A review by lish_reads
May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor

challenging emotional reflective medium-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

3.75

“I need to be bigger than my anger, but I’m only five foot two.” 
 
This book is messy, imperfect, complicated, and important. 
 
Jeremy Harkiss, cheer captain and student body president, publicly announced his transition before the school year started and wants to take his senior year by storm, school administration and transphobic bullies be damned. Lukas Rivers, Jeremey’s ex, wants to be crowned Homecoming King, get accepted to an Ivy League, and heal the rift his older brother’s death left in his family. 
 
As the two go head-to-head competing for their prestigious private school’s Homecoming Court, tempers flare, and our two main characters and their friends are, well, teenagers, grappling for a place in a world that expects something specific of each and every one of them, no matter their own desires or opinions on the matter. Jeremy, Lukas, their friends, rivals, and enemies, are all figuring out how to be themselves in the wake of what society, their school, and their families expect of them, and at times these expectations are suffocating. The ways these characters choose to fight back against injustice (actual or perceived) aren’t always the best choices available to them, but each choice is authentically made by the character in question. This book is not a cute rom-com, despite the effervescent cover and synopsis, though I was rooting for Jeremy and Lukas’s possible reconciliation, even when I wanted to sit them down and shake some sense into them both, older-sister style. 
 
In addition to their battle for a Homecoming crown, Jeremy struggles transphobia amongst his peers and the adults in his life, as well as with his masculinity and what American society dictates as acceptable forms of masculinity. Lukas, secretly living with an autism diagnosis he’s only ever told Jeremy about, struggles to pass his AP Bio class in the face of an ableist teacher, and the student body struggles with a Cresswell administration that cares more for appearances of progressiveness than actual change. There’s a lot of social commentary packed into this book, and some of it is handled better than the rest. But I think Ellor’s main goal — to show that trans characters don’t have to be perfect paragons of virtue, but can be real and imperfect and flawed — was met. I felt for Jeremy in every single sentence, even when he was being an asshole and hurting people he was supposed to care about, and especially when he knew he was making a bad choice and just didn’t know how to make a better one. These characters are only 14-18 and all very privileged, struggling with gaining real-life experience and dealing with the consequences of their actions for possibly the first times in their lives — they’re going to make a wrong decision sometimes, and even experience whole seasons of their lives defined by their bad choices. 
 
I do wish there was a little more resolution in the end — some of the plot points were wrapped up quickly and without the attention I thought they deserved, and I thought a few characters got off a little too easily for my taste — but I enjoyed the place we leave both Jeremy and Lukas. 
 
All in all, I think MAY THE BEST MAN WIN is a strong debut in the queer contemporary YA genre. If you get the chance, give the audiobook a try — narrator Avi Roque brought distinct voices and layers of personality to each and every character, making the audiobook a joy to listen to. 
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