By Sawyer Lovett
Coming May 6, 2025
(4 / 5)
Shampoo Unicorn is a story that follows 3 LGBTQ teens who live in conservative small towns in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. They each provide a different perspective: the gay boy who everyone always just knew about and hosts a podcast, the masculine football player who is secretly gay, and a trans girl who is struggling to get through life until she can feel safe enough to live as her true self. Full disclosure: I am not LGBTQ myself, but as the parent of an LGBTQ teen, I enjoy reading stories that help me better understand those experiences.
At first I was a little unsure of the book. Each of the main characters’ portions are portrayed in a different perspective: 1st person (Brian), 2nd person (Greg), and 3rd person (Leslie). It took a bit to get used to, especially Greg’s 2nd person part. Plus we are also getting transcripts of Brian’s podcast, which I actually enjoyed a lot despite not being into podcasts personally. Once I got used to how the book was presented, I came to appreciate how the different perspectives gave each character a very distinctive feel and portrayed their individual experience especially well. For example, I found Greg’s 2nd person part to be very reflective and fitting for what his character goes through in the story. Leslie’s 3rd person perspective really drove home that she was undoubtedly a girl despite her male appearance, and we were seeing her authentic self. Leslie was actually one of my favorite characters, and I would have loved to see even more of her story.
I felt like this story was pretty character-driven, which I sometimes struggle with but actually enjoyed a lot in this book. I was impressed with the growth of characters, especially some of the secondary characters that were rather unexpected. I also appreciated the variety of LGBTQ experiences that were portrayed by fans of the podcast. This book turned out to be a heartwarming story that held a lot of meaning and left me with a sense of hope. What a wonderful debut novel – I look forward to seeing future books by Sawyer Lovett!
Thank you to Hyperion and BookishFirst for the free review copy of Shampoo Unicorn! My review is voluntary and all opinions are completely my own.
