The (Un)Popular Vote

Name: The (Un)Popular Vote
Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)

Jasper Sanchez

Jun 2021 · HarperCollins

2 reviews

Ebook

413

Pages

Eligible

Switch to the audiobook

About this ebook

Red, White, & Royal Blue meets The West Wing in Jasper Sanchez's electric and insightful #ownvoices YA debut, chronicling a transmasculine student's foray into a no-holds-barred student body president election against the wishes of his politician father.

Optics can make or break an election. Everything Mark knows about politics, he learned from his father, the Congressman who still pretends he has a daughter and not a son.

Mark has promised to keep his past hidden and pretend to be the cis guy everyone assumes he is. But when he sees a manipulatively charming candidate for student body president inflame dangerous rhetoric, Mark risks his low profile to become a political challenger.

The problem? No one really knows Mark. He didn't grow up in this town, and his few friends are all nerds. Still, thanks to Scandal and The West Wing, they know where to start: from campaign stops to voter polling to a fashion makeover.

Soon Mark feels emboldened to engage with voters—and even start a new romance. But with an investigative journalist digging into his past, a father trying to silence him, and the bully frontrunner standing in his way, Mark will have to decide which matters most: perception or truth, when both are just as dangerous.

"Mind-bogglingly good. This is a novel that every teen needs." —Kacen Callender, author of Felix Ever After
"Charming, stunning, and unapologetically queer." —Mason Deaver, bestselling author of I Wish You All the Best and The Ghosts We Keep

Red, White, & Royal Blue meets The West Wing in Jasper Sanchez's electric and insightful #ownvoices YA debut, chronicling a transmasculine student's foray into a no-holds-barred student body president election against the wishes of his politician father. Optics can make or break an election. Eve...

Discover more

Ratings and reviews

2 reviews

Andrea Romance

June 1, 2021

Unbeknownst to his high school classmates, Mark is the trans son of a US congressman. When his friend is suspended for fighting back against a bully, Mark decides to run for student body president. His father, afraid that his political ambitions will be jeopardized if Mark's status becomes known, opposes the move. Mark is forced to confront his own privilege as an affluent white male who can pass for cis and straight, even while being marginalized in his own home. This book deals with serious issues facing LGBTQ youth in a high school environment. At times, the characters felt like mouthpieces for the author's worldview, rather than fleshed-out human beings. As a result, I found it difficult to connect emotionally with the story. There were more characters than I could keep track of, and they weren't well differentiated. The plot, though, was tense and well-developed. Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review. Content warning: drug use, alcohol use, fighting.

About the author

Jasper Sanchez s a transmasculine author from the heart of Northern California wine country. He earned his BA in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and his MA in cinema and media studies from UCLA. He now lives in Seattle with his cat, Simon, who might be more opinionated than he is. When he's not writing, he can be found wandering museums, scouring the city for the best espresso, and annotating lists of his favorite Star Trek episodes. You can visit him online at www.jaspersanchez.com.

Jasper Sanchez s a transmasculine author from the heart of Northern California wine country. He earned his BA in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and his MA in cinema and media studies from UCLA. He now lives in Seattle with his cat, Simon, who might be more opinionated than he is...

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets

Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.

Laptops and computers

You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.

Flag as inappropriate