May the Best Man Win: Zr Ellor

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Sol was probably my favorite character which probably says something since they were just a side character mainly used to advance Jeremy and Lukas' developement. They are a nonbinary latinx person, (like me) so that probably helps. I would've loved to hear more about them. While we're on the topic of characters that deserved better we should probably talk about Naomi as well. She's an Asian girl that barely got any "screen" time. She, sadly, was also used as a way to develop Lukas and Jeremy more. When these boys take things too far and have to face the lingering butterflies they can't deny AND with the dance being canceled. While they finally face their hurt and emotions? Or will everything burn? like it didn’t have all the tension and yearning i wanted sure?? but i did think the romance was written in a really interesting way! and there were mentions of neopronouns! and a nonbinary side character who i am in love with! and i liked the writing! and i didn’t actually get bored while reading for once! (i swear it’s just easier to talk about things you dislike than like ok)

May The Best Man Win follows Lukas and Jeremy, two senior boys who are both competing for the spot of homecoming king. The catch is that Lukas and Jeremy used to date before Jeremy came out. This is a book I can tell is gonna be divisive. Because Jeremy is such an unlikable character. Which is why he’s the trans character we need. Jeremy reminds me so much of me in high school, and so many other trans teens I’ve met. He’s angry, selfish, and dramatic. He struggles heavily with internalized transphobia and toxic masculinity. Hes so raw and realistic, and his struggles reflect how life often is for trans teens. He’s scared and vulnerable, and often takes that out on the people around him. When I came out I lashed out, I was selfish, I ruined all my relationships. Coming out is often traumatic and for teens going through that, it leaves them angry and scared. Jeremy is so realistic and I love it. This book was mostly based off my own high school experiences! I did enjoy talking about those experiences with my editorial team and hearing about their own high school adventures during the creative process!Jeremy and Lukas go to a school that says it supports them, but they’re often left to figure things out on their own. Why did you want to touch on this issue in their story? Jeremy Harkiss is a cheer captain, student body president, and an overall role model for many people. He came out as transgender, which was a hard decision overall but with his all-star-ex-boyfriend Lukas running for the title of Homecoming King that he has worked so hard to get, he has had enough. He won't let anything get in his way between him and his crown. Characters: The supporting cast was great (namely Sol and Naomi), but I often found it a little hard to root for the two heroes, especially Jeremy. I can't exactly say that I didn't like either of them, because at the end of the day, they're really just teens making mistakes (and hopefully learning from them), but both Jeremy (and Lukas) did some things that were a bit hard for me to reconcile with. Jeremy's character was raw and intense and just so...angry. But I also understood where that anger was coming from, and it did give him a lot of room to grow, even if I found it hard to sympathize with him sometimes. And Lukas was far from perfect too, though I did enjoy his character arc.

and then!! there’s this bit where a character is explaining what terfs are to the mc (?? pretty sure all trans people know what a terf is but ok) and says that most of them are lesbians . and honestly i wasn’t that surprised because unfortunately there’s been a fair few books out lately with invalidating comments towards lesbians like that, equating us to being transphobes (transphobia is a cis person problem not a lesbian problem) lukas' video with photos of him and jeremy pre transition and how he didn't even realize it was wrong. like your ex breaks up with you, comes out as trans and you don't even get educated on that? one thing i definitely couldn't wrap my head around was how much they cared about each other before all the shit hit the fan. because one moment the things i read sounded so horrible the whole relationship before felt bad and other moment it was "we were in love all along." like. what? Jeremy Harkiss, cheer captain and student body president, won’t let coming out as a transgender boy ruin his senior year. Instead of bowing to the bigots and an outdated school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise—and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend Lukas for the title of Homecoming King? we don't see a lot of jeremy's emotions because he feels like he should all hide it, which is fair and realistic. but what i personally don't get is how we as readers didn't get some kind if exclusive look into his brain. i don't know; i already didn't like him and his reasoning was hard to follow if you didn't really knew how he felt... I had many problems with this book but first off, the characters. Specifically the main ones. As a transmasc (and non binary) person i was really excited to meet 𝗝𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘀, our main character. He's definitely my least favorite mc that i've read about in a while. Most of what happens with Jeremy throughout the book is just him messing up his relationships. He has huge anger issues which never get better throughout the novel. Jeremy definitely has a right to be selfish but there's definitely so much development that he should've gotten.the dialogue felt so unrealistic and dramatic to the point where i was frowning at the book. also, other things just didn't make sense, like how lukas was blamed for something jeremy was a part of, while he was all okay... I would love to speak on a panel about reinventing high school stories. May The Best Man Win explores a lot of traditional teenage tropes—Homecoming, bullying, a cheerleader dating a football player—but with a queer twist. You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson and Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonsalez also insightfully explore and update many of the tropes, and it would be so cool to talk about the choices they made in taking apart and rebuilding these narratives for modern teens. after all that, having multiple chapters of friendship, love, power of community, butterfly and roses was just so messed up. the whole book y'all were the worst to each other, all characters, and now suddenly it's all peace and quiet among each other? how? edit: ok so i just read that there’s a very lesbophobic line in this,,, still going to read because autism and trans rep but just want to warn everyone!!! kind of disappointed because this was one of my most anticipated books of the year but whateverrrrr the writing wasn't really my favourite thing either. it felt like a lot of things were told instead of being shown, which resulted in some things feeling very dry. when it is first mentioned in the book lukas's brother died, i really tried not to think of this but it really did feel like the typical "wattpad" storytelling. the author literally explains what happened in lukas's inner monologue. so, no, not a big fan of that.

