Courtney Stevens

Dress Codes for Small Towns

“A poetic love letter to the complexities of teenage identity, and the frustrations of growing up in a place where everything fits in a box—except you.”—David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Kids of Appetite "Courtney Stevens firmly reasserts herself as a master storyteller of young adult fiction; crafting stories bursting with humor, heart, and the deepest sort of empathy."—Jeff Zentner, 2017 Morris Award Winner for The Serpent King "Courtney Stevens carries us into the best kind of mess: deep friendships, small town Southern gossip, unexpected garage art, and unfolding romantic identity."—Jaye Robin Brown, author of Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit As the tomboy daughter of the town’s preacher, Billie McCaffrey has always struggled with fitting the mold of what everyone says she should be. She’d rather wear sweats, build furniture, and get into trouble with her solid group of friends: Woods, Mash, Davey, Fifty, and Janie Lee. But when Janie Lee confesses to Billie that she’s in love with Woods, Billie’s filled with a nagging sadness as she realizes that she is also in love with Woods…and maybe with Janie Lee, too. Always considered “one of the guys,” Billie doesn’t want anyone slapping a label on her sexuality before she can understand it herself. So she keeps her conflicting feelings to herself, for fear of ruining the group dynamic. Except it’s not just about keeping the peace, it’s about understanding love on her terms—this thing that has always been defined as a boy and a girl falling in love and living happily ever after. For Billie—a box-defying dynamo—it’s not that simple. Readers will be drawn to Billie as she comes to terms with the gray areas of love, gender, and friendship, in this John Hughes-esque exploration of sexual fluidity.

Alexa M

Jude Moon

4.5/5

this was a story about coming to terms with oneself and finding who one is and i loved how that was represented 💛 something in the way the story was developed or written made me not give it 5 stars, but it's something that if read in another mind-space, it could be easily fixed.

jess

It was surprising how much I loved this book. When I first saw Dress Codes for Small Towns I thought it was a coming out novel, and though I'm not keen on them, I read it anyways. It is not a coming out novel - it's a novel of exploration - sexuality and gender and identity and how complicated feelings can be and it is written in a way that is absolutely beautiful. It isn't a romance; it's a study of characters, of the small town Billie lives in, and of Billie's friends. 

The town of Otter's Holt that this book was set in was so atmospheric and captured the "small-town" feeling better than most books do. Billie's relationship with her town was nuanced and complicated; she loves her town, yet she may not love the small-town mentality. It was really heartwarming to see how much the Hexagon (Billie's group of friends) loved the traditions of their town and how much passion Billie had towards saving the Harvest Festival. The setting was a big part of the book's tone. 

Billie herself was a delight to read about, and her group of friends were all unique and lovely. I think Davey was my favourite out of them, but the exploration of friendship was so great. It can be difficult to write friendship groups like Billie's, but I really did fall in love with all of the characters in the Hexagon. Stevens knows how to place the reader in Billie's head and her writing style was so pensive and well-developed. I loved the discussions about queer people in the church and I'm always happy to read about queer people of faith. This book just got it - how your relationship with God is supposed to be personal and that the church and God aren't the same thing. Billie never wavers in her faith, which I appreciate so much. 

Dress Codes for Small Towns is a very thoughtful and nuanced exploration of identity in small-town America, and I really hope that queer Christian teens are able to read this. It made me feel so much less alone and I believe it will help others as well. 

This review and more can be found on my blog!

I'm honestly sitting here in speechless joy over this book. This book has one of the absolute best friend groups I have ever seen. With all their faults, all the shit they give each other, the hurts they inflict on each other, they are still absolutely ride or die for each other. This is a group of friends that you can easily imagine still being in contact 10, 20, 30 years from now. They will continue to accumulate outlandish stories of all of their shenanigans together until the day they die. And no matter what the state of feeling between them at any given point, they will be able to work through it together and come out stronger each time. I have never been so totally delighted to see a love triangle (or rather pentagon? hexagon? how many people exactly are we counting in this??) because all of their emotions and attractions and actions felt so raw and so real and so respectful. I'm going to be coming back to this book for years to come and I'm sure I'll continue to find things to love in it because it was just so moving.

Grace O'Callaghan

** spoiler alert **
           This was everything I didn’t know I needed. My heart ached the entire time with how much I adored it.

We follow Billie along with her group of friends - Janie Lee, Mash, Davey, Woods and Fifty - as she tries to navigate the waters of her small town life, as well as exploring and discovering herself and her sexuality.

First off let’s just say that Billie is the best. She’s so incredibly selfless (despite what her dad says) and loves all her friends so deeply and so much. I think this is also the first book I’ve read with a queer female main character and I love it.
I loved all of the Hexagon so much. They are just a ball of love and emotion that needs to be protected at all costs.

Besides from Billie, I think Davey was my favourite. I don’t really know why he was just also so selfless and let Billie be with Janie Lee and didn’t make it hard for her to choose. He just let her follow her heart.

The dynamic between Billie and her parents was also done very well. We saw Billie’s Dad struggle with his duty as a pastor and his duty as a father. Whilst there were some points where he didn’t do the best thing for Billie, he ultimately loves her. I loved that there wasn’t just one conversation between them and everything was solved. I liked at the end that it eluded to the fact that they will try and mend their relationship. I did hope there would be a bit more of Billie’s Mum, one of my favourite scenes was them in the garage making costumes for LaserCon. It was just a very lovely moment.

I also thought that Gerry and Thom were so cool and added an outsiders perspective of the small town life. Thom is also demisexual and the word is actually written down like thank you YA for being better and doing better.
I would’ve loved to see more from Gerry and Thom but this book really was about Billie discovering herself.

This book just includes so much as far as discussion. We watch Billie go through the struggles of thinking she’s in love with Woods, Davey and Janie Lee. Gender and stereotypes are challenged and explored. Billie also struggles a bit with her sexuality and faith which I really appreciated and loved.

The setting of Otters Holt was also really interesting to me. I liked the way the author explored the judgmental views of small towns in contrast to cities, like Nashville. 

This is most definitely not a plot driven book and it did not need to be. Besides the Hexagon trying to save the Harvest festival and them going to LaserCon, there wasn’t much of a plot. But this about the characters and there love for one another and that’s all it really needed to be.

In case you couldn’t tell, I highly enjoyed this book. I didn’t think this could top Ari & Dante but apparently it did. Perhaps this will be the year of contemporary for me.

Charlotte Rayfield

Megan White

This is the coziest warmest hug for the soul from the best group of friends and the best book to devour in one sitting.

My heart is happy and I’m adding this to the “must reread” list for anytime I need a happy moment.

Alexis 

5/5 stars

I Completely adored this book. I got it off a recommendation from bookstandlala on youtube and i was not disappointed. I loved it all. The entire dynamic of the group of friends. the family dynamic! EVERYTHING! Also it was pointed out to me that the characters remind some people of the characters from recess (the kids TV show) and i would say that is definitely accurate. Since i heard that i have not been able to get the parallels out of my head. Moral of the review here is to go read this book!

Insiya Ghadiali

I loved the he characters. Billy, Woods, and Davey were very real and well developed and I loved them SO MUCH. I felt Fifty and Mash were less developed but I loved them anywhere. I wasn't a huge fan of Janie Lee's personality. I loved the friendship. I wish more books were written about friendship, especially a group of friends. I absolutely live for those types of stories, and this was a great one.

Dress Codes for Small Towns

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