Reviews tagging 'Islamophobia'

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver

15 reviews

xarson's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Religious bigotry, Mental illness, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Violence, Homophobia, and Bullying

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Pregnancy and Islamophobia

mavemarie's review

challenging emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Outing, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Islamophobia

Minor: Islamophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

elerireads's review

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Sweet and enjoyable - I read it really quickly - but the plot was a bit nothing-ey. I'm sure this will be important to a lot of people because of the representation, and I'm very glad it exists. But honestly I'm wracking my brain for anything specific to say about it in a review and coming up empty which isn't a brilliant sign. I liked that the people with good intentions slipped up on pronouns and stuff occasionally - it felt realistic whereas I have seen sometimes in media where the "good" characters immediately get the hang of it and it just seems more than a little bit unrealistic. Anyway it was a relatively light (apart from that beginning), easy read which was what I needed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Islamophobia, Mental illness, and Child abuse

torispring's review

emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, and Transphobia

Moderate: Homophobia, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child abuse and Islamophobia

emily_mh's review

emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I don't know how to rate and review this, but here goes. The mental health rep here was handled really well. It portrayed anxiety and depression realistically; meds didn't work perfectly, Ben initially had an aversion to both therapy and medication, and their recovery wasn't linear. I also thought the nuance that Deaver brought to Ben and Hannah's relationship was good. I appreciated that they showed how Hannah wasn't necessarily in the wrong, but Ben could still be hurt by her actions. There wasn't much plot, but I still enjoyed reading it because it was super cathartic seeing Ben start to heal. I think they come a long way by the end of the book. 

On the other hand, I think some other rep and information was not done well. For example, I really wish Nathan had been fleshed out as a character. It kind of felt like Deaver took the stereotypical "golden retriever" LI archetype and left it at that, giving him no motivations or desires unrelated to Ben. While it was obvious Ben and Nathan had a connection, one I was rooting for, it still felt like I barely knew Nathan. This is the book's biggest issue, because I think it is an example of the situation that readers and reviewers of the global majority have been pointing out for ages, where white authors write a LI of the global majority whose only purpose in the book is to assist the white MC in their development. If I am wrong here or out of my lane, I will fully delete this review. I wanted to flag it in case I wasn't.

On top of this, the book presents some misinformation about being gay, ace, and aro. It implies that a nonbinary person like Ben cannot be gay because being gay is about being attracted to the same gender, and as Ben doesn't have a gender, they cannot experience same-gender attraction. In reality, being gay is simply about non-women being attracted to non-women. This is the quote I am referring to:

"And besides, I don’t exactly have a gender, and being gay implies being interested in the same gender."

It also implies that to be ace or aro is to be touch averse, when only some aces and aros are touch averse - it's this very piece of misinformation that means so many aces and aros don't realise they are asexual or aromantic for ages. Literally a simple "some" in this sentence would have fixed this misinformation: 

“'Touch aversion can be common in people who deal with panic attacks, or people dealing with anxiety. In fact, there are some people who are just born or develop that way, like asexual or aromantic people.'”

So, yeah. Do with this what you will.

Rep: bisexual NB MC, bisexual LI of the global majority (ethnicity not explicitly stated), Bahraini Shia Muslim pansexual NB SC, Chinese-American SC, SC of the global majority (Ben's therapist Dr. Taylor, whose ethnicity is also not explicitly stated), Black SC (implied, ethnicity not explicitly stated), Korean-American SC with ADHD

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Transphobia

Moderate: Abandonment and Cursing

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Death, Physical abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Misogyny, Outing, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Major: disownment, misgendering (mostly uninformed as Ben isn't out to most people) Moderate: body dysmorphia Minor: one implied use of the transphobic t-slur, suicidal ideation, off-page use of the homophobic f-slur, 1 HP reference, menstruation

psliz's review

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

as heart-wrenching as it is heartwarming, you really get lost in ben's journey. as for them and nathan, while there's no such thing as perfect, they’re pretty close. easy 5 star read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Mental illness, Child abuse, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Islamophobia, Alcohol, and Vomit

alexlily's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Reread on audio this time around. Still one of my favourites. The anxiety rep is really good. I need a Hannah and Thomas in my life

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Outing, Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Transphobia

Moderate: Stalking and Physical abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry

sam_crl's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don’t even know where to begin. I feel like this book was written about me or at least inspired by my life because I don’t think I‘ve ever related to a character as much as I relate to Ben. If I‘d had this book years ago, my life would probably look very different.
I knew I would probably like this book because of its premise but I never thought it would hit me quite so hard. Ben is just so similar to me in almost every aspect that I felt their pain way too hard. I cried more than once and I almost never cry when reading, so that‘s something to consider.
Seeing someone like me, a queer non-binary teen who struggles with mental disorders, find love and friends and people who make them happy made me so emotional because I realized that this was the first time I‘d actually seen something like that in books. It felt like the author looked into my mind and brought the thoughts to paper in the form of this book.
I can sincerely say that this book changed my life and I thank Mason Deaver with all my heart for writing it because it made me believe that people like me can actually have a life worth writing stories about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Dysphoria, Outing, Transphobia, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Islamophobia

kaii's review

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I devoured this book in two days. not as emotionally hitting as I wanted it to be, but I very much enjoyed it. enby representation! we love to see it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, and Mental illness

Moderate: Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Islamophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Stalking, Misogyny, and Alcohol

dhwani's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Panic attacks/disorders, and Transphobia

Moderate: Islamophobia