA at all — and that's a good thing. As a trans woman who both didn't come out in high school and isn't super feminine, I really resonated with Grace and her experience. The way Zeller writes about Grace navigating being "one of the boys" while also figuring out her gender was something I've never seen in a main stream published novel, and it made me feel seen! Also, the way Zeller writes dialogue feels natural to how young people speak today, which is not an easy accomplishment.