No One Left But You

by Tash McAdam

A trans teen is swept up in a whirlwind friendship with lethal consequences in this taut YA thriller, for fans of Sadie, Andrew Joseph White, and HBO's Euphoria.

BEFORE. Newly out trans guy Max is having a hard time in school. Things have been tough since his summer  romance, Danny, turned into his bully. This year, his plan is to keep his head down and graduate. All that changes when new It Girl, Gloss, moves to town. No one understands why perfect, polished Gloss is so interested in an introverted skater kid, but Max blooms in the hothouse of her attention. Caught between romance and obsession, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her on his side.

AFTER. Haircuts, makeovers, drugs, parties. It’s all fun and games until someone gets killed at a rager gone terribly wrong. Max refuses to believe that Gloss did it. But if not Gloss, who? Desperate to figure out truth in the wake of tragedy, Max veers dangerously close to being implicated—and his own memories of that awful night are fuzzy. Both sharp-edged thriller and moving coming of age, this gorgeously wrought novel is perfect for readers who want stories with trans characters front and center.

• ISBN10: 1641294892
• ISBN13: 9781641294898
• Publish Date: 28 November 2023
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Soho Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781641294898

Reviews

[chymerra]

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: The pace of No One Left But You alternated between medium and fast during the book’s first half. By the second half, it settles into a medium-fast pace until the end of the book.

Trigger/Content Warning: No One Left But You has trigger and content warnings. If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:

• Death (graphic)
• Drug Use (moderate)
• Emotional Abuse (mainly off-page but graphic when on)
• Toxic Relationship (graphic)
• Transphobia (graphic)
• Violence (graphic)
• Blood (graphic)
• Murder (graphic)
• Toxic Friendship (graphic)
• Alcohol (graphic)
• Homophobia (graphic)
• Suicidal Thoughts (moderate)
• Dysphoria (moderate)
• Bullying (graphic)
• Deadnaming (minor to moderate)
• Child Abuse (minor and off page)

Sexual Content: There is sexual content in No One Left But You. Most of the sex scenes are described from memory (like when Danny was having sex with a girl in the bathroom). There is one sex scene between Max and Danny that is nongraphic.

Language:  There is graphic swearing in No One Left But You.

Setting: No One Left But You is set in Ridgepoint, England. There are also scenes set in London.

Tropes: Found Family, Dealing with Sexual Orientation and Abuse, Coming of Age, Set in Modern Day, The Red Herring, The Protagonist is the Suspect, The Dramatic Reveal, Twist Ending

Age Range: I recommend No One Left But You to anyone over 16.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

Before: Having come out as trans, Max is having a hard time. Danny (his ex-boyfriend) is tormenting him, and his friends (who are mutual friends with Danny) are avoiding him. All he wants to do is get through the school year and graduate. Then Gloss starts school mid-year, and Max’s life changes. As Max’s friendship with Gloss deepens, so does his obsession with keeping her as his friend.

After: Max is left in shock when Danny is killed at a party thrown by Gloss. He also refuses to believe that Gloss would kill someone who is that important to him. Determined to discover the truth, Max digs into what happened that night. What he finds could implicate himself and potentially send Gloss to prison. Will Max uncover the truth? And will he be able to accept the evidence that he has found?

Main Characters

Max: Max was significantly damaged, and his point of view on events in the book can seem a little fuzzy. So, I took everything I read with a grain of salt. But I did like Max. He was one of the realest characters that I have read to date. He took things to heart, had anxiety when his best friend didn’t text him back right away and loved a boy that could/would never love him back. In the Before segments of the book, I enjoyed seeing Max come out of his shell and embrace himself. A lot of that was because of Gloss. But some of it came with maturity and happiness in his body. By the end of the book, there was an added depth to his character that wasn’t there initially. Loss of love and accepting that he couldn’t change the person who was supposed to love him unconditionally shaped him.

Gloss: I didn’t know what to make of her at first. She seemed almost too good to be true, and in a way, she was. Gloss reminded me of a butterfly. She would flit from person to person. But she always came back to Max. She knew that he was hurting. She was his biggest supporter and champion. But she also had this side where she could be cruel and mean. So, it wasn’t a big stretch to imagine Gloss killing Danny.

Danny: Danny was an absolute bully when No One Left But You started, and I didn’t like him. But, as the book went on and the author revealed his and Max’s previous relationship, I understood why he was so upset. When that scene on the beach, where everything was laid out, my opinion of Danny started to change. When Max visited his father (after Danny’s death) and saw what Danny was living with and why he couldn’t accept himself, my opinion of him shifted. I didn’t quite like him, but I understood him.

My review:

No One Left But You surprised me. I thought this book was going to be your typical young adult thriller. You know, the kind where the killer is evident and the reasons the killer did what they did were even more. You can scratch that because this book isn’t even close to being typical. I was engrossed by No One Left But You and couldn’t put it down. It took me four hours to read (and yes, I stayed up late to finish it). It had some of the most relatable, compelling characters I have read.

No One Left But You is split into two sections-Before and After—the Before section details Max meeting Gloss and his life up to the night of Danny’s murder. The After section details Max’s grieving for Danny and his looking into why Gloss could have killed him. The author did a great job of keeping those two storylines apart. I had no issues of knowing if I was in Before or After. The author marked it at the beginning of the chapter. I also want to note that Max is a very unreliable narrator. In the After parts of the book, he wasn’t sure what happened that night because he had been drinking. In the Before, he was dealing with a lot (abusive mother, largely absent but supportive father, bullying, and Gloss), and all of that stress made him seem off-kilter (and very needy) for most of the Before sections.

The storylines in No One Left But You were well written. I connected with the characters and had my favorites and had ones that I didn’t like. I liked how the author used the Before sections to explain what happened in the After sections. The author did merge both storylines by the end of the book. They did it with a twist, and I didn’t see that twist coming. But looking back, I totally could see the tiny little arrows pointing towards that person.

I loved the end of No One Left But You. I liked seeing Max happy and seeing him with his friends. And the song that was sung at the end of the book, well, it broke my heart. I loved this ending for the book.

Many thanks to Soho Press, Soho Teen, NetGalley, and Tash McAdam for allowing me to read and review this ARC of No One Left But You. Any opinions expressed in this review are mine.