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A review by valereads
I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book was difficult for me to rate. On the one hand the technical quality of this book has me wanting to only give it a four star rating. On the other hand the way this book made me feel makes me want to give it five stars and I know I wouldn't feel that way if it wasn't for my specific life experiences but this book made me cry in a way a book hasn't for a while.
Unfortunately much of this book comes across as rather generic YA contemporary, it's filled with high school cliches and the only things that make it different from everything else in that category are Ben being non-binary and having anxiety. But maybe that's enough. If I hadn't read so much in this category before - YA contemporary and, more specifically, LGBTQ+ YA contemporary - then I wouldn't have a problem with any aspect of this. Me being a jaded 20-something whose already read Simon Vs, If I Was Your Girl and countless similar books is probably why the high school stuff bored me but if I was a non-binary teen who'd never read a book with a non-binary protagonist before I'm sure I'd love every aspect of this book, especially with everything it did really well.
Speaking of what this book did well, the way Deaver wrote about Ben's gender dysphoria and anxiety was really well done. I'm transgender (trans masculine non-binary) and have severe generalised anxiety disorder and I felt Ben's experiences with dysphoria, anxiety and panic attacks were well-described and painfully accurate.
I also really appreciated the way Deaver wrote Ben's emotionally abusive parents. Emotional abuse isn't something that gets discussed a lot in fiction and is often done inaccurately but in this case it was really effective and realistic. The way this affected Ben's relationship with their sister also really got to me. The scene where these issues were confronted was especially effective for me and had me in tears. I also appreciate that not everything was fixed between them after this confrontation, it would have been easy to have everything be better at that point but Deaver was more honest about the kind of damage this kind of thing can have on relationships.
Another of this books strengths was it's great characters and character relationships. Apart from Ben's complicated relationship with their family, Ben's relationship with Nathan is central to this story. Nathan's character was for the most part very well written and I found myself falling a little bit in love with him and wanting to get to know him better.
This book is a slightly generic young adult contemporary novel set at a North American high school. It's very readable, had likeable characters and tackles big issues like coming out as non-binary, dealing with anxiety disorders and emotional abuse very effectively. Overall I'd recommend to anyone who isn't too tired of high school books.
Content Warnings: child abuse, transphobia, homophobia, panic attacks, underage drinking, coming out
Unfortunately much of this book comes across as rather generic YA contemporary, it's filled with high school cliches and the only things that make it different from everything else in that category are Ben being non-binary and having anxiety. But maybe that's enough. If I hadn't read so much in this category before - YA contemporary and, more specifically, LGBTQ+ YA contemporary - then I wouldn't have a problem with any aspect of this. Me being a jaded 20-something whose already read Simon Vs, If I Was Your Girl and countless similar books is probably why the high school stuff bored me but if I was a non-binary teen who'd never read a book with a non-binary protagonist before I'm sure I'd love every aspect of this book, especially with everything it did really well.
Speaking of what this book did well, the way Deaver wrote about Ben's gender dysphoria and anxiety was really well done. I'm transgender (trans masculine non-binary) and have severe generalised anxiety disorder and I felt Ben's experiences with dysphoria, anxiety and panic attacks were well-described and painfully accurate.
I also really appreciated the way Deaver wrote Ben's emotionally abusive parents. Emotional abuse isn't something that gets discussed a lot in fiction and is often done inaccurately but in this case it was really effective and realistic. The way this affected Ben's relationship with their sister also really got to me. The scene where these issues were confronted was especially effective for me and had me in tears. I also appreciate that not everything was fixed between them after this confrontation, it would have been easy to have everything be better at that point but Deaver was more honest about the kind of damage this kind of thing can have on relationships.
Another of this books strengths was it's great characters and character relationships. Apart from Ben's complicated relationship with their family, Ben's relationship with Nathan is central to this story. Nathan's character was for the most part very well written and I found myself falling a little bit in love with him and wanting to get to know him better.
This book is a slightly generic young adult contemporary novel set at a North American high school. It's very readable, had likeable characters and tackles big issues like coming out as non-binary, dealing with anxiety disorders and emotional abuse very effectively. Overall I'd recommend to anyone who isn't too tired of high school books.
Content Warnings: child abuse, transphobia, homophobia, panic attacks, underage drinking, coming out
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Transphobia
Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
Minor: Physical abuse