I went into this not knowing much more than that this is a cute sapphic romance graphic novel, so I was surprised that one of the two characters is trans. That was a great addition though. I think this graphic novel discussed a lot of topics surrounding that and showing the seriousness about those topics while still keeping a lighthearted and overall cute tone to the entire graphic novel. I really liked our two main characters and how their relationship developed. I also quite liked the cheerteam and the way those girls ralied around each other and only had the others best interests at heart. I feel like a lot of the time we see cheerleaders in media it's full of girl on girl hate and I liked that this wasn't the case in this graphic novel. Anyway, I highly recommend this.

this book was so sweet, i was smiling the whole way through reading it. i loved the characters so much and i hope that there will be more books in this series. so much great representation and so so perfect.

Writing reviews for graphic novels is a new experience for me, but a welcome one. Graphic novels, in my opinion, have a tendency to be forgettable. For example, I read at least eight “The Walking Dead” graphic novels last year and couldn’t tell you a single thing about them.

Fortunately, there have been a few that have really stuck with me, and this will probably be one of them. I really loved the representation in this novel. Our two main characters include a transgender girl and a plus size lesbian. There is also a non-binary secondary character and a multitude of characters of color throughout the novel.

One of the things I liked the most about this novel was the fact that, although it barely passes the 120-page mark, the character development is remarkable and full of depth. Each and every one of the characters on the page has obvious flaws, which is something that full length novels tend to lack, and I adored it.

One of the main characters, Annie, struggles with socializing and stepping out of her comfort zone. At the beginning of the novel, she’s friendless, stand-offish, and downright rude most of the time. Although she’s a great student, she realizes she needs more extracurricular activities on her college applications, hence the title of the book.

The other main character, Bebe, is a recently transitioned transgender girl, struggling with acceptance from her parents, her cheer squad friends, and most importantly, herself. Her friends make jokes about her transition behind her back, her parents rarely let her leave the house by herself for fear of Bebe being the brunt of an assault, and she rarely sticks up for herself because she wants to avoid being the “unhinged transgender girl”.

We get to see Annie and Bebe confront their flaws head on, using one another for support. Annie begins to blossom into her new role as flyer on the cheer squad, while Bebe starts setting boundaries with her friends and her parents. (That’s as much as I can say without spoiling it!)

This novel is something I could easily compare to the Heartstopper series. The illustrations are beautiful and the content is obviously similar, considering the LGBT and Romance genre they’re both categorized in. While I feel like this book is a tad more juvenile than Heartstopper, I could easily see this book being of great importance to young, LGBTQ+ readers.

Not only does Cheer Up preach acceptance, diversity, and love, it also teaches its readers to value themselves as they navigate life, social media, and rape culture in a very intolerant (but progressing) world.

Thank you to Oni Press and NetGalley for an arc of this graphic novel for an honest review.
This was so cute, funny, adorable and fast read! Its discussing serious topics like gender, transphobia, fat shaming, harassment, etc. while it have a lighthearted feel to it, with beautiful and enjoyable illustrations. I really loved the art style, and there was a variety of body types and races represented. I liked the characters too, and I think its an important read for everybody who wants to grow and learn. I hope there will be a next book! :)

