Title: Bad Boy
Author: Elliot Wake
Genres: New adult, thriller, contemporary, romance
Published: December 6th 2016, by Atria
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Vlog star Renard Grant has nothing to prove: he’s got a pretty face, chiseled body, and two million adoring video subscribers. Plus the scars on his chest and a prescription for testosterone. Because Ren is transgender: assigned female at birth, living now as male. He films his transition and shares it bravely with the world; his fans love his honesty and positivity.
But Ren has been living a double life.
Off-camera, he’s Cane, the muscle-bound enforcer for social justice vigilante group Black Iris. As Cane, he lets his dark side loose. Hurts those who prey on the disempowered. Indulges in the ugly side of masculinity. And his new partner, Tamsin Baylor, is a girl as rough and relentless as him. Together, they terrorize the trolls into silence.
But when a routine Black Iris job goes south, Ren is put in the crosshairs. Someone is out to ruin his life. He’s a bad boy, they say, guilty of what he punishes others for.
Just like every other guy: at heart, he’s a monster, too.
Now Ren’s got everything to prove. He has to clear his name, and show the world he’s a good man. But that requires facing demons he’s locked away for years. And it might mean discovering he’s not such a good guy after all.

This is not my first Elliot Wake novel. My first was Black Iris, which I loved. It was powerful and gritty and dark in a satisfying way that made you want to keep reading. Bad Boy was too, but I have a lot of conflicting emotions on it. Though Bad Boy is technically a stand alone novel, it is part of a larger story arch and world created by Elliot Wake involving characters from his earlier novels. This, I feel, makes it both more and less enjoyable to read.

Lets start with what I enjoyed: I loved reading a novel about a transgender guy, written by a transgender guy, and in a context where the entire story is not about being trans. This was probably my favourite part of this novel. As a trans guy I'm always looking for more fiction with good representation and stories that are not entirely based around trans identity and struggles, but rather stories that just happen to have transgender characters.

Though this story is very much about the main character Ren and his gender identity, it is also a thriller, a romance, and a revenge story. I really enjoyed the romance between the two main characters. Tamsin, the love interest, a woman of colour, is badass and likeable, and has just enough of a dark past to work so perfectly well with Ren, as both a 'partner in crime' and a girlfriend.

I also loved the writing of Bad Boy; something I also loved about Black Iris. Elliot Wake has a beautiful writing style, lyrical, in a gritty and believable way that really manages to grasp onto you and leave a lasting impression. His writing flows so well into making you read and digest the story so effortlessly. I enjoyed reading about characters I knew from Black Iris, and new faces I met both from previous Elliot Wake novels I haven't read, and whole new characters, some likeable, others... Not so much.

But then... There are some things I liked less. Bad Boy was definitely a wild ride, and for the most part that worked in it's favour. There is definitely something exciting in a thriller to never know who you can trust in any given situation. However, there were so many twists and turns, betrayals and shocks that at times it was almost a little silly and messy. It was hard to trust any character even after they proved themselves loyal, which made it especially hard to look at characters from Black Iris in the same way, which was sad for me as I did love those characters.

The ending conclusion is ultimately shocking and well done. Bad Boy definitely faces the topics of transphobia and TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) head-on. It also broaches the subject of toxic masculinity, abusive friendships, and violent misogyny. This I definitely respect and enjoyed about this novel. Elliot Wake's writing doesn't shy away from writing what is real and what it sometimes hurts to read about. And though there were some things I liked less about Bad Boy, I am looking forward to Elliot Wake's next novel.


A quick warning: there is quite a lot of graphic contect that could potentially be triggering for some readers, especially in relation to body dysphoria, transphobia, abuse, and sexual assault.