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A review by mercedes3295
May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor
Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.
I tried so hard to push through but the way the book was executed made it too hard.
Jeremy was one of the most unlikeable character’s I’ve read and although I understand to some extent why his transness and gender was such a focus, I don’t understand why he had to be an egotistical asshole because of it. I couldn’t get passed how he treated his friends and relationships while acting like he was the only one suffering. This played a big part of the victim complex his character was given, but it was kind of excused because ‘he just wanted to win’.Betraying Ben and then lying about it, his selfish actions that hurt his and Naomi’s friendship, and the fact he weaponised Lukas’ autism in arguments made him so intolerable. Since I haven’t finished the book I could have missed some big character development but, for me at least, it was a bit hard to get invested in the characters because of this. Overall his character just felt shallow.
The relationship between Lukas and Jeremy also felt so one sided as if only Lukas was invested. I’m guessing they end up together but at this point I don’t even want them to. Despite Lukas being a more enjoyable character from the beginning, he kind of just becomes a stereotype as the book progresses. I feel like his whole character is based around the fact that he has autism which means he doesn’t fit in. And the way his actions end up having vicious consequences is once again excused because ‘he wants to win’ which becomes a huge character flaw the same way it did with Jeremy. And his relationships with both Naomi and Terry seemed like unnecessary filler. I think he could have explored his sexuality and feelings in a less convoluted way because it was just one more harmful thing to deal with.
One more problem I had was the casual, often harmful, comments throughout the book. At one point a comment that a majority of TERFs (trans-exclusive radical feminists) are lesbians because “They hate trans people because they like to claim they’re the most oppressed queers in existence.” This downplays the severity of the issue that is trans exclusive feminism while also undermining the experiences of trans lesbians. Trans lesbians, specifically trans lesbians of colour, were fighting for feminism and queer rights long before we were so to water down the problem of TERFs as ‘lesbians with a victim complex’ does no good to the LGBTQIA+ community. But that’s an entirely different conversation.
I didn’t enjoy how the themes and topics were explored at all nor how the characters were portrayed.
Jeremy was one of the most unlikeable character’s I’ve read and although I understand to some extent why his transness and gender was such a focus, I don’t understand why he had to be an egotistical asshole because of it. I couldn’t get passed how he treated his friends and relationships while acting like he was the only one suffering. This played a big part of the victim complex his character was given, but it was kind of excused because ‘he just wanted to win’.
The relationship between Lukas and Jeremy also felt so one sided as if only Lukas was invested. I’m guessing they end up together but at this point I don’t even want them to. Despite Lukas being a more enjoyable character from the beginning, he kind of just becomes a stereotype as the book progresses. I feel like his whole character is based around the fact that he has autism which means he doesn’t fit in. And the way his actions end up having vicious consequences is once again excused because ‘he wants to win’ which becomes a huge character flaw the same way it did with Jeremy.
One more problem I had was the casual, often harmful, comments throughout the book. At one point a comment that a majority of TERFs (trans-exclusive radical feminists) are lesbians because “They hate trans people because they like to claim they’re the most oppressed queers in existence.” This downplays the severity of the issue that is trans exclusive feminism while also undermining the experiences of trans lesbians. Trans lesbians, specifically trans lesbians of colour, were fighting for feminism and queer rights long before we were so to water down the problem of TERFs as ‘lesbians with a victim complex’ does no good to the LGBTQIA+ community. But that’s an entirely different conversation.
I didn’t enjoy how the themes and topics were explored at all nor how the characters were portrayed.