And They Lived… is a romance that sweeps you off your feet while keeping you tethered to the ground with raw realism. It’s packed with teen angst and melodrama, the joys and sorrows of being young and unsure where you belong, and adorned with art and poetry.

-- from "Queer YA Romance “And They Lived…” is Your New Favorite Summer Read" as seen on INTO, the digital magazine for the modern queer world. (https://www.intomore.com/entertainment/books/queer-ya-romance-lived-new-favorite-summer-read/)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I an unable to review this title, as it was archived before I had a chance to download and read it. This feedback is only to stop this title from adversely affecting my net galley feedback rate. If in the future I have the opportunity to read this title, I will post a proper review here.

Steven Salvatore's first novel, Can't Take that Away, was a five-star novel for me. The discussion of what it means to be genderqueer combined with several engaging plotlines made for a novel that I have read more than once. And They Lived... is a good second novel, but it falls short of Can't Take that Away.

Salvatore's protagonist this time around is Chase, a gay college student learning what it means to be both gay and a college student. So far so good. Chase loves animation and has come to this school to chase that dream. Again, nothing that took me out of the story here. In fact, the storyline that works best in this novel is the one has Chase interacting with acquaintances old and new, some who help him accomplish his goals and others who (seemingly) seek to thwart them.

Salvatore writes the story well, but Chase is only a fraction as compelling as Carey, Salvatore's previous protagonist. Salvatore has a habit of writing monologues for each novel's protagonist that could be Salvatore communicating directly with the reader. Whereas Carey is persuasive and affective, Chase is overwrought at times. I was profoundly uninterested in Chase's relationship drama. Salvatore created characters in Can't Take that Away who are fun and who I would like to spend more time with. Although there were parts of And They Lived... that I liked quite a bit, I was happy to leave Chase behind.

I really enjoyed this story. Chase was a great character and I loved both his arc and Jack's as well. The fairy-tale quality of the book was cool as well. Definitely recommend.

Though I did manage to finish this book, it was only because I had already made it 70% of the way through and I was determined to see it through. I did not enjoy this book. I'm not a Disney fan or an art student or a gay boy, so maybe this book wasn't for me. But I just found it to be challenging in how young it felt for a book about the college experience. The main character felt...off...and the pop culture references felt forced and dated. The central conflict of the story also got really extreme out of nowhere and I was not prepare for all of the fat phobia (I was prepared for the homophobia, I guess).

I think what was hardest for me was how unrealistic it all felt, which took me out of the story. Chase was both immature and doing work in his first semester of art school that felt very advanced for just starting out! I'm no art school student, but I did date one for awhile and it was just a lot of very long, late nights for long weeks in turmoil over projects designed to really hone their basic skills. Chase seemed to just be...doing stuff without all the beginner-level projects. But that's nitpicky on my part and probably boring to read in a book, so I guess I understand the choice here.

I did not buy this book in my most recent book order, but I wouldn't be opposed to adding it to my library's collection if we have some money to spend at the end of the year. I do have some students who might be interested in the premise. Even if it wasn't for me, it might be something they would want to read with the proper trigger warnings.

This is a New Adult book because it does not fade to black! Lol

TW: Body dysmorphia, homophobia, eating disorder, sex, lousy parent relationship & school pressure

Very cute and honest with learning to be with someone, being out and discussing how gender and sexuality are everchanging, and we can be confused and sure all simultaneously. My experiences were matched through this, and honestly, I loved how it was both skimmed and brought up a lot.

I loved that Chase loves Disney, we twin there, and the animation goal was fabulous!
Contemporary isn't my favourite, but I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the real-life questions, It was slow initially, and some parts felt longer than usual.

Please look at the Trigger Warnings because while a good book; it has a few.

Initially, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the premise of the plot and liked the relationship between the two main characters up until a plot point towards the end of the story. However, there was a point in the book where someone threatens to out one of the characters, and I didn’t like how that character was treated.

Chase Arthur is okay with being gay, but he’s struggled with body dysmorphia and disordered eating for years. Now he’s also questioning his gender identity, and what pronouns feel right for him (he uses he/him but knows that they/them might work in the future). Now he’s away at college for animation, and he’s hoping for some type of Disney-style love.

Enter Jack Reid. He’s commercially beautiful, and he’s falling for Chase. Unfortunately, he’s not out to his family and he’s still unsure of himself outside of campus life.

