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Dress Codes for Small Towns
As the tomboy daughter of the town’s preacher, Billie McCaffrey has always struggled with fitting the mold of what everyone says she should be. She’d rather wear sweats, build furniture, and get into trouble with her solid group of friends: Woods, Mash, Davey, Fifty, and Janie Lee.
But when Janie Lee confesses to Billie that she’s in love with Woods, Billie’s filled with a nagging sadness as she realizes that she is also in love with Woods…and maybe with Janie Lee, too.
Always considered “one of the guys,” Billie doesn’t want anyone slapping a label on her sexuality before she can understand it herself. So she keeps her conflicting feelings to herself, for fear of ruining the group dynamic. Except it’s not just about keeping the peace, it’s about understanding love on her terms—this thing that has always been defined as a boy and a girl falling in love and living happily ever after. For Billie—a box-defying dynamo—it’s not that simple.
Readers will be drawn to Billie as she comes to terms with the gray areas of love, gender, and friendship, in this John Hughes-esque exploration of sexual fluidity.
But when Janie Lee confesses to Billie that she’s in love with Woods, Billie’s filled with a nagging sadness as she realizes that she is also in love with Woods…and maybe with Janie Lee, too.
Always considered “one of the guys,” Billie doesn’t want anyone slapping a label on her sexuality before she can understand it herself. So she keeps her conflicting feelings to herself, for fear of ruining the group dynamic. Except it’s not just about keeping the peace, it’s about understanding love on her terms—this thing that has always been defined as a boy and a girl falling in love and living happily ever after. For Billie—a box-defying dynamo—it’s not that simple.
Readers will be drawn to Billie as she comes to terms with the gray areas of love, gender, and friendship, in this John Hughes-esque exploration of sexual fluidity.
368 pages, ebook
First published August 22, 2017
About the author
Courtney C. Stevens
6 books891 followersCourtney “Court” Stevens grew up in the knockabout town of Bandana, Kentucky. She is a former adjunct professor, youth minister, Olympic torchbearer, and bookseller at Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN. These days she writes coming-of-truth fiction by night, is the community outreach manager for Warren County Public Library by day, and runs a hobby farm named Fable Stables whenever there is time. Fable Stables has four dogs, six goats, twenty chickens (give or take), and three babydoll sheep on order. She's humbled by the tiny fleet of novels with her name on the spine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 956 reviews
December 11, 2018
I could not have loved this book any more.
June 28, 2022
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!
Otters Holt by night was all ghost, no town.
this is a goofy and sweet book with commendable intentions and an appealingly big-hearted energy. what makes it stand out from most YA offerings is that it is set in a small christian town in kentucky and features a central character whose bisexual explorations coexist with her religious beliefs.
this is ultra-refreshing to me.
not that i hail from a particularly bible-thumping region - i was raised roman catholic, confirmed and everything, but in my family it was more of a social rite of passage than anything else. is there such a thing as secular christians, or is that something like dreidels and the birthright to control the media that only jews get to have? i’m KEEEEDING - i can totally get my hands on a dreidel if i want one. but so even though i never felt imposed-upon by religion in my own sexual development, i know that others struggled with the whole faith vs. sexuality situation, particularly when their attractions were other-than-hetero, so i appreciate that this book exists to show that you don’t have to “pray the gay away,” you can pray and also be gay (or at least bi-curious) without shame and anxiety.
this is a high-three stars, but even though i didn’t love this book for the reader that is me, i love that this book exists for the people it’s meant for. there’s nothing wrong with it, other than it being full of teenagers talking like teenagers, which gives me a twinge of pleasantly embarrassed nostalgia, but doesn’t stick to my readerly ribs. on the one hand, games like THINGS TO DO WITH A CHURCH MICROWAVE are pretty fun:
on the other hand, there are some eyerolly moments, mostly related to a self-important, tribalistic impulse to define through in-jokes:
The year I was seventeen, I had five best friends—a Pixie, a president, a pretender, a puker, and a douchebag—and I was in love with all of them for different reasons.
you know who can pull shit like that off? john hughes. end of list.
this involves six friends who, once again demonstrating that addiction-to-labeling, are known amongst themselves as the hexagon: billie, the preacher’s daughter and center of the story, although not the only POV, janie lee (pixie), woods (president), davey (pretender), mash (puker), and fifty (douchebag). mash and fifty barely factor into the story, although there are practical storytelling reasons for both to exist.
for the most part, they are good wholesome teens - they go to church AND sunday school AND youth group, they have strong, loyal friendships and care about preserving the traditions of their town and prayer and doing good deeds, but there’s a decent amount of drinking, cussing, kissing, and light arson to keep them interesting. they have vowed to keep things platonic within the hexagon’s boundaries, although it’s revealed that there has been some secret smooching here and there in the past, and the main conflict of the book is billie’s frustratingly simultaneous-and-equally-intense attraction to both woods and janie lee, who are currently attracted to each other.
so it’s complicated.
this does a really good job nailing down that fuzzy-bordered place between platonic love and hormone-addled curiosity, where everyone is possible and you just wanna kiss ‘em all in an overabundance of energy and love, heedless of consequences, where it’s all innocent puppy piles and handholding and midnight meet-ups and snuggling without expectations, where billie can …wonder at the difference between interest and attraction and wrestle with whether she likes girls or boys, or if the dilemma is more precisely about individual attraction rather than gender attraction - a choice between janie lee or woods - and weighing out all the different kinds of love and what they mean.
He says, “I think there’s a place where love equals history and a place where love equals the future and a place where love is just love and it doesn’t go away no matter whether you get it back or not. Figuring out the difference —“
“Is impossible,” I finish.
my only gripe, besides the probably really accurate teen-ness of it, is that they’re a little too old to pretend to be this naive. they’re seventeen, and if you’re already shaving, driving, and using a fake ID to get beer, as they are, it’s unlikely that you can hide behind the veneer of platonic affection, characterizing yourselves as “a pack of sexually innocent puppies” with all the tackling and wrestling and cuddling, disregarding any reasonable ulterior motives. although it is true that self-delusion is a big part of adolescence, and one secondary female character exemplifies this by making out with whomever she pleases, claiming ”I don’t kiss everyone. I kiss the people who have the little pieces of my soul I’ve been looking for” which is just dramatically romanticizing what is a really common practice by girls coming into their sexual power, and ties into the central theme of experimentation holding this book together.
the word “experimentation” often gets a bad rap when it’s applied to homosexual hookups in YA lit, something about being dismissive to homosexuality by reducing it to a temporary whim. i personally find this stance maddening and very stupid because adolescence is wall-to-wall experimentation - it’s trying shit out to see if it works for you and how you feel about yourself, whether it’s cliques and personal appearance, dabbling in drinking and drugs, or kissing girls and boys to figure out which gives you the best shivers. if you try it out and it turns out you’re gay, good for you! if it turns out you’re straight, equally good for you! if it turns out you’re neither or both or some brand-new combination of possibilities, experimentation is how you develop into yourself, and it’s a perfectly useful process and a perfectly accurate word and i see people getting all riled up when they read a YA book where a character has a homosexual experience but ends up in a heterosexual relationship at the end as though it’s some kind of betrayal or judgment instead of a thing that happens all the time as teens enjoy their young pretty selves. as davey states:
”Billie, this shit is murky and personal. You had to be able to explore.”
it IS murky and personal, and this book brought all of it back to me in a powerful way. in fact, all of adolescence is pretty much summed up in this one scene:
that frothy epicenter of complete conformity and complete individuality, sweaty and happy and feeling like all the secrets of the universe have just been revealed.
i’m glad i read this book, and i definitely think it’s an important and uncommon perspective in YA lit to advocate being true to yourself while still being a person of faith.
and just as an FYI from a readers’ advisory perspective - a number of reviews on here claim that billie is genderfluid, and unless my copy is missing a bunch of pages, that isn’t accurate. being a tomboy, being mistaken for a boy, being butch or being called a dyke, being maybe-bisexual isn’t the same thing as being genderfluid, and the synopsis-description of billie as a box-defying dynamo is referring to a totally different kind of box. and i know this makes me sound like an asshole, but it's an important correction to make for people who are looking for books about genderfluidity and might be misled. here, a boy wears eyeliner and a girl wears a tie, but there’s no indication that it’s in response to gender identity.
come to my blog!