CWs: sibling death; ableism and internal ableism; misgendering, deadnaming, and transphobia; homophobia; bullying; racism; references to sexual harassment/assault; references to abusive parents and divorce; underage drinking; infidelity; graphic physical assault The story really looks at how Jeremy has had to distance himself from all things "feminine"—not just clothing and make-up, but even "feminine" behaviors and attitudes such as softness, empathy, generosity, and openness—just to be awarded the badge of "manhood" on cis men's terms. And it's not that he necessarily wants to disconnect himself from those things, but he feels like he's not allowed to have them or express them, because that opens the door to people invalidating his identity. And no, that shouldn't be the case, but that's the way it is. So he adopts a lot of aggression and even violence because he thinks if he can't get people to see him as a man, maybe he can get them to fear him as a man, because he thinks fear is a shortcut to respect. In particular, I loved how Ellor tied these complex and messy feelings the characters are feeling to the queer and neurodivergent experience, respectively. In Jeremy’s case, the pure wrath that he feels comes from constantly being disrespected as a man and feeling the need to prove his masculinity through not only achieving, but prototypical ideas that link violence to it. As for Lukas, his need to prove himself comes primarily from how other people view him being autistic combined with the death of his very successful older brother whom he had a complex but mostly negative relationship with. I also very much appreciated the fact that despite how messy and sometimes problematic these characters were, there was either always a narrative admonishing and/or correction of the problematic behavior or a delicate line about subjects such as a person’s gender, sexual identity, and more that was never crossed.

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Beyond the central tension of the book, May the Best Man Win is also about self-love, expressing who we are, and our relationships with our community and chosen families. How did you weave those aspects into the story and why did you choose to explore them? i did write a proper review of this a couple of months to update the jaded one below but i have no idea where it ended up and Maybe i will write another proper one someday but this book is 1 star for me and that is enough for now This is my first time seeing a feminine trans boy in a book, and I relate so much of his inner struggle with that. The fear of people doubting who he is and using his femininity against him. And his mom, seeing his feminine parts as signs of detransitioning,,,, ow,,, that was too relatable. This is something I’m still working to overcome, just a few days ago I was told I needed to take off my nail polish to be taken seriously. And now Im working up to wearing skirts out and piercing my ears. Neither Jeremy’s, nor mines, gayness and femininity negates our maleness. E-ARC generously provided by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group through Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much Also, need to mention Lukas too, Ive never read an autistic Love interest and I loved it! while no autistic, I am neurodivergent, and related to alot of his issues of repressing stims and struggling with social interactions and school. And also Sol! I loved them so much and also related heavily to them. When I was a teen I was so desperate to be a proud queer, but too scared and alone, just like Sol. It felt so nice to see a character with those struggles rise up and make a scene.

Jeremy and Lukas were both very unenjoyable characters. They both had good personality traits but the bad definitely overweighted them. Their friends are constantly mistreated and it was so frustrating. It was tiring to see them just give out a simple apology and suddenly everything was fixed. The friends honestly deserved better. this is going to be a complete mess of a review because !! i have no time to edit it but if i don’t write and post it now i never will skdkdkdkdI think this is a really important addition to the YA contemporary canon, especially as a piece of trans fiction, but I can already tell that it's going to be polarizing and get a bad rap for having "unlikeable" characters. It's definitely one of those narrative car crashes you can't look away from, and I think I kind of loved it. With that said, I'm still processing what that means. One reason I wanted to do dual narrators in this book was to show how nothing happens in a vacuum. Jeremy and Lukas are both influenced by each other, in ways they don’t always understand but become clear to them and the reader over time. They’re also influenced by their school and their families, neither of which are quite as supportive as they need. Oftentimes, when we or a person we care about is acting out, there’s something wider in their world at play. By showing what drives Lukas and Jeremy to act as they do, I hope readers will learn to look beyond the surface when a friend is struggling. I went into this expecting a cute and fluffy romcom. I mean—look at that cover! But... it was not a cute and fluffy romcom. And that's not necessarily a bad thing! It was just not what I was expecting, and it took some getting used to. We also have a great cast of side characters, all of whom felt distinct and fleshed out, and all of whom had their own issues going on outside the main conflicts of the story. Ellor's diversity extended well beyond the two white male leads, and I was happy to see issues of race and the gender spectrum talked about as well.