Can't Take That Away
Steven Salvatore
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
4.13
· 15 ratings · 400 pages · Published: 09 Mar 2021
An empowering and emotional debut about a genderqueer teen who finds the courage to stand up and speak out for equality when they are discriminated against by their high school administration.
Carey Parker dreams of being a diva, and bringing the house down with song. They can hit every note of all the top pop and Broadway hits. But despite their talent, emotional scars from an incident with a homophobic classmate and their grandmother's spiraling dementia make it harder and harder for Carey to find their voice.
Then Carey meets Cris, a singer/guitarist who makes Carey feel seen for the first time in their life. With the rush of a promising new romantic relationship, Carey finds the confidence to audition for the role of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the school musical, setting off a chain reaction of prejudice by Carey's tormentor and others in the school. It's up to Carey, Cris, and their friends to defend their rights--and they refuse to be silenced.
Told in alternating chapters with identifying pronouns, debut author Steven Salvatore's Can't Take That Away conducts a powerful, uplifting anthem, a swoony romance, and an affirmation of self-identity that will ignite the activist in all of us.
Tagged as:
- contemporary 3
- romance 3
- lgbtq+ 3
- realistic 2
- trans mc 2
- non-binary mc 2
- high-school 1
- coming of age 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- young adult 3
- audiobook 2
- book 1
- content warnings
- mental illness 2
- racism 1