Otters Holt by night was all ghost, no town.
this is a goofy and sweet book with commendable intentions and an appealingly big-hearted energy. what makes it stand out from most YA offerings is that it is set in a small christian town in kentucky and features a central character whose bisexual explorations coexist with her religious beliefs.
this is ultra-refreshing to me.
not that i hail from a particularly bible-thumping region - i was raised roman catholic, confirmed and everything, but in my family it was more of a social rite of passage than anything else. is there such a thing as secular christians, or is that something like dreidels and the birthright to control the media that only jews get to have? i’m KEEEEDING - i can totally get my hands on a dreidel if i want one. but so even though i never felt imposed-upon by religion in my own sexual development, i know that others struggled with the whole faith vs. sexuality situation, particularly when their attractions were other-than-hetero, so i appreciate that this book exists to show that you don’t have to “pray the gay away,” you can pray and also be gay (or at least bi-curious) without shame and anxiety.
this is a high-three stars, but even though i didn’t love this book for the reader that is me, i love that this book exists for the people it’s meant for. there’s nothing wrong with it, other than it being full of teenagers talking like teenagers, which gives me a twinge of pleasantly embarrassed nostalgia, but doesn’t stick to my readerly ribs. on the one hand, games like THINGS TO DO WITH A CHURCH MICROWAVE are pretty fun:
Woods and I turn our attention to step four, which is seeing How Many Peeps Is Too Many Peeps? The answer: more than forty. It’s messy and delightful.
on the other hand, there are some eyerolly moments, mostly related to a self-important, tribalistic impulse to define through in-jokes:
The year I was seventeen, I had five best friends—a Pixie, a president, a pretender, a puker, and a douchebag—and I was in love with all of them for different reasons.
you know who can pull shit like that off? john hughes. end of list.
this involves six friends who, once again demonstrating that addiction-to-labeling, are known amongst themselves as the hexagon: billie, the preacher’s daughter and center of the story, although not the only POV, janie lee (pixie), woods (president), davey (pretender), mash (puker), and fifty (douchebag). mash and fifty barely factor into the story, although there are practical storytelling reasons for both to exist.
for the most part, they are good wholesome teens - they go to church AND sunday school AND youth group, they have strong, loyal friendships and care about preserving the traditions of their town and prayer and doing good deeds, but there’s a decent amount of drinking, cussing, kissing, and light arson to keep them interesting. they have vowed to keep things platonic within the hexagon’s boundaries, although it’s revealed that there has been some secret smooching here and there in the past, and the main conflict of the book is billie’s frustratingly simultaneous-and-equally-intense attraction to both woods and janie lee, who are currently attracted to each other.
so it’s complicated.
this does a really good job nailing down that fuzzy-bordered place between platonic love and hormone-addled curiosity, where everyone is possible and you just wanna kiss ‘em all in an overabundance of energy and love, heedless of consequences, where it’s all innocent puppy piles and handholding and midnight meet-ups and snuggling without expectations, where billie can …wonder at the difference between interest and attraction and wrestle with whether she likes girls or boys, or if the dilemma is more precisely about individual attraction rather than gender attraction - a choice between janie lee or woods - and weighing out all the different kinds of love and what they mean.
He says, “I think there’s a place where love equals history and a place where love equals the future and a place where love is just love and it doesn’t go away no matter whether you get it back or not. Figuring out the difference —“
“Is impossible,” I finish.
my only gripe, besides the probably really accurate teen-ness of it, is that they’re a little too old to pretend to be this naive. they’re seventeen, and if you’re already shaving, driving, and using a fake ID to get beer, as they are, it’s unlikely that you can hide behind the veneer of platonic affection, characterizing yourselves as “a pack of sexually innocent puppies” with all the tackling and wrestling and cuddling, disregarding any reasonable ulterior motives. although it is true that self-delusion is a big part of adolescence, and one secondary female character exemplifies this by making out with whomever she pleases, claiming ”I don’t kiss everyone. I kiss the people who have the little pieces of my soul I’ve been looking for” which is just dramatically romanticizing what is a really common practice by girls coming into their sexual power, and ties into the central theme of experimentation holding this book together.
the word “experimentation” often gets a bad rap when it’s applied to homosexual hookups in YA lit, something about being dismissive to homosexuality by reducing it to a temporary whim. i personally find this stance maddening and very stupid because adolescence is wall-to-wall experimentation - it’s trying shit out to see if it works for you and how you feel about yourself, whether it’s cliques and personal appearance, dabbling in drinking and drugs, or kissing girls and boys to figure out which gives you the best shivers. if you try it out and it turns out you’re gay, good for you! if it turns out you’re straight, equally good for you! if it turns out you’re neither or both or some brand-new combination of possibilities, experimentation is how you develop into yourself, and it’s a perfectly useful process and a perfectly accurate word and i see people getting all riled up when they read a YA book where a character has a homosexual experience but ends up in a heterosexual relationship at the end as though it’s some kind of betrayal or judgment instead of a thing that happens all the time as teens enjoy their young pretty selves. as davey states:
”Billie, this shit is murky and personal. You had to be able to explore.”
it IS murky and personal, and this book brought all of it back to me in a powerful way. in fact, all of adolescence is pretty much summed up in this one scene:
We’re jumping to the words “I can’t be contained.”
In the middle of everyone else leaping and screaming, I stand completely still and fully embrace the eye of the cosplay hurricane. The power of so many people doing the same thing rushes through my veins like blood. From the costumes to the dancing, we’re caught up in the same palm of an invisible hand.
I am dressed as a boy, I have kissed a girl, I have met people outside my usual web. No one cares. I am hidden. I am perfectly transparent.
This is it. This is living.
that frothy epicenter of complete conformity and complete individuality, sweaty and happy and feeling like all the secrets of the universe have just been revealed.
i’m glad i read this book, and i definitely think it’s an important and uncommon perspective in YA lit to advocate being true to yourself while still being a person of faith.
and just as an FYI from a readers’ advisory perspective - a number of reviews on here claim that billie is genderfluid, and unless my copy is missing a bunch of pages, that isn’t accurate. being a tomboy, being mistaken for a boy, being butch or being called a dyke, being maybe-bisexual isn’t the same thing as being genderfluid, and the synopsis-description of billie as a box-defying dynamo is referring to a totally different kind of box. and i know this makes me sound like an asshole, but it's an important correction to make for people who are looking for books about genderfluidity and might be misled. here, a boy wears eyeliner and a girl wears a tie, but there’s no indication that it’s in response to gender identity.
come to my blog!
February 7, 2017
I wish more books were written about friendship, especially a group of friends. I absolutely live for those types of stories, and this was a great one. Such amazing, loveable characters. I loved every member of the Hexagon, and would totally join their crew if they let me.
April 23, 2018
I’m not crying, YOU’RE CRYING!
November 1, 2019
vlog (reading booksandlala's faves): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L90v...
Shelved as 'dnfed'
April 16, 2020I tried to get into it, this just wasn’t for me 🤷🏻♀️
May 7, 2017
"The year I was seventeen, I had five best friends—a Pixie, a president, a pretender, a puker, and a douchebag—and I was in love with all of them for different reasons."
Dress Codes for Small Towns is like Starbucks's Unicorn Frappuccino. You like the idea of it. You think it looks sleek and colorful in those retouched Facebook ads or through an Instagram filter, but it just isn't good.
A lot of other people like it. It's just you.
The concept is unique and diverse. Billie is a gender-fluid teen living in a small town down South, which has conservative ideas regarding gender norms and sexuality. Her dad's preacher. Billie herself believes in God and never loses her faith.
"I decided that church members would never tell me what to do again. (Jesus could have his say—I was a person of faith; I just wasn't a person of legalistic bullshit.) Those women threw stones over a football and a girl who girled differently from them. That's the real problem—not people leaving the church, not Christians acting like Pharisees, not making up rules that don't exist."
But god, was it boring. The whole book is about normal teenagers doing normal teenager stuff and a competition for a Corn Dolly—a local community award exclusive to women. The sheer slice-of-lifeness of it all bore me to tears. And there's often unnecessary internal monologue about the town's history and customs, which I suppose has its appeal if you were heavily invested, but to me, it just added to the dull factor.
The dialogue comes off as pretentious at times, too.
"I don't kiss everyone. I kiss the people who have the little pieces of my soul I've been looking for."
Fans of YA Contemporary who are looking for a little diversity in their reads will adore this. But it wasn't my cup of tea.
ARC provided by Edelweiss
May 14, 2017
(I received an advance copy of this book for free. Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss.)
This was a YA contemporary story about a girl who wasn’t sure about her sexuality.
Billie was an okay character but I found it quite difficult to really connect with her, I’m not sure why this was, but it took me a long while to warm up to her.
The storyline in this was about Billie being unsure about whether she liked boys or girls, and wanting to kiss several members of her small group of friends just to see what it was like. We also got a storyline about Billie and her gang having to do some community service after accidentally setting fire to the church youth group room, and a competition to be crowned ‘corn dolly’ of the village. I have to say that I found the first half of this book incredibly boring though, and I kept wanting to put this down and not pick it up again. Things did pick up a bit during the second half of the story, but I still found that the book didn’t hold my attention well, and I didn’t like it as much as the author’s previous books.
The ending to this was okay, but I just didn’t enjoy this one much.
6 out of 10
“I am dressed as a boy, I have kissed a girl, I have met people outside my usual web. No one cares. I am hidden. I am perfectly transparent.
This is it. This is living.”
This was a YA contemporary story about a girl who wasn’t sure about her sexuality.
Billie was an okay character but I found it quite difficult to really connect with her, I’m not sure why this was, but it took me a long while to warm up to her.
