May the Best Man Win
Score: 3/5 Bookmarks
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for gifting me a review copy of May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor.
This is going to be a spoiler-filled review, so if you haven’t read it yet and would like to, I suggest you stop now.
Have you stopped reading? You’ve been warned!
I had been eagerly awaiting this book, and wanted so, so much to love it but I just couldn’t. We 100% need more books with trans main characters, but this book really missed the mark for me.
The main character, Jeremy, is just awful. He treats his friends, and other students at his school, like absolute @%$& but thinks he deserves to be crowned Homecoming King and be loved and adored. He’s been through so much, and that would justify the hate and rage he is fueled by, but he admits that he’s a complete a-hole and then in the next sentence talks about how he’s earned Homecoming King etc. He is beyond narcissistic, even for a teenager.
Jeremy was just so self-destructive, and I’m sorry, but bringing a knife to school? That was really the last straw for me, and I almost DNFed it right there…but I’m stubborn and I just kept hoping it was going to get better. I am surprised that it still triggers me so much after all this time, but a kid in my grade at high-school got stabbed in the chest at school, and there is just no justification for that sort of violence.
When it came down to it, I disliked how the whole story centered around complete annihilation of people who used to be their closest friends. Entirely too much hate, anger and destruction for me.
The only reason I bumped my rating up from a two to a three was because the audio narration was fantastic and because I really liked Lukas’ character. He makes some big mistakes, but he always tried to fix them. And even though he had a lot of challenges in his personal life I really loved how loyal and caring he was—although I think he gave Jeremy entirely too many chances.
As I mentioned, the audiobook was wonderfully performed by Avi Rogue (who you might recognize from Cemetery Boys), and comes in at just over 11 hours. You can grab a copy for yourself via the button below.
If you’ve read this one, what did you think? Drop me a comment and let me know.
Synopsis:
A trans boy enters a throw-down battle for the title of Homecoming King with the boy he dumped last summer in ZR Ellor's contemporary YA debut.
Jeremy Harkiss, cheer captain and student body president, won’t let coming out as a transgender boy ruin his senior year. Instead of bowing to the bigots and outdate school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise—and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend, Lukas for the title of Homecoming King?
Lukas Rivers, football star and head of the Homecoming Committee, is just trying to find order in his life after his older brother’s funeral and the loss long-term girlfriend—who turned out to be a boy. But when Jeremy threatens to break his heart and steal his crown, Lukas kick starts a plot to sabotage Jeremy’s campaign.
When both boys take their rivalry too far, the dance is on the verge of being canceled. To save Homecoming, they’ll have to face the hurt they’re both hiding—and the lingering butterflies they can’t deny.