I really loved this book. It’s classified as YA but it takes place in college and does feature sex, drugs, and language. I would suggest this for older teens and up. I loved the various discussions that Salvatore raises throughout the book – things about sex, gender, body positivity, and more. While I’m not gay, or genderqueer, I am bisexual and demisexual and I have had body image issues most of my life. There was so much I related to when it comes to Chase, and I really loved the journey he went on to start gaining more self-love and self-acceptance.

While I loved the relationship between Chase and Jack, I appreciated that Salvatore made it clear that relationships and love don’t cure the things we struggle with. They both had journeys to go on by themselves, and I loved that they both found help where they could.

This was a really quick, but beautiful read. I definitely teared up in places, and I just adored how it all came together. Plus, I LOVE the title and what it means. Read the book to find out more.

5 stars for sure!!!!!

I think this is the hardest book I’ve ever had to review because of how hard it punched me in the gut. It was just… Amazing, wonderful, perfect. Powerful. Meaningful. It broke me in the best possible way. There were moments when I had to stop reading. Just had to put the book down and take a breath. Chase’s struggles with his body image/body dysmorphia were painfully relatable. One line in particular, especially:

“When I heard him tell mom that I’d never find anyone to love me because of how I looked, I cried myself to sleep.”

I’ve actually had someone in my life tell me this. That no one would love me unless I lost weight. That line was a gut punch because I knew exactly how Chase was feeling in that moment. It hurts when someone you love says shit like that. It hurts and it leaves mental and emotional (and sometimes physical) scars.

Another line that stood out: “People like me rarely get the storybook ending.” Because.. Ouch. That’s a mood. It was uplifting and heartwarming to see Chase get his HEA because it gives me hope that maybe I will, too, someday.

Jack’s coming out story was wonderfully handled. Often times, it’s the queer MC who has the coming out narrative, so it was refreshing to see a secondary character/love interest get that instead. And Jack was such an interesting character, in general. His character development was amazing.

I loved Benny so much. He was hilarious and an amazing friend. Most of his lines made me laugh out loud. Like: “This is truly the gayest thing I’ve seen in a really long time. And I looked in the mirror this morning.” Truly, Benny just had me cackling the whole time. Chase’s whole friend group was amazing, honestly. It made me nostalgic for college and the friends I could have made, had I known then that I was queer. It was easy to picture myself in Chase’s position, especially given that CIA was based on my real life alma mater, Ithaca College. I could easily picture myself on campus, living Chase’s life and story. Being friends with Benny and Sofia and Chloe; meeting a Jack of my own..

Anyway, I digress. Tangent done, heh. Anyway. My point is, this book was just wonderful and relatable and perfect. Also, incredibly sex positive, which I think is super important for teens in general, but especially queer teens. Teens need to see what a healthy, consensual relationship – romantic and sexual – looks like. This book covered so many important topics, my review doesn’t even touch the surface of what it covered – including (but not limited to) Chase’s struggle with his gender identity. There are some TW’s for misgendering, outing, homophobia, bulimia, and a few other things. This book also encourages – even normalizes – the idea of seeing a therapist and struggling with suicidal ideation/thoughts.

This book just let me feeling so raw and vulnerable an exposed, but also hopeful and warm. Like everything would be okay eventually. I fell in love with this book on page two. I hugged it when I finished it. I laughed. I cried. I just… Could keep babbling on and on about it, but I honestly don’t think my rambling is doing it the justice it deserves. So I just highly recommend you go ahead and buy it and read. Steven Salvatore, you broke me with this one. Thank you, truly. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for writing this story. I needed it. And I’m sure many others did, too.

Now that I’ve written an incredibly emotional review that has left me feeling incredibly exposed and vulnerable… *Clears throat.* Please go read this book. I’ll be over here hiding now… *Runs away.*

This book killed me. Massacred me. From swooning highs to sobbing lows, I was destroyed and remade by this book.

This book reminded me so much of what I love about Rainbow Rowell’s novels: that sweet vulnerability, the harsh truths, the blazing fire that is love, fierce friendships, great supporting characters, flawed yet extremely relatable main characters, complex familial dynamics, honest discourse on emotions and mental states, and a whole lot of absolutely beautiful prose and sentence structure.

Of course, in this book we also get some extremely lovely poetry. I honestly teared up at the poems more than once.