The storyline in this was about Billie being unsure about whether she liked boys or girls, and wanting to kiss several members of her small group of friends just to see what it was like. We also got a storyline about Billie and her gang having to do some community service after accidentally setting fire to the church youth group room, and a competition to be crowned ‘corn dolly’ of the village. I have to say that I found the first half of this book incredibly boring though, and I kept wanting to put this down and not pick it up again. Things did pick up a bit during the second half of the story, but I still found that the book didn’t hold my attention well, and I didn’t like it as much as the author’s previous books.
The ending to this was okay, but I just didn’t enjoy this one much.
6 out of 10
January 21, 2018
If you’re a fan of John Green’s bestselling books Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns (and, well, his writing style in general), or any of Jenny Han’s novels, you’re going to want to read this book I’m going to tell you about. Although I personally didn’t enjoy it (yep, not a Green/Han fan here), there were things about it that I know will definitely appeal to lots of readers. Plus, it has some gorgeous themes that people of all ages should be more open-minded about.
There’s nothing I support more than books that feature real, modern issues that definitely need to be addressed, whether it be on racism, sexism, and all the other –isms (and more, of course) out there. Courtney Stevens’ Dress Codes for Small Towns is one of those books.
1. It deals with gender identity.
It’s not all about just identifying yourself as male or female. Sometimes, you already know exactly where you stand among the plethora of genders, but you can still be confused about other things. In the novel, the heroine Billie is almost certain about being a tomboy (but definitely a girl, no less), but for some strange reason, she feels the urge to kiss a number of people–some guys, some girls. The book honestly deals with how confusion is okay.
2. It discusses love – all kinds.
Romantic love, platonic love, familial love, and heck, even love from the community – this book has it all. And, again, the confusion that comes with it. If there’s one thing about the novel that I admired the most, it’s how love was a beautiful mess in this novel.
3. It talks about faith.
As a Catholic, it was slightly horrifying for me to read about the heroine’s confusion about the Church, but that’s probably because I go around thinking the things she did. Yes, yes. More confusion. The faith-related confusion was the one I could actually relate to the most. Her moments of I-believe-in-God-but-not-the-Church-or-maybe-I-do were really authentic and gave the book a break from all the love-related drama.
You can find this review on When in Manila !
Aimee, Always | Twitter | Instagram
There’s nothing I support more than books that feature real, modern issues that definitely need to be addressed, whether it be on racism, sexism, and all the other –isms (and more, of course) out there. Courtney Stevens’ Dress Codes for Small Towns is one of those books.
1. It deals with gender identity.
It’s not all about just identifying yourself as male or female. Sometimes, you already know exactly where you stand among the plethora of genders, but you can still be confused about other things. In the novel, the heroine Billie is almost certain about being a tomboy (but definitely a girl, no less), but for some strange reason, she feels the urge to kiss a number of people–some guys, some girls. The book honestly deals with how confusion is okay.
2. It discusses love – all kinds.
Romantic love, platonic love, familial love, and heck, even love from the community – this book has it all. And, again, the confusion that comes with it. If there’s one thing about the novel that I admired the most, it’s how love was a beautiful mess in this novel.
3. It talks about faith.
As a Catholic, it was slightly horrifying for me to read about the heroine’s confusion about the Church, but that’s probably because I go around thinking the things she did. Yes, yes. More confusion. The faith-related confusion was the one I could actually relate to the most. Her moments of I-believe-in-God-but-not-the-Church-or-maybe-I-do were really authentic and gave the book a break from all the love-related drama.
You can find this review on When in Manila !
Aimee, Always | Twitter | Instagram
December 1, 2017
It was surprising how much I loved this book. When I first saw Dress Codes for Small Towns I thought it was a coming out novel, and though I'm not keen on them, I read it anyways. It is not a coming out novel - it's a novel of exploration - sexuality and gender and identity and how complicated feelings can be and it is written in a way that is absolutely beautiful. It isn't a romance; it's a study of characters, of the small town Billie lives in, and of Billie's friends.
The town of Otter's Holt that this book was set in was so atmospheric and captured the "small-town" feeling better than most books do. Billie's relationship with her town was nuanced and complicated; she loves her town, yet she may not love the small-town mentality. It was really heartwarming to see how much the Hexagon (Billie's group of friends) loved the traditions of their town and how much passion Billie had towards saving the Harvest Festival. The setting was a big part of the book's tone.
Billie herself was a delight to read about, and her group of friends were all unique and lovely. I think Davey was my favourite out of them, but the exploration of friendship was so great. It can be difficult to write friendship groups like Billie's, but I really did fall in love with all of the characters in the Hexagon. Stevens knows how to place the reader in Billie's head and her writing style was so pensive and well-developed. I loved the discussions about queer people in the church and I'm always happy to read about queer people of faith. This book just got it - how your relationship with God is supposed to be personal and that the church and God aren't the same thing. Billie never wavers in her faith, which I appreciate so much.
Dress Codes for Small Towns is a very thoughtful and nuanced exploration of identity in small-town America, and I really hope that queer Christian teens are able to read this. It made me feel so much less alone and I believe it will help others as well.
This review and more can be found on my blog!
The town of Otter's Holt that this book was set in was so atmospheric and captured the "small-town" feeling better than most books do. Billie's relationship with her town was nuanced and complicated; she loves her town, yet she may not love the small-town mentality. It was really heartwarming to see how much the Hexagon (Billie's group of friends) loved the traditions of their town and how much passion Billie had towards saving the Harvest Festival. The setting was a big part of the book's tone.
Billie herself was a delight to read about, and her group of friends were all unique and lovely. I think Davey was my favourite out of them, but the exploration of friendship was so great. It can be difficult to write friendship groups like Billie's, but I really did fall in love with all of the characters in the Hexagon. Stevens knows how to place the reader in Billie's head and her writing style was so pensive and well-developed. I loved the discussions about queer people in the church and I'm always happy to read about queer people of faith. This book just got it - how your relationship with God is supposed to be personal and that the church and God aren't the same thing. Billie never wavers in her faith, which I appreciate so much.
Dress Codes for Small Towns is a very thoughtful and nuanced exploration of identity in small-town America, and I really hope that queer Christian teens are able to read this. It made me feel so much less alone and I believe it will help others as well.
This review and more can be found on my blog!
December 29, 2019
Actual rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars
Announcer: Welcome to Another Unpopular Opinion! Here's your host, Luke Reynolds!
*audience mostly claps and cheers, some boo*
Luke: Thank you, thank you! I know some of you are pretty much sick of hearing people gripe about books they didn't like, but others seem to love it for some reason. Well, after Salt to the Sea and Eliza and Her Monsters before it, today I'd like to talk about the newest book from Courtney Stevens, Dress Codes for Small Towns.
I really liked Stevens' first two novels she released. Her debut, Faking Normal, and the one that followed a year and a half later, The Lies About Truth, were both solid contemporaries. The protagonists were likable, the character and parental dynamics were interesting, the circumstances were painful but well-explored, and the love interests were pretty good, too! They were actually sympathetic and really nice, always treating our leading lady well and respecting what she needed. Quibbles aside, Stevens' work has been pretty solid.
It's been one and a half years since I picked up the second Stevens novel and two years since she's released one. This new title, formerly known as Dressing the Part, sounded interesting. A girl exploring where she belonged on the sexuality and gender spectrum while being surrounded by her five best friends and their schemes to making their town a better place? Ambitious, but it could work. Stevens has also tackled the subject of faith before, as she is/was a youth minister, but in this read? Things would definitely take a new turn, as the protagonist was the daughter of a youth minister.
Or at least I thought they would. Honestly, I was very disappointed with Dress Codes for Small Towns. This felt like an overly ambitious debut instead of a third novel. Stevens decided to reinvent herself with this, but in the process, she lost her good writing, her everyday life plots that still felt relevant to the story, and the essence that made them believable. Even though most of the characters felt like Stevens', everything else didn't. Needless to say...I didn't like this book.
*gasp from audience; blonde-haired woman stands up, her lips curled in anger*
Protesting Woman: How can you say that? Do you not like descriptive, heartfelt writing that lets you imagine a place and feelings? Do you not like slice-of-life books that aren't always on and on about the plot? What about those characters that challenged gender norms and sexuality? That's what you really didn't like, wasn't it? You're homophobic! HOMOPHOBE!
Luke: *sigh* Security, take her away.
*two security guards come from both sides of the aisle, grabbing the woman's arms; she kicks and screams as she's escorted away*
Luke: Now, where was I? Right. The book. Should we start off with the positives or negatives?
*audience chants "Negatives! Negatives!"*
Luke: Are you sure? Wouldn't it be better to talk about the things I liked so I don't sound like a Bitter Betty?
Random Man: *shouts* Just get on with the negatives already!
Luke: O-okay, roger that, I guess!
