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A review by sonygaystation
May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor
Did not finish book. Stopped at 31%.
DNFd at a little over 30% - super disappointed to do it too. đ Other people rating this book low have the exact same feelings I do, and they likely will word them better. Please note that I write all this with the experience I had up to where I stopped, itâs possible things change later in the book idk!!!
I had a hard time putting myself in the charactersâ shoes - not cuz of their identities but the fact that they feel SO strongly about winning Homecoming King that theyâre willing to play extremely meanly and dirty to win. Nobody in this book seems to be a kind person, and while I actually enjoy rooting for bad people, I do need some redeeming quality to latch onto and these characters all just seemed like kinda shitty people.
I also had issue with the representation. The autistic rep felt a little shoe-horned in, in that it wasnât really discussed in the way maybe it should have been? Iâm not autistic so I canât say much about it, just that from an observerâs perspective it felt more like it was there for the sake of it rather than for discussion and character depth, when it easily could have been something that I felt really would have been so good to lean into and make a bigger part of the character dynamic. The side characters have many different identities and yet theyâre all just there on the sidelines doing nothing but serving plot to the point where their identities feel like the author went âoh I wanna sprinkle some [insert x here]â in a good faith effort to reflect the world but missed the mark.
I also had issues with the language in the book. I know the author is trans and not straight, but I still just feel using the f slur and the r slur to get across someone being a homophobic, ableist shit head to be unnecessary and kinda tasteless idk. I have mixed feelings about this as well cuz like, people DO very much experience these slurs used against them, but in this book it felt like... there are other ways to get intentions across without harmful rhetoric that can be triggering.
I have other thoughts as well, but mostly my qualms are that this book seems to be advertised as a romcom when itâs anything but. The topics are dark (think grief over sibling death and lots of transphobia) and the characters arenât just scorned exes, theyâre straight up trying to intentionally emotionally harm each other. Idk!!!! Kinda tracks considering That Line I keep seeing people quote where he called all TERFs lesbians đ hnnnnngggg glad I didnât get that far cuz this is NOT a TERF-welcome space and I donât take kindly to the insinuation that many lesbians are TERFs.
Overall, this just was not what I thought it was and combined with the very tell-not-show styled writing, it just doesnât feel worth continuing when I have a miles-long to-read pile. Definitely my biggest 2021 debut disappointment âšď¸
I had a hard time putting myself in the charactersâ shoes - not cuz of their identities but the fact that they feel SO strongly about winning Homecoming King that theyâre willing to play extremely meanly and dirty to win. Nobody in this book seems to be a kind person, and while I actually enjoy rooting for bad people, I do need some redeeming quality to latch onto and these characters all just seemed like kinda shitty people.
I also had issue with the representation. The autistic rep felt a little shoe-horned in, in that it wasnât really discussed in the way maybe it should have been? Iâm not autistic so I canât say much about it, just that from an observerâs perspective it felt more like it was there for the sake of it rather than for discussion and character depth, when it easily could have been something that I felt really would have been so good to lean into and make a bigger part of the character dynamic. The side characters have many different identities and yet theyâre all just there on the sidelines doing nothing but serving plot to the point where their identities feel like the author went âoh I wanna sprinkle some [insert x here]â in a good faith effort to reflect the world but missed the mark.
I also had issues with the language in the book. I know the author is trans and not straight, but I still just feel using the f slur and the r slur to get across someone being a homophobic, ableist shit head to be unnecessary and kinda tasteless idk. I have mixed feelings about this as well cuz like, people DO very much experience these slurs used against them, but in this book it felt like... there are other ways to get intentions across without harmful rhetoric that can be triggering.
I have other thoughts as well, but mostly my qualms are that this book seems to be advertised as a romcom when itâs anything but. The topics are dark (think grief over sibling death and lots of transphobia) and the characters arenât just scorned exes, theyâre straight up trying to intentionally emotionally harm each other. Idk!!!! Kinda tracks considering That Line I keep seeing people quote where he called all TERFs lesbians đ hnnnnngggg glad I didnât get that far cuz this is NOT a TERF-welcome space and I donât take kindly to the insinuation that many lesbians are TERFs.
Overall, this just was not what I thought it was and combined with the very tell-not-show styled writing, it just doesnât feel worth continuing when I have a miles-long to-read pile. Definitely my biggest 2021 debut disappointment âšď¸
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence
Minor: Deadnaming