Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier, illustrated by Val Wise
- Publisher: Oni Press, August 10th 2021
- Genre: Graphic Novel, Romance, Young Adult
- Format: Paperback (eARC)
- Page Count: 128 pages
- My Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)
Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.
Content warnings: transphobia, outing, sexual harassment
This was so cute and wholesome!
Annie Ginter has excellent grades and doesn’t care about having no friends, but she needs extracurricular activities for college application. Her mom suggests cheerleading and Annie is not happy. But when Beatrice Diaz (trans) decides to take Annie in on the team, the pair start spending more time together. Beatrice helps Annie make friends on the team and Annie speaks up when people mistreats Beatrice. They grow together, and so does everyone else around them.
First of all, a romance between a grumpy lesbian and a sweet transgirl? Yes! And the fact that Annie remains fat while being a flyer and after gruesome workouts also makes me very happy. As for the art, the facial expressions of the characters are very expressive. I love Annie’s grumpy and exhausted faces and BeBe’s surprised and happy ones. On top of that, I also love that each cheerleader on the Flying Cranes team have the different body types, height, and styles. Oh, and Annie’s mom is a tattooed plant mom! How wonderful is that?
The story addresses a lot of problematic “trans allyship” that BeBe is afraid to speak up about. Even though the cheerleading team seems supportive, their teammates sees her more like a diversity checkbox than being true allies. BeBe’s parents also consider her transition as a luxury instead of a necessity and their protectiveness of BeBe is very misguided. The main plot isn’t just about Annie and BeBe’s relationship growth, but also about how their friends and family begin to understand what it is to be supportive of their loved ones and reflecting on their own harmful behaviors.
Throughout the read, I wonder why Annie and BeBe stopped being friends two years ago. Did it have anything to do with her coming out? It was never discussed and yet I feel like it is such an important part of their relationship. I also couldn’t grasp why the creepster dude was so popular. But despite these parts, Cheer Up! is overall a wonderful and wholesome story.
If you want a cute graphic novel about a transgirl in sports and some sweet romance, Cheer Up! is going to make you very happy upon finishing.
I received a digital review copy from Oni Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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