I read this book without skimming it and still don't have any idea what it's about. Is it about Billie McCaffrey navigating her sexuality and gender identity in a small town? Sure. Is it about her circle of friends, their personalities, and what they like to do? You bet! Is it about Davey at parts, the eyeliner-wearing music lover who's pulled between a harsh politician dad and private school while slowly growing to love Otters Holt? Yep! Is it about Billie's art projects, including a sofa she's making out of newspaper? Why, of course. What about her friends trying to come together to save the Harvest Festival in their town after its biggest donor passes away? That's what this book is about, too. Let's not forget the possibility of Billy winning the Corn Dolly, the highest regard for a woman in Otters Holt!
As you can see, there are way too many plot points in this book. Stevens' slice-of-life format struggled under the weight of all she wanted to accomplish. She put too much fluff and substance into the narrative, so this became a chore to read. Sometimes authors put too much fluff and not enough substance or too little fluff and too much substance into their books. This had the worst of both worlds.
Also, we didn't get a chance to see a lot of the stuff the Hexagon did together. Maybe we saw their plans to help save the Harvest Festival, but their community service that would serve to bolster their respect when the Harvest Festival came around? We got none of that. It was glossed over. I really wanted to see those moments. They livened up the small town focus that I was actually curious about.
Now let's talk about the characters. Most were okay. I wish Billie was more interesting than she was. She was supposed to be the "box-defying dynamo," but all I really got out of her was an indecisive, horny girl who loved all her friends and couldn't make up her mind about what she wanted. Fifty and Mash were the only two out of the Hexagon that got no development, with only a few characteristics to help them stand out: Fifty was the a-hole, Mash the braid-wearing black guy who was Davey's cousin. That's it. Davey, Janie Lee, and Woods were fleshed out, but Davey had his own POV chapters that really added nothing to the story. He actually ended up being the most interesting outside of those chapters. I really liked the conflict of male societal expectations with his dad. Janie Lee was the sweet, heart-shaped-faced girl who played violin, and Woods was the master of the house, singer, and planner of all things on his handy-dandy whiteboard, Einstein.
*audience member raises her hand*
Curious Cathy: Is it okay if I ask what happens to these characters throughout the story?
Luke: Yes, of course. They don't really change throughout. Billie is given an arts-and-crafts hobby, and Davey does cosplay, but really Davey gets the spotlight with that. Nothing is accomplished with either of these aside from a convention where they win money. Everyone else is just stagnant and floats along.
Let's move on to the writing of the book, because that's where my biggest issues with this novel lie. Stevens has always had a simplistic but emotional way of telling a story, but she lost that here. You could tell she was really trying to make Dress Codes for Small Towns cool. The result? Some of the most pretentious and nonsensical writing I've seen in a long time. It's actually very John Green-esque, "improbably witty," as coined by a reporter for The New York Times. Let's take a look.
*clears throat*
Luke: "Bring on the gerontological penance."
Curious Cathy: What?
Luke: Exactly. I still have no idea what this means even after looking it up on Google. But wait. There's more.
"Oatmeal and honey oozed from his pores. I wanted to eat him."
"My brain crunches thoughts so loudly it sounded as if I were snacking on Doritos."
"We tumbleweed to our bikes...."
"I feel a strange kinship with this incredible but very normal feat."
"Not only is he going to die in the 42045 zip code...."
"Mom beckons my brain back...."
"I want to ladle these thoughts from my head into Davey's soup bowl."
"We'd know if we were supposed to be together. I mean...haven't we known everything else when it comes to each other?"
"Square dances were asexual before the term existed...."
And my personal favorite: "I don't kiss everyone. I kiss the people who have the little pieces of my soul I've been looking for."
Random Man: *yells* Those sound terrible!
Luke: I know why. Stevens was trying to shoot for a literary book. These titles are usually written to affect readers a certain way. They're the kind that try to be strong structurally, and most of the time, adults love them and kids are hesitant. This book did reach its targeted audience, though. The front is filled with glowing praise from authors that haven't worked for me and several major literary publications, two of which gave this a star.
Curious Cathy: But doesn't that mean we should value it?
Luke: If you liked the book, you can value it however you want. But the starred reviews don't guarantee the novel will be valued and liked by the audience. I'm one of those people. In a sea of nothing but praise, I am one of the only ones who didn't get this book. But if you do, no judgment. You're a different reader than I am.
Curious Cathy: Thanks.
Random Man: Word.
Luke: My positives are small. Like I mentioned before, Davey's conflict with his father was pretty neat. And there were sections when Stevens wasn't focused on the literary writing and stripped it back to an emotional core that reminded me of her earlier books. I even laughed at some of the lines that were genuinely funny. But I'm still left incredibly disappointed with Dress Codes for Small Towns. Whatever point Stevens was trying to make got lost in the mess that was this book. An overstuffed plot, stagnant characters, and over-the-top writing made this collapse, and it's disheartening as a fan of Stevens' older works. I really recommend her previous two works, and for a book that conquered the themes and conflict here but in a better fashion and in a private performing arts school with a capella, check out Riley Redgate's Noteworthy. It has excellently detailed writing without going overboard and several scenes that hit home. You shouldn't miss it.
That'll be all. Thank you so much, and until the next Another Unpopular Opinion, good night!
*applause*
A slightly edited version of this review was published on my school newspaper's website on September 15th, 2017.
Announcer: Welcome to Another Unpopular Opinion! Here's your host, Luke Reynolds!
*audience mostly claps and cheers, some boo*
Luke: Thank you, thank you! I know some of you are pretty much sick of hearing people gripe about books they didn't like, but others seem to love it for some reason. Well, after Salt to the Sea and Eliza and Her Monsters before it, today I'd like to talk about the newest book from Courtney Stevens, Dress Codes for Small Towns.
I really liked Stevens' first two novels she released. Her debut, Faking Normal, and the one that followed a year and a half later, The Lies About Truth, were both solid contemporaries. The protagonists were likable, the character and parental dynamics were interesting, the circumstances were painful but well-explored, and the love interests were pretty good, too! They were actually sympathetic and really nice, always treating our leading lady well and respecting what she needed. Quibbles aside, Stevens' work has been pretty solid.
It's been one and a half years since I picked up the second Stevens novel and two years since she's released one. This new title, formerly known as Dressing the Part, sounded interesting. A girl exploring where she belonged on the sexuality and gender spectrum while being surrounded by her five best friends and their schemes to making their town a better place? Ambitious, but it could work. Stevens has also tackled the subject of faith before, as she is/was a youth minister, but in this read? Things would definitely take a new turn, as the protagonist was the daughter of a youth minister.
Or at least I thought they would. Honestly, I was very disappointed with Dress Codes for Small Towns. This felt like an overly ambitious debut instead of a third novel. Stevens decided to reinvent herself with this, but in the process, she lost her good writing, her everyday life plots that still felt relevant to the story, and the essence that made them believable. Even though most of the characters felt like Stevens', everything else didn't. Needless to say...I didn't like this book.
*gasp from audience; blonde-haired woman stands up, her lips curled in anger*
Protesting Woman: How can you say that? Do you not like descriptive, heartfelt writing that lets you imagine a place and feelings? Do you not like slice-of-life books that aren't always on and on about the plot? What about those characters that challenged gender norms and sexuality? That's what you really didn't like, wasn't it? You're homophobic! HOMOPHOBE!
Luke: *sigh* Security, take her away.
*two security guards come from both sides of the aisle, grabbing the woman's arms; she kicks and screams as she's escorted away*
Luke: Now, where was I? Right. The book. Should we start off with the positives or negatives?
*audience chants "Negatives! Negatives!"*
Luke: Are you sure? Wouldn't it be better to talk about the things I liked so I don't sound like a Bitter Betty?
Random Man: *shouts* Just get on with the negatives already!
Luke: O-okay, roger that, I guess!
I read this book without skimming it and still don't have any idea what it's about. Is it about Billie McCaffrey navigating her sexuality and gender identity in a small town? Sure. Is it about her circle of friends, their personalities, and what they like to do? You bet! Is it about Davey at parts, the eyeliner-wearing music lover who's pulled between a harsh politician dad and private school while slowly growing to love Otters Holt? Yep! Is it about Billie's art projects, including a sofa she's making out of newspaper? Why, of course. What about her friends trying to come together to save the Harvest Festival in their town after its biggest donor passes away? That's what this book is about, too. Let's not forget the possibility of Billy winning the Corn Dolly, the highest regard for a woman in Otters Holt!
As you can see, there are way too many plot points in this book. Stevens' slice-of-life format struggled under the weight of all she wanted to accomplish. She put too much fluff and substance into the narrative, so this became a chore to read. Sometimes authors put too much fluff and not enough substance or too little fluff and too much substance into their books. This had the worst of both worlds.
Also, we didn't get a chance to see a lot of the stuff the Hexagon did together. Maybe we saw their plans to help save the Harvest Festival, but their community service that would serve to bolster their respect when the Harvest Festival came around? We got none of that. It was glossed over. I really wanted to see those moments. They livened up the small town focus that I was actually curious about.
