Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell
Tobias Madden
Page Street Kids
Published January 3, 2023
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell
There Are No Cheat Codes for Showmance
Seventeen-year-old gaymer Noah Mitchell only has one friend left: the wonderful, funny, strictly online-only MagePants69. After years playing RPGs together, they know everything about each other, except anything that would give away their real life identities. And Noah is certain that if they could just meet in person, they would be soulmates. Noah would do anything to make this happen—including finally leaving his gaming chair to join a community theater show that he’s only mostly sure MagePants69 is performing in. Noah has never done anything like theater—he can’t sing, he can’t dance, and he’s never willingly watched a musical—but he’ll have to go all in to have a chance at love.
With Noah’s mum performing in the lead role, and former friends waiting in the wings to sabotage his reputation, his plan to make MagePants69 fall in love with him might be a little more difficult than originally anticipated.
And the longer Noah waits to come clean, the more tangled his web of lies becomes. By opening night, he will have to decide if telling the truth is worth closing the curtain on his one shot at true love.
My Review
I absolutely loved Tobias Madden’s debut, ANYTHING BUT FINE, so I was really excited to read another of his books. ANYTHING BUT FINE had possibly the best frank and funny scenes about ballet that I’ve ever read. It also made me totally weep with grief. So good. (I’m pretty sure there’s an appearance by Luca, Amina and Jordan in this book, which was amazing.) Anyway.
So, TAKE A BOW, NOAH MITCHELL follows a reluctant theatre kid, and I have to say that one of my favorite things about the book was the way it celebrated but also poked loving fun at theatre and musicals. I loved that.
I also felt like the layering in the book was really good. Noah and his mom have a really rocky relationship. I thought the way that they sometimes miscommunicated or where their dramatic personalities clashed were really well done. Totally believable.
The relationship between Eli and Noah was cool, too. The timing of reading this book was a little awkward for me, since I just finished NO FILTER AND OTHER LIES by Crystal Maldonado not long before reading this one, and the plot has a lot of similarities to this one. I think that left me feeling like some of the tropes were not as fresh and interesting, but I think that’s probably just because I read both books so close together.
On the whole, I had a lot of fun reading this one, and I enjoyed the characters (especially Noah and Charly) and theatre scenes a lot.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation
Noah and some other characters are gay. BIPOC minor characters.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex. In one scene the boys plan to have sex and the scene follows the lead up to it. Noah walks in on a man and woman having sex.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violent Content
Bullying. References to video game violence.
Drug Content
Teens drink alcohol. In one scene, a boy brings out a joint.
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