Jude Rothesay struggles with relationships at school (where he has unrequited crushes on boys, which he discusses his best friend, Angela) and at home (where he steals tips and clothes from his exotic dancer mother and tries to avoid his uninterested stepfather, Ray).

"[2] An opening monologue by Ellen DeGeneres on her show in 2008, when she described the life and death of Californian gay teen Larry King,[3] planted the seed that he would later develop into the novel,[2] although Reid said that Jude is not a self-portrait.

[4] National Post book editor Emily M. Keeler was effusive in her praise for the novel, calling it "a fun, glamorous romp ... like a contemporary, teen reference to Djuna Barnes's modernist queer masterpiece Nightwood.

"[8] Barbara Kay criticized the main character as "sexually adult, but socially infantile" as the "'authentic' narcissism of queer/transgender identity exempts one from the obligation to mature.

"[9] Kay also criticizes the central structure of the novel, saying that "life as a movie begins as a clever trope, but after hundreds of references ... it wears thin.