I thought this was a decent read! It was really interesting to see how the main character figures out/questions their sexuality and gender over the course of the book. The biggest issue I had was the pacing and time jumps. They seemed to come out of nowhere and didn’t always make it clear that so much time had passed. Other than that, i enjoyed this story.

This book is an absolutely amazing exploration about discovering who you are and the pain and trauma it can cause when you don't feel like you fit. River is such a complex character--they're vicious and soft and hating and loving. I feel like River's character really shows the way people can change as they grow and understand themselves more. This book does time jumps which I usually don't like, but I didn't have a problem with it here. I thought it did such a good job representing the dysphoria that River goes through and hitting on the important things but still moving the story along. What I was nervous about at first ended up being a great narrative tool that made the story that much better.

This book drives the hard line on transness, and feeling the body dysmorphia of it. Especially within the cultural realm, it was something to behold.I really enjoyed the swimming moments, because we can really tell how much the character loves swimming. I felt for this character too, because dysmorphia of any kind sucks. But it was beautiful.

Thank you so much to the publisher and netgalley. I enjoyed the premise and overall setting and characters. However, the pacing was hard to keep track of and the sudden time jumps were difficult to feel connected to the story.

(I would like to start off this review by noting that I am AFAB and use she/they pronouns, and that impacts how I review this book)

This is a book that I never expected to see on shelves, and I’m so glad it’s getting published. I hadn’t dreamed that a story of a trans person would ever come to the pages, much less a story that essentially followed someone’s coming out story. I was so happy I could read this book, and I’m sure people who relate to River will enjoy it even more than I did.

I liked that this book showed swimming and used a lot of water metaphors. Even though I can’t personally connect to River’s experiences with transition and finding themself, the metaphors from the water made me understand and relate to them better. The swimming alliterations also helped with River’s general character and getting to know them a lot better. It was a constant throughout the book, and the water allusions also really impacted the style.

The style of the book was really lovely. I enjoyed how the water analogies were used to explain things about the characters, and how the book was segmented. The book had sections that were divided up with sea animal descriptions. This helped me connect to the book and the characters. The descriptions also reflected what was currently going on in the book, and that was really nice. It was a style that reflected the water metaphors in the book and I really loved it.

I also loved how the book showed different LGBTQ+ identities. There were lots of diverse characters who had varying views on other LGBTQ+ identities (the ones that were offensive were shown in a negative light in the writing). It was really nice to read the diversity. The diverse characters made me happy, and I loved seeing how they interacted in an Ohio town.

River’s coming out journey was complicated, and quite long, and I enjoyed this. I can’t speak for trans people, but sometimes figuring out who you are takes a long time, and I enjoyed seeing that with River as well. River was more relatable because they were struggling to find themself, because I have struggled with that as well. I enjoyed that McCarthy was able to make River relatable to me (and hopefully to other readers), even though I am not trans, because it made me feel for River more when they had their struggles and accomplishments.

The book made me smile a lot, especially because there were nice things as well as bad things when it came to River and the story. There wasn’t constant angst and sad characters, and there wasn’t joy all the time either. It made the book seem more realistic and it made it easier for me to connect to the story.

The plot in this book spans years. I did not know that going into the book, and so the first time skip took me by surprise. But that was more of an issue that I had been unprepared for the story than the story being bad, per say. The story follows approximately 6 years, and it was so nice to see all of the characters grow and change as time moved forward.

The plot and the characters were closely intertwined, as this was a coming out story. I loved it a lot and I would highly recommend it!

You can buy Man O’ War wherever good books are sold, and on places like Bookshop. I would highly suggest looking at the trigger warnings on Storygraph or another similar site before purchasing the book.

DNF
The pacing in this was very hard to read. The random time skip at the beginning threw me off so much. It took me a full chapter to figure out if there was a sudden POV change or a time skip at all. And it felt very unrealistic to me, I couldn’t get into the story due to it. The MC is incredibly unlikeable and I hated the way they spoke, they are just a toxic asshole. I couldn’t muster up any sympathy for them. And this book is just miserable, full of angst and pain, I just couldn’t enjoy it

MAN O' WAR is one of the most honest, unflinching and powerful YA books about the queer and trans experience, and it will be sure to stick with readers long after completion.

The voice of the book is compelling and realistic, and the character arc of River is extremely well-done. They are given room to have flaws and beliefs that they need to challenge. It is much more realistic and authentic than queer characters who always seem to get everything right. It will be life-changing and so refreshing for queer readers to see a protagonist that doesn't immediately know who they are and has to figure out the label that really fits them. So many of us didn't know who we are from a young child, and showing this experience in a Young Adult book is so, so important and masterfully done. While every experience is different, the representation in MAN O' WAR is so well done and powerful.

The sea creature imagery and through-line of the book is lovely and engaging, and really succeeds in adding to the voice, characterization, and tone. While the book isn't necessarily a quick read or fast-pacing, it never feels boring or stretched out and rather felt like as the reader, we were growing with River and really experiencing the years they went through in discovering themselves.