Now let's talk about the characters. Most were okay. I wish Billie was more interesting than she was. She was supposed to be the "box-defying dynamo," but all I really got out of her was an indecisive, horny girl who loved all her friends and couldn't make up her mind about what she wanted. Fifty and Mash were the only two out of the Hexagon that got no development, with only a few characteristics to help them stand out: Fifty was the a-hole, Mash the braid-wearing black guy who was Davey's cousin. That's it. Davey, Janie Lee, and Woods were fleshed out, but Davey had his own POV chapters that really added nothing to the story. He actually ended up being the most interesting outside of those chapters. I really liked the conflict of male societal expectations with his dad. Janie Lee was the sweet, heart-shaped-faced girl who played violin, and Woods was the master of the house, singer, and planner of all things on his handy-dandy whiteboard, Einstein.
*audience member raises her hand*
Curious Cathy: Is it okay if I ask what happens to these characters throughout the story?
Luke: Yes, of course. They don't really change throughout. Billie is given an arts-and-crafts hobby, and Davey does cosplay, but really Davey gets the spotlight with that. Nothing is accomplished with either of these aside from a convention where they win money. Everyone else is just stagnant and floats along.
Let's move on to the writing of the book, because that's where my biggest issues with this novel lie. Stevens has always had a simplistic but emotional way of telling a story, but she lost that here. You could tell she was really trying to make Dress Codes for Small Towns cool. The result? Some of the most pretentious and nonsensical writing I've seen in a long time. It's actually very John Green-esque, "improbably witty," as coined by a reporter for The New York Times. Let's take a look.
*clears throat*
Luke: "Bring on the gerontological penance."
Curious Cathy: What?
Luke: Exactly. I still have no idea what this means even after looking it up on Google. But wait. There's more.
"Oatmeal and honey oozed from his pores. I wanted to eat him."
"My brain crunches thoughts so loudly it sounded as if I were snacking on Doritos."
"We tumbleweed to our bikes...."
"I feel a strange kinship with this incredible but very normal feat."
"Not only is he going to die in the 42045 zip code...."
"Mom beckons my brain back...."
"I want to ladle these thoughts from my head into Davey's soup bowl."
"We'd know if we were supposed to be together. I mean...haven't we known everything else when it comes to each other?"
"Square dances were asexual before the term existed...."
And my personal favorite: "I don't kiss everyone. I kiss the people who have the little pieces of my soul I've been looking for."
Random Man: *yells* Those sound terrible!
Luke: I know why. Stevens was trying to shoot for a literary book. These titles are usually written to affect readers a certain way. They're the kind that try to be strong structurally, and most of the time, adults love them and kids are hesitant. This book did reach its targeted audience, though. The front is filled with glowing praise from authors that haven't worked for me and several major literary publications, two of which gave this a star.
Curious Cathy: But doesn't that mean we should value it?
Luke: If you liked the book, you can value it however you want. But the starred reviews don't guarantee the novel will be valued and liked by the audience. I'm one of those people. In a sea of nothing but praise, I am one of the only ones who didn't get this book. But if you do, no judgment. You're a different reader than I am.
Curious Cathy: Thanks.
Random Man: Word.
Luke: My positives are small. Like I mentioned before, Davey's conflict with his father was pretty neat. And there were sections when Stevens wasn't focused on the literary writing and stripped it back to an emotional core that reminded me of her earlier books. I even laughed at some of the lines that were genuinely funny. But I'm still left incredibly disappointed with Dress Codes for Small Towns. Whatever point Stevens was trying to make got lost in the mess that was this book. An overstuffed plot, stagnant characters, and over-the-top writing made this collapse, and it's disheartening as a fan of Stevens' older works. I really recommend her previous two works, and for a book that conquered the themes and conflict here but in a better fashion and in a private performing arts school with a capella, check out Riley Redgate's Noteworthy. It has excellently detailed writing without going overboard and several scenes that hit home. You shouldn't miss it.
That'll be all. Thank you so much, and until the next Another Unpopular Opinion, good night!
*applause*
A slightly edited version of this review was published on my school newspaper's website on September 15th, 2017.
July 11, 2023
this is not the amazing exploration of gender and sexuality that it’s been praised as. at all.
content/trigger warnings; anti-lesbian slur, anti-gay slur, queer-antagonism, ableist language/slurs,
rep; billie is a girl questioning/exploring her sexuality, and despite nearly every review calling her bisexual, she never uses a label. janie lee is unlabeled but queer? thom is demisexual.
a praiseworthy exploration of sexuality is not a “gay straight bi” mindset. a praiseworthy exploration of sexuality is not just kissing all of your friends. a praiseworthy exploration of sexuality is not referring to a dance as “asexual.”
a praiseworthy exploration of gender is not a tomboy girl who never actually questions her gender, more so just struggles with people forcing their ideas of what it means to be a girl on her (wearing dresses, not playing sports, basic shit like that). a praiseworthy exploration of gender is not the erasure of non-binary identities. a praiseworthy exploration of gender is not “girl equals vagina and boy equal penis.”
a praiseworthy book about sexuality and gender should not have the questioning queer character be told by their queer-hating parent to hide/change/tone down who they are because of how their queer-hating town’s reaction to it will affect the parent. a praiseworthy book about sexuality and gender should not present that as acceptable and understandable.
other notes:
- the only thing i like is the openness and acceptance within the friend group, but that gets bogged down by all the other shit. that corn dolly shit? really? so much of the book wasted on that.
- the queer-hating town and parent really ruined the book for me. i was looking forward to some good questioning/exploration content, but got a bunch of small town church bullshit.
- the acceptance from the queer-hating town and parent came out of nowhere and, along with the ending in general, felt too rushed and neat.
- stop calling your friend group, family, etc. your tribe.
- the use of the phrase “just friends”
- being queer is not a “lifestyle choice” fucking stop with this bullshit
- a comment about a character yelling to get another’s attention, as if they were deaf. y’all still don’t understand deafness, huh? raising your voice won’t make them hear you. stop this ridiculous description and just fucking say the character raised their voice.
- the reviews who call nearly every character in this bisexual are really missing the point of what questioning means, oh my fucking god. not every instantly has a label, not everyone ever has a label, not everyone who is attraction to more than one gender is bi.
- even without all the shit i’ve mentioned, this is just so fucking boring
content/trigger warnings; anti-lesbian slur, anti-gay slur, queer-antagonism, ableist language/slurs,
rep; billie is a girl questioning/exploring her sexuality, and despite nearly every review calling her bisexual, she never uses a label. janie lee is unlabeled but queer? thom is demisexual.
a praiseworthy exploration of sexuality is not a “gay straight bi” mindset. a praiseworthy exploration of sexuality is not just kissing all of your friends. a praiseworthy exploration of sexuality is not referring to a dance as “asexual.”
a praiseworthy exploration of gender is not a tomboy girl who never actually questions her gender, more so just struggles with people forcing their ideas of what it means to be a girl on her (wearing dresses, not playing sports, basic shit like that). a praiseworthy exploration of gender is not the erasure of non-binary identities. a praiseworthy exploration of gender is not “girl equals vagina and boy equal penis.”
a praiseworthy book about sexuality and gender should not have the questioning queer character be told by their queer-hating parent to hide/change/tone down who they are because of how their queer-hating town’s reaction to it will affect the parent. a praiseworthy book about sexuality and gender should not present that as acceptable and understandable.
other notes:
- the only thing i like is the openness and acceptance within the friend group, but that gets bogged down by all the other shit. that corn dolly shit? really? so much of the book wasted on that.
- the queer-hating town and parent really ruined the book for me. i was looking forward to some good questioning/exploration content, but got a bunch of small town church bullshit.
- the acceptance from the queer-hating town and parent came out of nowhere and, along with the ending in general, felt too rushed and neat.
- stop calling your friend group, family, etc. your tribe.
- the use of the phrase “just friends”
- being queer is not a “lifestyle choice” fucking stop with this bullshit
- a comment about a character yelling to get another’s attention, as if they were deaf. y’all still don’t understand deafness, huh? raising your voice won’t make them hear you. stop this ridiculous description and just fucking say the character raised their voice.
- the reviews who call nearly every character in this bisexual are really missing the point of what questioning means, oh my fucking god. not every instantly has a label, not everyone ever has a label, not everyone who is attraction to more than one gender is bi.
- even without all the shit i’ve mentioned, this is just so fucking boring
December 11, 2016
This book has such big heart.
Thank you, Rosemary, for sending me a copy, for getting how much I love Courtney's books. How she is an auto-buy author for me because all of her books are delicately written about brave girls.
Billie McCafferty is a brave girl, indeed. In her small town, she is the preacher's daughter, but not the typical one. Instead she is more tomboyish and hangs out with a crew of boys and one girl she calls the Lost Boys, and their friendship as a whole is called the Hexagon. Together, they cause mischief. Together, they can do anything -- even fall in love.
I adored this book. There is so much to say about this one - about how Courtney Stevens deals with friendship and sexuality and fluidity, and expectations of ourselves, of one another. About how kindness and love go a long way. How G*d loves everyone. Because He does. And I loved that Billie never, ever questioned that. She does question growing up, leaving her small town, identity, how we sometimes "perform" for other people, love, friendship, if falling in love with your friend can change your friend group, and trust.