This was my first time reading a graphic novel and I totally loved it! The book has both heartfelt scenes as well as heavy themes such as transphobia. I liked how the author dealt with Beatrice's struggle with being a trans teen; she is incapable of saying "no" to people cause she doesn't want any trouble; if she stands upto people, they'll say that all trans girls are rude and bitchy; she thinks she should be ultra-feminine otherwise people will invalidate her identity as a girl; she feels pressured to be flattered when a creepy guy gives her attention, cause she should be grateful that guys are attracted to her. Her parents are overprotective because they fear transphobes will attack their daughter,and also threaten her to "make her go back to being a guy" if she does not score good grades. Through just 100 pages, we see Beatrice transform from being timid and shy to a girl who stands up for herself and does not need saving. All this really strung a chord in my heart and I could relate to Beatrice's struggles despite being a ciswoman.
Annie is the best girlfriend ever! Annie asks for Beatrice's consent before kissing her! She stands up for BeBe when she is harassed by a classmate. Annie backs down when she realises that Bebe is the one who should voice her own story, instead of Annie taking over BeBe's narrative. I loved their romance, it was so wholesome. When BeBe asks if Annie likes her cause BeBe is "not a real girl", Annie responds by saying, " I like you because you are a girl. I like girls, BeBe." This is undoubtedly one of my favorite moments in the book.
This book also subverts stereotypes of popular girls/cheerleaders being mean; Annie is an anti-social nerd who's mean to most people until she befriends Bebe. I loved the way girl friendship is portrayed. In one scene, someone prohibits BeBe from using the locker room (and BeBe having become used to this discrimination says nothing). All the girls in the cheerleading squad stand up for her and refuse to use the locker room. This moment was really heartwarming and hopeful.
Also, Annie says "chai" instead of "chai tea" (which just means "tea tea"), which my Indian heart loved. Annie's mom is the best and I wish everyone has a parent like this.

This was the perfect queer cute novel. I loved this book a lot, it was adorable and fluffy and soon worthy! The art styles were so beautifully done! Ah this book is honestly the best! Please read this. This was my first graphic novel and I'm sure this book has convinced me to pick more of graphic novels with queer themes.

I thought this was really cute and joyful. The characters were interesting and well developed in such a short space of time. I enjoyed Annie and Beebee's dynamic, kinda opposites attract but they bring out the best in each other.

I found this book to be mostly happy fun read but it also didn't shy away from the harder stuff to do with being transgender in highschool. It was shown to be a part of Beebee's life without it being the focus of the story. It was nice seeing flawed but mostly supportive parents for Beebee.

The artwork was beautiful, I really like the style.

Cheer Up is just an uplifting story about finding yourself. Even if you aren't sure what that is. Maybe you only know what doesn't feel right. And that's okay!

I know that Annie is sort of introduced as the main character, but BeeBee really steals the show. As she has been doing across her school, town, and state for awhile. Simply just being herself. Which is something that's causing a lot of talk, in both good and bad ways.

BeeBee doesn't like being the center of attention. Annie doesn't mind.
Together it's kind of perfect, some of the time.

BeeBee isn't always sure how she wants to deal with things or if she wants to stand up for herself. Whereas Annie is always ready to go. Sometimes they both have to take the other's attitude in order to resolve things.

Cheer Up is a story about love, the love your family should have for you even if they don't always understand, the love your friends should have in supporting you even through their own ideas of what that means, and most of all love for yourself. Because no one else is going to be there every step of the way to figure things out, like yourself... other than you. So love yourself, you deserve it.

Probably one of the best LGBTQ stories I've read in a long time.
I'm okay if this is a stand alone, but I'd be so excited if there was more to come!

**Thank you to OniPress and NetGallery for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. **

Loved it!
A beautiful story about friendship, being your true self, love, acceptance, kindness and standing up for oneself.
I loved Bebe and Annie, they bonded so well and grew so much leaning on each other.
I need to find more stories like this one! My heart will be very happy.

I adored this so much I don’t even have words but I will try. Such a heartwarming and adorable read with important and much needed lbgtqtia rep! I could read a series on these characters forever if I could.

Please pick this up when it’s available in august.

I read this graphic novel in one sitting and loved every page. Very sweet, thought-provoking, and queer affirming. I'm looking forward to giving this book to readers in our library!

Annie is an unsociable lesbian girl, while Bebe is a modest trans girl who overly cares about upsetting people.
I haven't had much experience reading graphic novels, but this one is quick and easy to read!
I adore this story, characters, illustration and messages it contains, and hoped this was longer as it's a bit rushed.
The relationships between Annie and Bebe, their friends, and their family all blossom so beautifully and really sweet. It's a really satisfying read!