It is a powerhouse journey of a read that I truly fell in love with and couldn't recommend more. A timely, important, and thoroughly enjoyable read, MAN O' WAR will mean the world to many queer and trans readers.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for an arc of this book.

River is like a man-o-war: trapped in a tank they can't survive in, accidentally stings. They are on the swim team and loving the water, but have extreme body dysphoria and are struggling to survive. When they cross paths with Indy, River is able to see parts of themself they've never noticed before.

This book is an absolutely amazing exploration about discovering who you are and the pain and trauma it can cause when you don't feel like you fit. River is such a complex character--they're vicious and soft and hating and loving. I feel like River's character really shows the way people can change as they grow and understand themselves more.

Some of the moments with River's mom and coach really hurt to read about. They have some toxic people in their life, but also some amazing people that really help them through.

I adooooooore the relationship arc in this book. Cory does such a great job of writing a relationship that is so many different things and showing the way people can grow next to each other and apart. It shows the way someone else can hold a mirror up so you can really understand yourself better, but be able to form that way on your own. It is... poignant, and heart-breaking, and I loved it.

This book does time jumps which I usually don't like, but I didn't have a problem with it here. I thought it did such a good job representing the dysphoria that River goes through and hitting on the important things but still moving the story along. What I was nervous about at first ended up being a great narrative tool that made the story that much better.

I love love love this book and hope you all get it when it comes out in May.


Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Transphobia, and Biphobia
Moderate: Racism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Deadnaming, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, and Outing
Minor: Alcohol and Sexual content

i love everything about this book. Thank you for sending it my way and please think of me when you are planning activations for the release.

- signed a trans nonbinary person

Such an important story about a swimmer who transitions beyond what they ever knew was possible. This book was a great exploration into different ways you sexuality does not define you but let’s you explore who you really are. This story is the best trans rep I have seen in a long time and one that follows the story of transition from start to end. The nitty gritty of dysphoria to the discovery of their culture, this book really brought a lot of wonderful elements together.

My one gripe was that the pandemic was randomly brought up after a time jump. I get that contemporary will probably start incorporating it soon but it was just super jarring to see it pop up and be a part of the story.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

After reading their spouse's book The Heartbreak Bakery I thought there couldn't be another book that would speak to my own tangled relationship with gender identity and then I read this book. I am in tears up to my soul after reading this. I am in pieces but so full of love and hope for the future. I didn't know how much I needed this book.

I haven't completely read all of Cory's backlog, but I know without a doubt that this is their best work yet. Man O'War is full of reflection and questioning. It was not an easy book, but it was one I desperately needed. I'll be singing it's praises all through next year. I loved River's character and their journey into queer identity. There's no single one way to be queer and that point is made many times in this book. We see River, Indy and other characters grow. They change and make mistakes, but they're continuing to learn the whole time.

This review isn't going to be completely coherent because I am still INCREDIBLY emotional about this book. I loved it so much and I truly don't have enough words to tell y'all about it. Books like these are the reason I read contemporary books. This was everything. I can't wait to physically have this book in my hands and cry over it.

Rep: questioning pansexual nonbinary white presenting Lebanese-Irish MC with anxiety and depression, bisexual agender love interest, Lebanese-Irish asexual male side character, Asian lesbian female side character in a WLW relationship, white lesbian female side character, Black cishet male side character, white queer demiboy side character, trans male side character, achillean BIPOC side character.

CWs: Acephobia/acemisia, alcohol consumption, biphobia/bimisia, bullying, deadnaming/misgendering, dysphoria, homophobia/homomisia, lesbophobia/lesbomisia, mental illness (anxiety and depression), outing, transphobia/transmisia. Brief: sexual content.

*Spoiler free*

I legitimately cried over the deal announcement for this book. I was a competitive swimmer for ten years, I'm trans, I've dealt with certain kinds of dysphoria, it was a process to grow into my identity, I've gotten top surgery. I've desperately wanted to read this book since I found out about it, since it seemed like it touch basically hit my right in the chest. Trigger warnings: internalized homophobia, transphobia, self-harm, deadnaming

This book touched upon a part of myself that is weird, deep inside. It's just, the little pieces that I saw and connected with, it's hard to describe what it feels like to what you weren't expecting to see. I am very different from River, and yet we are so, so similar. It's sort of like this book took some parts of me that have felt uncomfortable, and reflected them back at me to show that's not true. It's hard to describe a book that feels like there's a tiny piece of you in it.

The growth that River goes through, the way they grow into themselves, become themselves, find themselves, is incredible. It's like they actually become a person when they were just a shell before. As they become more comfortable with their identity, they're able to feel more at home with the world, like they don't have to fight everything that comes across their path. It was so, so wonderful to see. To see the change, sometimes slow, was just amazing.

Honestly, the whole book is about growing into your identity. About how sometimes it is painful and hard, but there is also so much joy in it, and how amazing the people who understand it are. There is such a rawness to everything. It feels so true and open and just allows the whole book to shine.

The writing was absolutely enthralling, pure talent. It was so good.

A lot of the ways this book touched me are extremely personal, but I did really really love the book. It is such a wonderful, sometimes painful, brilliant coming of age story about a trans person growing into their skin. It's amazing.