Can Woods Carrington be my mayor-boyfriend? ;)
I can't wait to own a finished hardcopy.
Thank you, Rosemary, for sending me a copy, for getting how much I love Courtney's books. How she is an auto-buy author for me because all of her books are delicately written about brave girls.
Billie McCafferty is a brave girl, indeed. In her small town, she is the preacher's daughter, but not the typical one. Instead she is more tomboyish and hangs out with a crew of boys and one girl she calls the Lost Boys, and their friendship as a whole is called the Hexagon. Together, they cause mischief. Together, they can do anything -- even fall in love.
I adored this book. There is so much to say about this one - about how Courtney Stevens deals with friendship and sexuality and fluidity, and expectations of ourselves, of one another. About how kindness and love go a long way. How G*d loves everyone. Because He does. And I loved that Billie never, ever questioned that. She does question growing up, leaving her small town, identity, how we sometimes "perform" for other people, love, friendship, if falling in love with your friend can change your friend group, and trust.
Can Woods Carrington be my mayor-boyfriend? ;)
I can't wait to own a finished hardcopy.
February 25, 2019
*2.5 stars*
This book was really not for me
This book was really not for me
February 11, 2018
This was honestly like a warm hug, I adored this.
I will say when I first started, I wasn't sure what to think of it at all. The style was a little bit odd, but as I got about 15-20% into it, I was INTO IT.
Billie was a great narrator and I adored her and her dealing with her questions about her sexuality, gender, friendships, romantic relationships. I LOVED LOVED LOVED her relationships with Davey and Janie Lee in particular, but everyone in the Hexagon (what they call their friend group of six people) was phenomenal and I was super into how interwoven and messy (in a good way) all of their relationships were and how almost everyone was kind of in love with everyone else.
I don't really know how to accurately explain why this book meant so much to me, but there's a line in the book about one of Davey's friends, who says that she kisses everyone that she feels holds a piece of her soul, and that's kind of how I feel about this book. I'm not sure why. I don't particularly relate to super religious southern small town themes, but I just loved these kids kind of defying the town they live in while at the same time really appreciating where they are from and where they have their roots.
I felt like this book was pretty realistic, so it's not all happy all the time, but it just made me feel so... whole, and understood in a way that was odd because I have next to nothing in common with most of these kids, and just... it made me FEEL. And that's all I ask for from fiction.
Sorry, this is an odd review for a very unique book, but basically, please have the takeaway of this be that this was just incredibly lovely in a lot of ways I can't actually find words to explain.
I will surely reread this in the future when I need a pick-me-up.
I will say when I first started, I wasn't sure what to think of it at all. The style was a little bit odd, but as I got about 15-20% into it, I was INTO IT.
Billie was a great narrator and I adored her and her dealing with her questions about her sexuality, gender, friendships, romantic relationships. I LOVED LOVED LOVED her relationships with Davey and Janie Lee in particular, but everyone in the Hexagon (what they call their friend group of six people) was phenomenal and I was super into how interwoven and messy (in a good way) all of their relationships were and how almost everyone was kind of in love with everyone else.
I don't really know how to accurately explain why this book meant so much to me, but there's a line in the book about one of Davey's friends, who says that she kisses everyone that she feels holds a piece of her soul, and that's kind of how I feel about this book. I'm not sure why. I don't particularly relate to super religious southern small town themes, but I just loved these kids kind of defying the town they live in while at the same time really appreciating where they are from and where they have their roots.
I felt like this book was pretty realistic, so it's not all happy all the time, but it just made me feel so... whole, and understood in a way that was odd because I have next to nothing in common with most of these kids, and just... it made me FEEL. And that's all I ask for from fiction.
Sorry, this is an odd review for a very unique book, but basically, please have the takeaway of this be that this was just incredibly lovely in a lot of ways I can't actually find words to explain.
I will surely reread this in the future when I need a pick-me-up.
Read
September 15, 2017Ooph. This is a tough one to review. It left me with a bit of a reading 'hangover'. The concept is near and dear to my heart. Tensions between friendship and love. People trying to express themselves and explore desire in a world that forces them into little identity boxes that can't hold the complexity and/or simplicity of who they are and who they love. And it's nice that the protagonist has a close-knit group of quirky friends who stick by her--that they all stick together through tough times. But the characters weren't well drawn. There weren't many surprises in terms of how these characters moved through the world or what they accomplished or discovered. All in all there wasn't enough substance and exploration for my taste. But maybe that's the nature of a YA novel of this kind? I don't know. The culture of it felt pretty alien to me, I think because the author relied heavily on well-worn tropes and caricature. (The artist mom with the Christian minister dad. The 'tomboy' girl trying to decide between fitting in in a small town or being herself. A small town torn between hating those who are "different" and relying on that difference because it is somehow refreshing and/or helps them learn things about themselves or define or redefine identities and histories... I.e. queers in some way doing emotional labor). In the end, it was just a bit too vague and mealy and nice.
And then there was the way desire and attraction were treated. Like characters knowing if they are gay or straight or in love or not in love from one kiss. The one kiss litmus test of sexuality and everything else. Um, in my experience, that's not really how it works. And in a book that's somehow trying to prove its openness to gender and sexual fluidity, it's a bit of a weird set-up. I mean, sure, sometimes there's no chemistry between two people when they kiss. Or when they kiss the first time. Or before they kiss or after they kiss. But all one chemistry-less kiss really tells you is that, in that moment, there is no chemistry felt between two people or by one or the other person. And a kiss with chemistry. Well, maybe it tells you a bit more? I don't know. I mean, it's different for everyone--the meaning of chemistry, attachment, romance. And none of it is necessarily static.
The focus on the corn dolly festival didn't really make sense to me. And the whole thing about walking across the loft beam in Vilmer's barn seemed like something added in to try to improve the flavor of something when it already has too many flavors and not enough depth.
So, well, I really didn't like this book. But not going to give it a star rating at this point because though I disliked it, it might be a really important book for teens in small towns, or folks confused about sexuality and gender identity--or not confused but not in a safe location to explore or be open about who they are. If this book brings people comfort, then I am all for it.
Will I read other books by this author? Unlikely, but who knows.
And then there was the way desire and attraction were treated. Like characters knowing if they are gay or straight or in love or not in love from one kiss. The one kiss litmus test of sexuality and everything else. Um, in my experience, that's not really how it works. And in a book that's somehow trying to prove its openness to gender and sexual fluidity, it's a bit of a weird set-up. I mean, sure, sometimes there's no chemistry between two people when they kiss. Or when they kiss the first time. Or before they kiss or after they kiss. But all one chemistry-less kiss really tells you is that, in that moment, there is no chemistry felt between two people or by one or the other person. And a kiss with chemistry. Well, maybe it tells you a bit more? I don't know. I mean, it's different for everyone--the meaning of chemistry, attachment, romance. And none of it is necessarily static.
The focus on the corn dolly festival didn't really make sense to me. And the whole thing about walking across the loft beam in Vilmer's barn seemed like something added in to try to improve the flavor of something when it already has too many flavors and not enough depth.
So, well, I really didn't like this book. But not going to give it a star rating at this point because though I disliked it, it might be a really important book for teens in small towns, or folks confused about sexuality and gender identity--or not confused but not in a safe location to explore or be open about who they are. If this book brings people comfort, then I am all for it.
Will I read other books by this author? Unlikely, but who knows.
October 7, 2017
This books is so so so SO special.
It's now been a month since I've read this book and I still haven't found any proper words for it.
I love this so much because this felt like a big blanket that I could just snuggle up in. The writing style is just so beautiful and mellow.
This book talked about so many things, friendship, love, sexual fluidity, gender fluidity, faith and so much more and all of it resonated with me. This book touched me so much, made me emotional and it was a very "personal" experience.
But I also think that this is just such a beautiful Contemporary novel that a lot of people will enjoy. If any of the themes I mentioned above speak to you, you should absolutely pick it up!
It's now been a month since I've read this book and I still haven't found any proper words for it.
I love this so much because this felt like a big blanket that I could just snuggle up in. The writing style is just so beautiful and mellow.
This book talked about so many things, friendship, love, sexual fluidity, gender fluidity, faith and so much more and all of it resonated with me. This book touched me so much, made me emotional and it was a very "personal" experience.
But I also think that this is just such a beautiful Contemporary novel that a lot of people will enjoy. If any of the themes I mentioned above speak to you, you should absolutely pick it up!
February 24, 2019
Big fat yikes. I did not like this book at all.
Pros: -?
Cons: - too many characters are introduced at the same time, so you know nothing about anyone
- plot? never heard of her
- I don’t feel like I know the characters at all, so a story without plot is destined to be a snore fest
- I was so bored I didn’t dare put the book down, because I knew I wouldn’t pick it up again
Pros: -?