I recommend this book to anyone. I'm sure you would enjoy this quick cute lgbtq comic as much as I do.

I marked this book as 4 stars out of 5.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an early copy of this book! I am in love with this graphic novel! I really liked the characters and the role the cheerleading team has. Only two things for me were that the love interest feels a little too insta lovey, but we do get the info that these characters have a background together, so that’s good! Which leads me to the second thing, I wish it were longer! There’s so much potential here and I hope we do get more graphic novels in this world. Overall it’s a super cute, quick read and I highly recommend!

This was one of my most anticipated reads for the year and I am not disappointed. This comic is an adorable, lighthearted but realistic romance between a grumpy goth lesbian and a sunshine-y, pushover trans girl. It's super fast passed (I read it in an hour or so), but there's so much characterization and character development within the small story. Even though it's generally lighthearted, it's also realistic with microaggressions, familial problems, and sexual harassment. It's also super funny (I laughed out loud multiple times) and the art is so cute and fits perfect with the story. There's less actual cheerleading than I hoped and I wished we saw more of Annie's mom because she was an amazing character, which these things could be fixed if this (fingers crossed) becomes a series. This is an amazing comic for someone who wants girls supporting girls, sapphic romance, and a queer women led sports comic. I highly recommend!

This was the perfect mix of heart and humor. The art style was comforting and fun. And I cried like four times while reading this - definitely a book I would recommend to friends. So tender

This was so cute I could die. This is a fun LGBTQ graphic novel about two girls building each other's strength and finding love and acceptance along the way.

Representation tags: Trans, nonbinary, wlw, people of color, plus size.

Babe goes through some trying times, and finds it harder with overprotective but well meaning parents trying to shield her from everything. It might bring up some tough memories for people who resonate with her story, but rest assured there is a happy ending.

Oh My God Yes girl yes. I have to say this and it might seem early to say but this is by far my favorite book for the month of June. This book is about Annie who is a geek and wanting to get into a great college once she graduates. But she needs to do some extracurricular activities like like sports and clubs. she learned her mother was on a cheerleading team when she was in high school. so she promised her mom that she would give it her best shot. well she made the team. and it only goes up hill from there. be on the look out for my monthly wrap up at the end of the month to hear me gush all about my favorite book of the month Cheer Up love and pompoms.

I loved this so much! ‘Cheer up’ is a graphic novel about a sapphic, biracial trans girl as she falls in love with a plus-size lesbian when they become close through their cheer team. So there is quite a lot of representation and it was handled with such care and accuracy. It dealt with many of the transphobic micro aggressions that exist within society, which most people don’t even realise are bad, and highlights exactly why they are offensive. This allows for trans readers to feel seen and like they don’t have to put up with discrimination whilst simultaneously educating cis people on how to be more inclusive.

And despite this touching upon some hard topics, there was a constant lighthearted and fluffy feel which I really enjoyed.

Another thing I think was done well was fitting so much into such a small book. Nothing felt under developed and I couldn’t spot any plot holes. It was fast paced but never too much so where the plot became confusing; I found it very easy to follow.

I think it’s now one of my favourite sapphic stories I’ve ever read and really hope that a sequel is written! I loved it so much.

I finished this in one sitting and I loved it! It's a short but impactful comic about standing up for yourself, friendship, and being sapphic. The romance aspect does feel a little rushed but I still enjoyed how it turned out. I'd love for this to be a series and see where BeeBee's story takes her.

I love the book so much. Bebe is so inspiring. She learns to be herself and to be truly accepted by people. The characters are growing up together and are sticking up. They learn from their mistakes and truly try to do better. Bebe's friends and family learn to listen to her, how she wants to deal with aggression.
It's not centered on the transphobia, more on hope, love and acceptance.
You need to have this book in your bookshelf for the youngsters!