A great foray into politics for the YA level. Includes a great cast of characters with representation from all aspects of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. There's a handful of cringy moments that hit home. I felt so bad for Mark not having a supportive father when he was just trying to be his true self. It was great that so many other people accepted him for who he was, but all it takes is one person to make it a struggle. I really enjoyed reading about Mark's trans journey and couldn't help but root for him the entire way.

This book was like ice cream on a hot summer day to this West Wing die-hard fan. I absolutely adored the Sorkinisms (The way Shakespeare was meant to be played, "feckless," yelling at God in church, Bartlett For America T-shirt). I appreciated the inclusion and the storyline. I most appreciated that Mark was never outed. Too often queer stories are about trauma, but this one was about joy. And friendship. And Taylor Swift References.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

A complex story with so much heart- loved the dynamic group of characters! This is also one my favorite recent covers, love how the illustrations play in with the title and the use of colors immediately catches my eye.

There are massive CWs for The (Un)Popular Vote, and I greatly appreciated Jasper Sanchez including a note in the front of the book, cautioning readers. While we are all well versed in looking up TWs and CWs, with this being a YA I’m not sure teens take the time to do the same.

This book focuses on Mark Adams, a trans teen, who ends up running for class president, after witnessing a friend getting bullied, and eventually suspended for the fight, for being queer. However, part of the agreement which allows Mark the freedom to transition in peace, away from his congressman father, is to stay under the radar. Running for office is definitely the opposite of that, and obviously things go awry.

Honestly, a lot of the messaging I felt, while reading, was about virtue signaling. Which is pretty relevant to the current use of social media during this current world of WTFs.

Mark’s dad is a walking TW you’d love to punt to the sun. He is an ally in name only, and dead names Mark every single time they talk. None of the CWs for this book are ones for me, but I found myself needing to pause at times because, as a parent, I cannot fathom treating my child, like he treats Mark.

But it’s not all heavy, I promise! I could easily read a book on Ralph and Benji being themselves. There is amazing rep for multiple aspects of LGBTQIAP+.There’s a lot of great banter amongst characters, and lots of pop culture nuggets. I think my favorite easter egg is the scene mirroring The West Wing Two Cathedrals episode, which is a cinematic masterpiece. I highly recommend this book, and watching that episode.

The Politician on Netflix as a book and super queer and super trans, Super unique! For a book comped to Red White and Royal Blue I did wish for a tad more romance. Brilliant regardless.

I was surprised by how much I loved this book! While it might be on the longer end of YA, it's absolutely worth a read!

I absolutely loved it. It took me through a whirlwind of feels and I couldn’t put it down! I would recommend it to my fellow lqbtq+ book lovers.

I am disappointed with this book. I was expecting one thing and received another. It had potential but it was not well written.

As a Brit who has a very limited understanding of American politics, there were a lot of references I didn't really understand in this book. I liked the story though, Mark is an interesting character and I loved his friendships, and his campaign ideas. The tension between Mark and his dad made for a great storyline but was frustrating to read at times, I just wish that all queer folks had supportive parents. At least Mark has an amazing mom.

The amount of queer rep in this book is incredible, with an ace character, an aro character, pansexual rep, trans rep, gay rep and an f/f relationship, this is a very diverse cast.

I have mixed feelings about this book, but overall I think it was pretty good. I'd like to see what Jasper Sanchez writes next.

This book was absolutely amazing. Stunning writing, wonderful characters, lovely cover, I absolutely love this book. This book was just amazingly queer, and I loved all the politics of it. Cannot wait to reread it in physical form.

High school elections usually follow a predictable pattern, but every so often, an outsider enters the ring to shake up the status quo. This trope has been explored before, but it’s always fascinating to experience.
Despite being relatively new to the school and being a senior who will be gone when the school year ends, Mark wants to change some of the things he sees. There’s just one problem: the only reason his father—a Congressman—allowed Mark and his mother to move to the small town of Santa Julia is so that Mark could live as himself without that truth affecting his father’s political ambitions.

Thankfully, Mark has a great friend group who are willing to help him run for office, and seeing their methodical machinations was a lot of fun. But all that doesn’t stop Mark from worrying about what will happen if the kids at school find out that he’s trans.

This was a great book. The setup is fairly standard: popular sports boy versus outsider, but Sanchez adds layers of depth to the characterization. And of course, Mark must contend with the ever-present danger of being outed, which would affect his father’s political career. Despite a complicated relationship with his father, Mark doesn’t want to hurt his father’s chances of running for Senate.

There’s a nice balance of humor and gravity, as well as an unexpected romance for Mark. The beginning of the book does include content warnings for homophobia and transphobia, so potential readers should keep that in mind before reading this book.

I would absolutely recommend The (Un)Popular Vote. This is a great YA title and I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. I’m looking forward to reading more from Sanchez in the future.
I received a digital ARC of this book from Harper Collins Children’s Books/NetGalley.

I loved the diversity and the amazing friend group. To me, the characters just didn't read as high schoolers? And I was a politics nerd in high school, still am! It's a very good book, there are some hilarious one-liners, some very poignant ones, but I'm not sure the narration and the dialog says high school to me.

