| Author: | Rod Pulido |
| Genre(s): | ➡️ Young Adult ➡️ LGBTQIA+ ➡️ Contemporary ➡️ Asian Literature |
| Series? | ❎ No |
| Goodreads Rating: | ⭐ 3.88 (206 ratings; 84 reviews) |
| Personal Rating: | ⭐ 3 / 5 Overall |
🛑 Spoiler Warning 🛑
I’ll be recounting events, characters, and themes so IT WILL BE FULL OF SPOILERS.
If you’d like to read a review with the spoilers hidden, kindly scroll to the bottom to read my spoiler-free review or head to my Goodreads post. You don’t need an account to read it. 🙂
Description
Bobby Agbayani is a Filipino-American kid living in a Filipino community in America. Aiming to finish school to get his family out of poverty, he does his best in academics and stays out of trouble. He manages to do both until his secret was plastered in his locker for everyone to see. Now, the homophobic busybodies and bullies of the school turned their aim on him. In response, he turns to his favorite celebrity boxer’s sport to keep the trouble off of him. Embodying Manny Pacquaio’s determination he kept training, eventually challenging his biggest bully. But Bobby’s world shatters when his idol publicly shares his homophobic stance, declaring them lower than animals. Bobby is now in a quandary as his biggest inspiration inspires his bully to further the violence against queer people like him.
World and Character Building
Setting
Personally, I feel that the community was described really well. In the beginning, Bobby’s biking route from home, school, and the comic shop visualized the setting and the culture for me. Consistency in the amount of description every time there was a switch in a location was applied, and it allowed me to immerse in the people’s perspectives. I think that deserves recognition considering this is the author’s debut novel. All throughout the story, I’m right where the author wanted me to be; whether it’s the high-tension situations at school, the smelly gym, the comic shop with few people, the church with the snide eyes from the congregation, Rosie’s warm and artistic home, and the contrast between Bobby and Bran’s homes.
Characters
The beginning set the tone and I think that was important considering I was not the target age of this book. I read YA a lot but more high fantasy where characters are forced to grow up more quickly than their actual ages; so the contemporary setting with the characters acting their age took me some time to get used to. The words used and conversations seem to match their age although the placing of the Filipino words seemed awkward sometimes.
I really liked Rosie and Bran. Rosie was a ride-or-die kind of friend and she was consistent with that all throughout. She was artistic, animated, and supportive. Bran, on the other hand, is a calm person. His relationship with his family and his community portrayed a realistic well-off kid who has his own issues developed by being in a relatively safe environment. The contrast between these two characters made the book alive and a good read for me. They balanced Bobby’s personality which became a little too much for me.
Bobby is cynical, which I totally understand given his circumstances. I’m surprised that it was delivered in a way that didn’t turn me off, honestly. However, past a certain point, I started to not get him. He’s poor but seems fine to treat Bran and Rosie as his personal Uber? The more he started to neglect Bran, the more I got pissed. He doesn’t get invested in Rosie and Bran’s project which is ridiculous because if my best friend and my boyfriend – who goes to different schools so there’s no forced proximity – can bond as much as these two I would feel so goddamn lucky. He literally leaves Bran’s BIRTHDAY PARTY early. Yes, I’m emphasizing that party because he claims to love Bran but pulls this stunt. The worst part is that he didn’t even have to do any grand gesture to make up for all of it to get him on his side again in the end. Honestly, I’d love for a short spinoff where Bran realizes that he deserves so much better and he finds someone better.
Despite all the things I dislike about Bobby, I’ll give it to him – he’s consistent. His semi-selfish character was pretty solid throughout the book so it gave him complexity like a real teenager. Manny Pacquaio’s influence is all over the book and it consumed Bobby as any typical person with a celebrity idol does.
🌟 Review (3/5)
A good, quick, coming-to-age read with good queer representation. The setting and characters were well-written. The plot had ups and downs which made the story interesting. I like that the characters provided a good amount of subplots to this novel. There is a trigger for extreme homophobia and bullying. The author dropped really great life lessons and healthy perspectives throughout the book. It tackled great social issues aside from bullying:
- Christianity and homophobia
- Fan culture
- Communication in relationships
- Active Parenting
- Inner prejudices
“I shake my head at the thought of myself, a queer teen who wants to learn how to fight, surprised by a girl boxer. I guess we all have prejudices lurking in our minds.”
— Bobby Agbayani, Chasing Pacquiao
I’d recommend this to younger generations who want to gain a perspective on how difficult it is for a queer person to grow up in a homophobic community and how it affects people’s personalities. As a Filipino citizen, I can attest that the level of name-calling and religious persecution portrayed in this novel can be very real.
The Stray Reader 
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