This book is better written than most YA romances I’ve read in the past year and has a love story that I simply adore. Our main protagonist, Chase, goes through so much in this book, and I found myself identifying with some of his struggles and feeling all the feels for him when it came to his other struggles. This book does an excellent job of helping the reader understand the concepts of body dysmorphia and identifying as nonbinary without coming across as patronizing or proselytizing, and that’s a huge relief. While a great many people need to be seriously educated on these subjects, this book keeps away from laying it on thick, which makes the whole book and its topics more accessible to the average reader.

I also really need to address the absolutely fantastic manner in which Salvatore addressed the extremely real and extremely toxic topic of body image issues in the LGBTQ community. Adolescent, teen, and young adult males are victims of eating disorders and body image issues in much larger numbers than most people suspect, and that pressure is more than doubled in much of the queer community. Again, the topic is deftly handled by Salvatore, and I’m so glad to see a YA romance novel with LGBTQ themes that also takes the time to talk about an issue not a lot of people realize is a huge problem.

I highly, highly recommend this book if you love LGBTQ romances, college romances, stories of discovering and accepting yourself, fantastic and funny supporting characters, and if you love the writing of authors like Rainbow Rowell and Casey McQuiston.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

one of my most anticipated young adult reads of the year, steven salvatore’s sophomore novel ‘and they lived…’ follows chase arthur as he starts college at a prestigious animation program. he’s a hopeless romantic obsessed with finding his true love, but believes that he’s not enough for anyone, due to his body & gender dysmorphia and recovery from an eating disorder.

while navigating being away from his mum & sister, competing with his ex-best friend for an animation mentorship, and finding a group of friends that supports him, he meets jack reid, a writer looking for a fresh start away from his hometown while struggling with his own sexuality. will their struggles bring them closer together, or tear them apart?

this story was really sweet, and overall i enjoyed the way the narrative played out. i loved the moment when jack takes chase on an adventure to the bookstore, and how each of their art is inspired in different ways by the other. i also loved the realistic way they each dealt with their time apart, and how therapy was able to help chase love himself so he could eventually accept jack’s love as well. there were some moments where i felt the story dragged, and also was a little extra in how chase internalized his thoughts to the reader, but overall it was quite an enjoyable read!

AND THEY LIVED... by Steven Salvatore tells the story of a first year animation student dealing with his gender identity, insecurities about his gray hair and his size, complicated friendships, and dating. It would be a valuable read for anyone questioning their gender identity or interested in learning more about gender nonconformity. It also has lots of Disney, literature, and poetry references. While the writing is straight-forward, as if written for a younger reader, the content gets into some pretty mature territory. I expect readers will react to the juxtaposition in different ways.

This book is on the older end of YA with some sex scenes and potentially triggering depictions of homophobia and disordered eating. That said this is all handled well and ultimately is a powerful story. I appreciated that the sex scenes were focused on sex positivity and being emotionally and physically prepared. The potentially triggering scenes were important to the narrative and do ultimately show the importance of body positivity and self acceptance. The actual plot is well paced and I enjoyed how it flowed with the plot of Chase's animated film as he developed it throughout the book. The characters were cool, I appreciated their humor as the core group of friends was formed and it was nice to see the college be so diverse. All around you really root for all the characters to work through what they need to and discover themselves, perfect for the college setting. This is a really great book.

A gay nonbinary animator finding his way through love, body image struggles, and identity as a first-year college student.

I came into this book finding the main character, Chase, just a little insufferable—having had some big Disney Fan™ roommates myself in college, I was experiencing some teeth-gritting flashblacks—but ultimately who wants to spend their time throwing hate on someone else's joy? Chase definitely grew on me, and I became really interested in their world and their friends new and old. The romance was great, and each character's coming-of-age struggles with finding their places in their families, friend groups, and communities were really well-written and relatable.

This is a book about finding love, with others and yourself.   Chase Arthur is a first year student at a top art school.  He is an aspiring animator, hoping to make the next generation of Disney films and to live out his own romantic fairytale.  Even though Chase is at his dream school and taking a course with one of his favorite professional animators, he is struggling in many ways with ongoing issues from his childhood and new issues that come from navigating college.  He misses his little sister; he is recovering from an eating disorder and continuing to struggle with body dysmorphia prompted, in large part, by his estranged father; he is figuring out his gender identity and pronouns; and he is forced to deal with his former best friend who, after betraying Chase to get into the school, is now competing with Chase in a freshmen animation competition.  And like so many in his first year in college, Chase is eager both to find his crowd of friends and to finally find true love.