Cons: - too many characters are introduced at the same time, so you know nothing about anyone
- plot? never heard of her
- I don’t feel like I know the characters at all, so a story without plot is destined to be a snore fest
- I was so bored I didn’t dare put the book down, because I knew I wouldn’t pick it up again
April 5, 2020
this was kind of lovely.
this is one of those easy to breeze through contemporary reads for summer days (or, well, quarantine) but at the same time there's depth to the plot that pleasantly surprises you. i was a little sceptical at first, but i did end up really loving the story and our (queer!!) main character
this is one of those easy to breeze through contemporary reads for summer days (or, well, quarantine) but at the same time there's depth to the plot that pleasantly surprises you. i was a little sceptical at first, but i did end up really loving the story and our (queer!!) main character
December 21, 2017
Really great book, great story, and I enjoyed it a lot! The relationships between these characters were nuanced and chaotic and so great to read about!
June 5, 2017
There was one reason I chose to pick up this book - it was written by Courtney C. Stevens. I have been hugely impressed with her books so far, I love sharing them with our readers and our readers love reading her books.
Dress Codes For Small Towns is a magnificent book. It is so heartfelt, honest, and true to itself, just like its main character. And Billie truly is the star of this show. It is her story and she won over my heart almost instantly.
Billie McCaffrey is the preacher's daughter in a small town in Western Kentucky most famous for its harvest festival and annual Corn Dolly competition. Despite the many rude comments and judgemental looks, Billie dresses and acts in a way that is true to who she is. An artist. An adventurer. A member of the Hexagon, her group of friends who she has collected over the years. But as her feelings for two of her best friends grow and change into something unexpected and her relationship with another friend brings new experiences and freedom into her life, who Billie is and what she thinks about herself collides with her father's (and the town's), expectations.
I enjoyed this book from the start and only fell more in love along the way. The whole thing just made me smile (when it wasn't making me surprise, snort laugh). There was something so authentic about Billie's character. Why am I surprised? It's Courtney C. Stevens. Duh! Anyway. This isn't just another tick-the-boxes, diverse-character book. Billie lives and breathes her uniqueness, but also her similarities to all teenagers. She is real and totally likeable, honest, upfront. She is unafraid to have a little crazy, blow-up-a-microwave fun. She loves her friends. She has many questions about her sexuality, how she is viewed by the people around her, and how she wants to view herself. She effortlessly combines her faith with who she is. While the Church might have different ideas about who she should be and how she should dress, this never shakes her faith in God, nor does she confuse the Church with God, which I thought was fantastic. The reader is so in her head. I didn't even notice something until a short chapter in another character's perspective enabled me to step away from Billie for a second and get an outside perspective and totally changed how I saw the story. Powerful stuff.
Basically, this book is awesome. Whatever your beliefs. However you view the world. It is a book about people, self identify and discovery, family, and friendship. The friendship in this book, the Hexagon, is so awesome. While this is Billie's story, it is her friendships that shine in this book. I too, fell in love with each of her friends and their strong personalities.
Dress Codes For Small Towns is a book that is comfortable in its skin and its roots, and a very beautiful way to address important themes. There are no labels, just the honest, confusing process of Billie trying to discover who she is, who she likes, who she wants to be and how much she can compromise to please the people around her.
The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
Find more reviews, reading age guides, content advisory, and recommendations on my blog Madison's Library.
Dress Codes For Small Towns is a magnificent book. It is so heartfelt, honest, and true to itself, just like its main character. And Billie truly is the star of this show. It is her story and she won over my heart almost instantly.
Billie McCaffrey is the preacher's daughter in a small town in Western Kentucky most famous for its harvest festival and annual Corn Dolly competition. Despite the many rude comments and judgemental looks, Billie dresses and acts in a way that is true to who she is. An artist. An adventurer. A member of the Hexagon, her group of friends who she has collected over the years. But as her feelings for two of her best friends grow and change into something unexpected and her relationship with another friend brings new experiences and freedom into her life, who Billie is and what she thinks about herself collides with her father's (and the town's), expectations.
I enjoyed this book from the start and only fell more in love along the way. The whole thing just made me smile (when it wasn't making me surprise, snort laugh). There was something so authentic about Billie's character. Why am I surprised? It's Courtney C. Stevens. Duh! Anyway. This isn't just another tick-the-boxes, diverse-character book. Billie lives and breathes her uniqueness, but also her similarities to all teenagers. She is real and totally likeable, honest, upfront. She is unafraid to have a little crazy, blow-up-a-microwave fun. She loves her friends. She has many questions about her sexuality, how she is viewed by the people around her, and how she wants to view herself. She effortlessly combines her faith with who she is. While the Church might have different ideas about who she should be and how she should dress, this never shakes her faith in God, nor does she confuse the Church with God, which I thought was fantastic. The reader is so in her head. I didn't even notice something until a short chapter in another character's perspective enabled me to step away from Billie for a second and get an outside perspective and totally changed how I saw the story. Powerful stuff.
Basically, this book is awesome. Whatever your beliefs. However you view the world. It is a book about people, self identify and discovery, family, and friendship. The friendship in this book, the Hexagon, is so awesome. While this is Billie's story, it is her friendships that shine in this book. I too, fell in love with each of her friends and their strong personalities.
Dress Codes For Small Towns is a book that is comfortable in its skin and its roots, and a very beautiful way to address important themes. There are no labels, just the honest, confusing process of Billie trying to discover who she is, who she likes, who she wants to be and how much she can compromise to please the people around her.
The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.
Find more reviews, reading age guides, content advisory, and recommendations on my blog Madison's Library.
April 6, 2021
3.5 stars rounded up *may change
i read this completely last minute for my book club meeting so here’s some points i’m writing down now so i don’t forget:
- i love woods...i’d vote for him as mayor
- the whole “i’m not gay guys” thing with davey was...something
- ambiguous endings hurt my soul
- i skipped a few parts ahahaha...this book was a bit dull sometimes
- wow the author is liberal with the d slur
- honestly? i liked it alright but it wasn’t special
- maybe it’s because i like the whole “we’re a group of friends but also we all love each other like LOVE love but also we’re just besties” trope
- i say trope but the only other book that does that that i know is the raven boys
- and that book was a mess
- thank god we didn’t read another mediocre ya fantasy for this meeting
- i wouldn’t survive it
i read this completely last minute for my book club meeting so here’s some points i’m writing down now so i don’t forget:
- i love woods...i’d vote for him as mayor
- the whole “i’m not gay guys” thing with davey was...something
- ambiguous endings hurt my soul
- i skipped a few parts ahahaha...this book was a bit dull sometimes
- wow the author is liberal with the d slur
- honestly? i liked it alright but it wasn’t special
- maybe it’s because i like the whole “we’re a group of friends but also we all love each other like LOVE love but also we’re just besties” trope
- i say trope but the only other book that does that that i know is the raven boys
- and that book was a mess
- thank god we didn’t read another mediocre ya fantasy for this meeting
- i wouldn’t survive it
January 27, 2018
I'm too emotional to write a proper review right now but I LOVED THIS BOOK SO, SO MUCH.
April 25, 2020
"Isn't God all open arms and welcome home?"
This book touched me to the depths of my soul. It is one of those books where I had to stop reading every few pages just to savor the gorgeous writing, phenomenal characters, and nuanced relationships. Every so often, you finish a book and you are overwhelmed with gratitude that a book like it exists in the world. I wish that I could personally thank Courtney Stevens for putting this book out into the universe because it is everything to me.
This book is a coming-of-age story about Billie McCartney, a preacher's daughter in Otter's Holt, Tennessee, as she and her group of friends navigate the complexities of their relationships and seek to save the Harvest Festival in their small town. Billie is one of those characters that you can't help but love. She is a typical teenager who constantly makes all the wrong choices, but at the same time, she has a heart of gold. She would do absolutely anything for her friends, her family, her town. She struggles to define herself in a world that constantly tries to put her in a box. Throughout the story, we see Billie as she navigates the exploration of her sexuality and gender identity, her relationship with her father and the church, and struggles to find self-confidence and self-worth in a world that does not seem built for her.
Since I grew up attending youth group in a tiny town, this book immediately resonated with me. I know characters like Billie. I've been part of youth groups like the one in this book. This book did not shy away from exploring questions of faith, since Billie's hometown is quite conservative and legalistic at times. Yet Billie never wavered in her faith. This book is important precisely because it shows that there is no contradiction between being queer and being Christian. There is nothing wrong with exploring who you are, because God already loves us exactly as we are.
"I know what I want. I want to be able to look God in the face and say, “I did my best.” I want to know that kissing Gerry or Janie Lee didn’t change how He loves me. I want to be committed to Him and feel free to be myself. But I am terrified that I will always be trapped between my beliefs and my desires."
The relationships in this book were beautiful and complex. Each of them felt so wonderfully real. They were not perfect characters. They made mistakes. But on every page, you could tell how much the characters loved each other. I loved how nothing the characters went through, no matter the complexities of their relationships, ever made them waver in their adoration for each other. This book is about love in all its forms: familial love, romantic love, platonic love, self-love.. This book oozes heart from every single word. I just want to wrap this book up with all its beautiful characters and carry it around with me everywhere.
