May the Best Man Win

Product Information

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 Instead of bowing to the bigots and an outdated school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise—and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend Lukas for the title of Homecoming King?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' video with photos of him and jeremy pre transition and how he didn't even realize it was wrong. like your ex breaks up with you, comes out as trans and you don't even get educated on that? one thing i definitely couldn't wrap my head around was how much they cared about each other before all the shit hit the fan. because one moment the things i read sounded so horrible the whole relationship before felt bad and other moment it was "we were in love all along." like. what? First and foremost, the audiobook was great. I did end up listening to it in 1.25 speed, but I loved the narrator, Avi Roque, and found the voices of all the characters easy enough to follow. I'm also very happy Avi is a member of the LGBTQ+ community themself. They were a great fit, and really brought the book to life! Roaring, raging, and riotous, May the Best Man Win is a queer lovers-to-exes-to-enemies-to-lovers romance that will have you rooting for both Jeremy and Lucas to win homecoming king—and each other’s hearts.lukas confronts jeremy with pictures of him pre-transitioning in front of the entire school. why? because lukas was in those pictures too and only after jeremy is pissed at him he realises what he did. i don't know about you but 1) how can you not notice that and 2) how can you ever forgive a person for doing that...i can't speak on this too much since i'm a ciswoman but it felt really, really off. the writing wasn't really my favourite thing either. it felt like a lot of things were told instead of being shown, which resulted in some things feeling very dry. when it is first mentioned in the book lukas's brother died, i really tried not to think of this but it really did feel like the typical "wattpad" storytelling. the author literally explains what happened in lukas's inner monologue. so, no, not a big fan of that. Characters: The supporting cast was great (namely Sol and Naomi), but I often found it a little hard to root for the two heroes, especially Jeremy. I can't exactly say that I didn't like either of them, because at the end of the day, they're really just teens making mistakes (and hopefully learning from them), but both Jeremy (and Lukas) did some things that were a bit hard for me to reconcile with. Jeremy's character was raw and intense and just so...angry. But I also understood where that anger was coming from, and it did give him a lot of room to grow, even if I found it hard to sympathize with him sometimes. And Lukas was far from perfect too, though I did enjoy his character arc.

The story really looks at how Jeremy has had to distance himself from all things "feminine"—not just clothing and make-up, but even "feminine" behaviors and attitudes such as softness, empathy, generosity, and openness—just to be awarded the badge of "manhood" on cis men's terms. And it's not that he necessarily wants to disconnect himself from those things, but he feels like he's not allowed to have them or express them, because that opens the door to people invalidating his identity. And no, that shouldn't be the case, but that's the way it is. So he adopts a lot of aggression and even violence because he thinks if he can't get people to see him as a man, maybe he can get them to fear him as a man, because he thinks fear is a shortcut to respect. We also have a great cast of side characters, all of whom felt distinct and fleshed out, and all of whom had their own issues going on outside the main conflicts of the story. Ellor's diversity extended well beyond the two white male leads, and I was happy to see issues of race and the gender spectrum talked about as well. And when I say that they're truly battling it out for Homecoming King, I don't mean some light sabotage, spying, or shenanigans. I mean they are actively trying to hurt one another and hurt each other's chances, and they do things that could potentially harm themselves and other people, both physically and emotionally. There are times when they definitely cross the moral line, and it's purely because there is so much at stake for each of them. It is an ugly battle between two ruthless, unforgiving exes, and truth be told, that take-no-prisoners approach was one of the biggest draws of the story for me, because the book is not attempting to romanticize or sanctify either character, which is something we rarely see especially in queer YA fiction. That being said, it took me quite a while to get my footing in this story. It felt like the book didn’t quite know what it wanted to be in the first third—e.g. quirky, politically activist, social commentary, a true love story—and it took a while for different plot threads to weave together. But as everything eventually moved clearer in one direction and Jeremy and Lukas actually started talking beyond trading snarks and glares, I could not put this book down before knowing what would happen during homecoming and who would be crowned king. Umm why are all my most anticipated reads disappointments this year? 2021 is by far the most disappointing year in terms of new releases, arcs, and just finding a good book in general.

Stickers

But history can only move forward. And I refuse to let my transition define me. This is my senior year. It should be my time to shine. To lead the cheer team and SGA. Be crowned on the Homecoming Court. I related so much to this book, it hit so many parts of my own experiences. I cried several times. I loved it and will be recommending it to the trans teens I work with! Overall this book was beautiful and fantastic and it made me cry so much! *remembers* I couldn't have asked for anything more...well maybe a less annoying Jeremy? But even Jeremy himself changed and I was really satisfied! Thank you Z.R. Ellor for writing this magnificent fantastic book! This will always stay in my heart ( ´◡‿ゝ◡`) Jeremy isn’t a character that you’re prone to like right from the start; he’s angry, he often lashes out, he has a tendency to only think of himself, and sometimes, anger and spite take over his entire personality. But, all cards on the table, I loved him immediately because I understood where he was coming from. As you go through the story, you learn Jeremy’s reasons for acting the way he does, how most of what he ends up doing is a protection mechanism because he always has to keep an eye out for any sort of disruption or hatred being flung his way. If you don’t sympathise with him from the beginning, I guarantee that you will by the end of the story because his journey is filled with so much growth that really spoke to me.

I exhale. Tension eases from my binder-compressed chest. Mom and I have always been close—my dad was never around, and she left my stepdad when I was really young. The two of us have always been a team, the Harkiss girls against the world. But that ended when I transitioned, cut off like an electrical short. I’m not sure what we are now. TW: Transphobia, dead naming, misogyny, bullying, attempted sexual assault, harassment, violence, homophobia, ableism

May the best man/woman win.

this is going to be a complete mess of a review because !! i have no time to edit it but if i don’t write and post it now i never will skdkdkdkd