Then Chase encounters his classmate Jack Reid, a stunningly attractive poet.  Chase feels a strong connection with Jack, but can't tell if Jack wants to be friends or more.  As their relationship deepens and turns romantic, Chase cannot believe how strong his feelings are -- even as Jack seems to run hot and cold.  Chase soon learns that Jack is still figuring out his own sexuality and how to relate to his family and his best friend from home, who Jack believes will not accept him if he is gay.  When his family and best friend surprise Jack by visiting on campus, his two worlds collide and leave Chase and Jack's relationship in its wake, forcing Chase and Jack to confront what they want for their futures both individually and together.

I thoroughly enjoyed this modern, queer fairytale. Chase is such a compelling character -- raw, authentic, ambitious, anxious, and lovable.  With great sensitivity and empathy, the author explores several critical areas, including sexuality, homophobia, gender identity, body image, family dynamics, and anxiety.  And the romance at the heart of the novel is alternatively heart-warming and heart-breaking, much like first love often is.  I loved how this book reframed fairy tales to be less about happily ever after and more about resilience. 

I so enjoyed the author's previous book, Can't Take That Away (and still can't think of that book without beginning to hum Mariah songs) -- and this, if anything, was even better.  You'll want to be sure to have your tissues close at hand when you are reading this one.

Very strongly recommended!

I am convinced Steven Salvatore has one mission in life and it is to make me think so deeply every time I read one of their books. Their work is magical and brutal in a way that is clearly not for everyone, but in a way that just makes so much sense.

Chase is an animation major with big dreams, off at college and away from his mom and sister for the first time. Jack is a poet who escaped from small town Vermont and his family for the first time at school with Chase. While Chase in unabashedly gay, Jack struggles with himself and his identity, largely because of his upbringing.

I want to start by saying I loved this book, and it singlehandedly pulled me out of a massive reading slump. The peak emotions were really powerful and tragic and this book ripped me apart and put me back together all in one day. On that note alone, I think its well worth the read.

Some things I didn't like: This felt like it was trying to be cool with slang and pop culture, but it made it a bit cringe at moments because it was so far from how people talk and interact in college, at least in my experience. It definitely needs trigger warnings too. Jack felt a little one dimensional, especially past the half way point where the focus shifts to Chase almost exclusively, and we basically don't hear about Jack at all. I think thats a little bit the point, but it also makes it hard to then root for them at the end.

One thing that is addressed quite heavily throughout the book is Chase's identity as a nonbinary person, and their relationship to gender, and I thought that it was candid and generally well done. It encapsulated the struggle to put a label on yourself or not and how nonbinary doesn't have to look any one way. Another thing that is addressed throughout is body dysmorphia, which the author confesses is something that they struggled with growing up. It could definitely be triggering for people struggling with the same, so read with caution, but I think that Chase's experience comes across very realistically. It also definitely touches on Chase's own internalized fat phobia throughout, but I think there are moments when Chase really breaks through that, especially towards the end.

At the heart of it, this story is also about Jack and overcoming his own struggles with himself and his sexuality, and I think that this story line could have been better developed, or developed in a different way. At the crux of it, this reads like a romance, and while Chase has some growing to do throughout, I feel like Jack needs to grow more than Chase does, and that doesn't come across in the book. Without seeing that growth and self acceptance from Jack, its less believably. But I still kind of loved it, despite the quick, sappy ending.

All in all, Chase is a flawed character, but humans are flawed, and it wouldn't be realistic if he was the perfect cut out of a human who reacts perfectly to everything. Also, I cried. So. I'd say it was pretty good.

This book is excellent. Chase is a freshman at an arts college, admitted to the school's prestigious animation program. He's excited to pursue his interest in being a professional animator and is eager to compete in the competition for freshmen animators. If he wins, he'll secure an internship with one of his favorite animators. He's also eager to find his own prince charming. But he has not left behind some of the issues that he has long had to navigate, including his struggles with body dysmorphia and his efforts to figure out his gender identity. And he's not sure he'll find a group of friends in college, especially when he was so recently burned by one of his high school best friends who, it turns out, his also in his animation program. When Chase meets Jack, a confident and attractive poet, he believes he may have finally found that real-life prince charming. But he soon realizes that, under the surface, Jack is dealing with some significant struggles of his own that threaten their prospects of having a happily ever after … or any after at all.

This novel is a terrific modern take on fairy tales. Chase and Jack, each in their own way, are incredibly engaging characters. The author effectively uses their journeys, alone and together, to explore family dynamics, personal identity, what it takes to pursue your dreams, and first love. This is a story you will not soon forget.

Highly recommended!