summerofchels 's review for:

May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor

3.0

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This is a really hard book for me to review. I read this over a month ago and it has taken me this long to even scratch the surface of what I want to say. I'll start by saying that while I did enjoy this book, I definitely didn't like it quite as much as I expected to and I think that falls on the way this book was marketed. It was marketed as a queer, fun, second-chance, enemies-to-lovers romance, and while it does have some of those elements, it is MUCH heavier of a story than I went in expecting. This book deals very, very heavily with transphobia and the way our main character Jeremy responds to the transphobia he faces. I think that if I had gone into this knowing that it had a heavier tone than the synopsis and cover would suggest, I wouldn't have been quite as thrown off by the way everything went down. With all that being said, I think if you adjust your expectations, this could be a book that you will really love. I personally listened to it on audio and thought the narration was fantastic, so if you are interested in this one, I recommend heeding the list of content warnings and going the audio route.

CW: transphobia (including misgendering + deadnaming), homophobia, death of a loved one, bullying, ableism, use of r-slur, sexual and physical assault