I wish that I had discovered a book like this as a teenager. I wish that queer Christians I know had grown up with this book, because it is so necessary and so beautiful and so poignant. I can tell that this is one of those books that I will constantly be recommending to people I know because it is just that important. If you're not religious, it might not resonate with you, but for me... it made me laugh, it made me sob, it made me positively giddy with joy that a book like this even exists. Pick this book up. Please.
This book touched me to the depths of my soul. It is one of those books where I had to stop reading every few pages just to savor the gorgeous writing, phenomenal characters, and nuanced relationships. Every so often, you finish a book and you are overwhelmed with gratitude that a book like it exists in the world. I wish that I could personally thank Courtney Stevens for putting this book out into the universe because it is everything to me.
This book is a coming-of-age story about Billie McCartney, a preacher's daughter in Otter's Holt, Tennessee, as she and her group of friends navigate the complexities of their relationships and seek to save the Harvest Festival in their small town. Billie is one of those characters that you can't help but love. She is a typical teenager who constantly makes all the wrong choices, but at the same time, she has a heart of gold. She would do absolutely anything for her friends, her family, her town. She struggles to define herself in a world that constantly tries to put her in a box. Throughout the story, we see Billie as she navigates the exploration of her sexuality and gender identity, her relationship with her father and the church, and struggles to find self-confidence and self-worth in a world that does not seem built for her.
Since I grew up attending youth group in a tiny town, this book immediately resonated with me. I know characters like Billie. I've been part of youth groups like the one in this book. This book did not shy away from exploring questions of faith, since Billie's hometown is quite conservative and legalistic at times. Yet Billie never wavered in her faith. This book is important precisely because it shows that there is no contradiction between being queer and being Christian. There is nothing wrong with exploring who you are, because God already loves us exactly as we are.
"I know what I want. I want to be able to look God in the face and say, “I did my best.” I want to know that kissing Gerry or Janie Lee didn’t change how He loves me. I want to be committed to Him and feel free to be myself. But I am terrified that I will always be trapped between my beliefs and my desires."
The relationships in this book were beautiful and complex. Each of them felt so wonderfully real. They were not perfect characters. They made mistakes. But on every page, you could tell how much the characters loved each other. I loved how nothing the characters went through, no matter the complexities of their relationships, ever made them waver in their adoration for each other. This book is about love in all its forms: familial love, romantic love, platonic love, self-love.. This book oozes heart from every single word. I just want to wrap this book up with all its beautiful characters and carry it around with me everywhere.
I wish that I had discovered a book like this as a teenager. I wish that queer Christians I know had grown up with this book, because it is so necessary and so beautiful and so poignant. I can tell that this is one of those books that I will constantly be recommending to people I know because it is just that important. If you're not religious, it might not resonate with you, but for me... it made me laugh, it made me sob, it made me positively giddy with joy that a book like this even exists. Pick this book up. Please.
December 23, 2017
I received an ARC of this title from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not sure how to talk about this book coherently. For starters, it was the best YA book I've read this year. In ways it reminded me of (On the) Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, in that it was about a group of friends and their relationship with each other and the town they live in. Billie and the rest of the Hexagon are so full of heart; I hope Stevens writes another story featuring them, although I also understand the story's finality in its own way. I think that Billie's struggles and uncertainties were so realistically complex that I hurt right along with her sometimes.
There are also similarities to Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown, given that both address faith and teen sexuality and a young girl's relationship with her father. But I think Dress Codes handled it better because it felt more natural, while Georgia Peaches was more like a creative writing class novel, very by the book.
I look forward to buying this for my library and encouraging teen readers to check it out.
I'm not sure how to talk about this book coherently. For starters, it was the best YA book I've read this year. In ways it reminded me of (On the) Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, in that it was about a group of friends and their relationship with each other and the town they live in. Billie and the rest of the Hexagon are so full of heart; I hope Stevens writes another story featuring them, although I also understand the story's finality in its own way. I think that Billie's struggles and uncertainties were so realistically complex that I hurt right along with her sometimes.
There are also similarities to Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown, given that both address faith and teen sexuality and a young girl's relationship with her father. But I think Dress Codes handled it better because it felt more natural, while Georgia Peaches was more like a creative writing class novel, very by the book.
I look forward to buying this for my library and encouraging teen readers to check it out.
August 10, 2018
He says, “I think there's a place where love equals history and a place where love equals the future and a place where love is just love and it doesn't go away no matter whether you get it back or not. Figuring out the difference—”
“Is impossible,” I finish.
***
This book is like a long love letter to one of your oldest friends. The pure friendship and affection practically drips off the pages. I don't normally like cheesy stories—and maybe cheesy is the wrong word to use here—but this book helped me understand love a little bit better. Not just romantic love, but platonic love, familial love, and self-love. Through Billie's story, and through her friends, the book explores sexuality and identity and what it means to be in love. And what it means to be loved. I don't know how else to describe it.
It's about small towns and old friends and new friends and corn. It's about faith and love and the body parts we do or don't have. It's about everything in between. Dress Codes for Small Towns is definitely one of my new all-time favourite books.
If you love character-driven stories, pick up this book.
“Is impossible,” I finish.
***
This book is like a long love letter to one of your oldest friends. The pure friendship and affection practically drips off the pages. I don't normally like cheesy stories—and maybe cheesy is the wrong word to use here—but this book helped me understand love a little bit better. Not just romantic love, but platonic love, familial love, and self-love. Through Billie's story, and through her friends, the book explores sexuality and identity and what it means to be in love. And what it means to be loved. I don't know how else to describe it.
It's about small towns and old friends and new friends and corn. It's about faith and love and the body parts we do or don't have. It's about everything in between. Dress Codes for Small Towns is definitely one of my new all-time favourite books.
If you love character-driven stories, pick up this book.
November 10, 2020
“What everyone is scared of—that if I’m me, I’m not enough.”
i just gave a diverse book about a super important topic that's also the favorite book of my favorite booktuber 2 stars so that's how my reading month is going.
i honestly don't wanna say much about this book because i wouldn't want anyone not reading this because of me. i read this at a very difficult timing with my first week back at uni and being extremely anxious and the us elections and me not being in a great reading mood overall but i really hated my time reading this book even more than i hated any zoom class. the writing style was extremely hard to get into for me, i couldn't remember anything about the characters (not even who's who) and the story felt just way too unrealistic for me. it didn't feel like reading a book about teenagers who could exist irl at all and nothing ended the way i wanted it to.
i'm super disappointed in this but as i said, this book means so much to so many people and that's way more important than me not getting that.
i just gave a diverse book about a super important topic that's also the favorite book of my favorite booktuber 2 stars so that's how my reading month is going.
i honestly don't wanna say much about this book because i wouldn't want anyone not reading this because of me. i read this at a very difficult timing with my first week back at uni and being extremely anxious and the us elections and me not being in a great reading mood overall but i really hated my time reading this book even more than i hated any zoom class. the writing style was extremely hard to get into for me, i couldn't remember anything about the characters (not even who's who) and the story felt just way too unrealistic for me. it didn't feel like reading a book about teenagers who could exist irl at all and nothing ended the way i wanted it to.
i'm super disappointed in this but as i said, this book means so much to so many people and that's way more important than me not getting that.
September 22, 2019
3.5. Another great contemporary. this one is more on the YA side of things with Billie and the rest of her hexagon crew (I love that they have a name for this group of small town kids who've grown up and done everything together). THis is a sweet, well crafted story about hitting those teen years and being confused as to who, exactly, you are and who you think you want to be. Stevens handles Billie's questions on sexual identity with a nuanced brush and that's so appreciated in a world where these things are seen in such black and white terms.
This would make a freaking fantastic movie and I wish it were more popular so that I could see it on the screen.
This would make a freaking fantastic movie and I wish it were more popular so that I could see it on the screen.
April 28, 2018
This novel is very much geared for a younger crowd (which is not me) but I loved it and I loved it's message. Courtney Stevens is a wonderful writer and all throughout the book something kept nagging at me about her style. Finally at about three quarters of the way through I realize that this is reminiscent of Fannie Flagg. When I finished the book, Stevens thanks Flagg. I would very much like to see Stevens write a book geared to a little older crowd because I think she would find a wider audience. I love southern authors and Courtney Stevens is one to watch, I hope she has a long and bright future.
May 5, 2020
“David stored that memory in his secret heart. His mother had told him he’d been born with a second heart, and he could keep any secrets he wanted in there.”
the hexagon. all six of them pulled through for each other when others couldn’t. even Thom and Gerry. it was such a wholesome book. i think it would mean a lot to kids or teenagers from small towns, who stand out but are afraid to. it’s a beautiful story of friendship, newly explored love, faith, hope and teenage shenanigans.
the hexagon. all six of them pulled through for each other when others couldn’t. even Thom and Gerry. it was such a wholesome book. i think it would mean a lot to kids or teenagers from small towns, who stand out but are afraid to. it’s a beautiful story of friendship, newly explored love, faith, hope and teenage shenanigans.
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