The (Un)Popular Vote by Jasper Sanchez was well-written and will draw students into the world of student government. Sanchez did a great job incorporating the trans representation without it being a thing - it was just a part of the story. I did appreciate the character development of Mark going from fairly self-centered to truly understanding what his role in government for students should be. I do think that with the representation and the government aspect of this, students 13+ will adore this novel.

I enjoyed this book. I appreciated the story arc of the main character and his family as well as the inclusion of so many diverse characters.

So I've had this ARC to read and review and I kept putting it off. My reasoning for that was I had read three other YA novels about transmasculine characters earlier this year, and I didn't enjoy two of them, and the other was a really heavy book. So I wasn't necessarily looking forward to another one. And at the same time, this book is very political and I was rather burned out on politics when I received the ARC. So I put it off. And I'm happy to say now that I wish I didn't! This book is really good and a super fun read.

This book is about Mark Adams, who is a transman. He recently moved to a new city and new school after his congressman father isn't supportive of his coming out. And Mark just wants to keep his head low and blend in as another guy at school, but after a friend of his is the victim of homophobic bullying, and the people running for student council turn a blind eye, he decides to use what he learned from his father and throw his hat in the game.

I really did enjoy this book. I loved the plethora of queer characters and especially Mark. I kinda loved how they referenced their school's GSA was ineffectual and started their own under French Club (A Geography club reference?) The race and political part of this book was riveting, and the relationship subplot was very nice too. There's a whole lot of this book to enjoy.

Mark was a great character! He was so fun to go on this journey with. I could tell he really was a student of politics, but also he had a really big heart and did care about people and what they were needing. And his steadfastness was great- this is probably the best trans book I have read so far and it's because of Mark.

The supporting characters were great too! The queer gang was super great and I want to be friends with them all, from Pablo, Jenny, Rachel, Nadine, and especially Benji. All of these characters are so well rounded and have their own distinct personalities. They were all very developed and made this a fun book.

And there was a lot of story and a handful of subplots, but also everything was very followable and interesting. And this book does have a lot of politics in it- both school level and national level, but it didn't at all feel overwhelming, if political books aren't necessarily people's thing.

I want to note, I've seen a couple other reviews talk about the use of Mark's deadname, but in my experience as a transwoman six years into my transition- I have several family members whom I have been in no contact with for several years over my transition- And I know (according to my brother) they still refer to me by my deadname when I come up. So I personally found it realistic how Mark's name was depicted in the book. It wasn't fun to read I guess, but I didn't have an issue with the books handling of it.

My only main complaint is that, teenagers don't actually talk like what is in this book. Or at least I'm preeettty sure they don't. At least they didn't when I was in high school. I know this book takes place at an advanced program school, but I was in AP classes when I went to school too. BUT I think the counterargument to this criticism is that this book references The West Wing many times (And I LOVED the church scene homage to Two Cathedrals.) And a common criticism of Aaron Sorkin's writing is also "Nobody talks like that." So if the elevated language for teenagers is a nod to The West Wing, I'll buy it. also the nitpicky-ist of criticisms, Mark reportedly gets pretty high after the first time he smokes marijuana while campaigning- and like that doesn't usually happen. I've seen very few people actually get high their first time. Again, nitpicky, but still it stood out to me

I shouldn't have delayed in reading and reviewing this ARC. I was super into it. I loved the characters and the story was fun too. 4.5/5

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The way Sanchez approaches the student council election allows this book to stand out from the crowd. This goes beyond a basic popularity contest. As we would expect, our protagonist is runs on a platform of anti-bullying and true representation. So of course his opponents are cruel and self serving. The race gets dirty and morals get challenged. All of this is expected. What makes this one more interesting is that its more than just a question of what they will do to win. It's a race that forces them to ask what sort of person they are. More than just are they nice or mean. Are they open-minded? Genuinely "woke"? Our protagonist must realize his own privilege and blindness. There's this through-line of being change rather than forcing change. I found the characters difficult to relate to and the drama over the top. Still, it makes some interesting points.

Honestly, I don't have a lot to say about this book because I finished it 3 days ago, and already so much of it has left my mind. I wasn't ever really excited about getting back to it because the stakes felt pretty low, and while I sometimes got like a "Sydney White" vibe, that just made me wish I was watching that movie instead. This wasn't bad in any way, but it's not one that sticks out to me to recommend to others.

dnf @ 30%

i like the writing but it's not engaging as i'd like it to be and i'm not sure if follow the american politics. i don't think its a bad book, it's just not for me.

This is a great novel from a strong new voice and fiction. Mark, a transmasucline student, is a new to his high school. He moved to a new town as part of an agreement he struck with his father, a Congressman who does not want people to know he has a trans child. This agreement included Mark keeping a low profile at his new school, hiding his background, and living as a cis guy. Mark, who has always been interested in politics, fully planned to keep his agreement – until he grew concerned about the troubling platform of the leading candidate for student body president and what it means for anyone other than conventional, popular students. So he decides to launch an insurgent campaign, supported by his small group of friends schooled in politics from their time watching the West Wing and Scandal. The campaign quickly turned hard found and personal, and threatens to expose Mark’s background and put him and his friends at risk.

This was a strong debut, with a story that kept me engaged throughout. Highly recommended!