Z. R. Ellor

ZR Ellor's May the Best Man Win is a debut YA novel about a throw-down battle for Homecoming King between a transgender teen and the boy he dumped last summer...

May the Best Man Win

What a disappointment I couldn’t even finished it. This was one of the new releases that I was most looking forward to and oh man how much it hurts me that i didn’t like it. This had the potential to become the new red, white & royal blue and I am so mad that it wasn’t good.

The representation was fine, I am trans myself and I related to a lot of what Jeremy was feeling. He is really angry at everyone, at himself, at his life; i could relate to that, I get it. But dude, this character kept making the worst fucking choices he could make over and over again. How stupid can a character be until I stop reading??? I draw the line in Jeremy. The coming out to his boyfriend scene... no. Just no. He dumps his boyfriend because he is no fucking psychic. How about you telling him directly instead of assuming that “what if i am not the same person” is the same as telling him that you are trans???? 

Let’s talk about the friendships here because do they even like each other? First of all Jeremy’s best friend (Naomi I think I don’t remember) wtf? She stops talking to him because he did something that gave them the attention they needed to win the homecoming shit. And yes, I know they are teenagers and they get mad over stupid things, I was one not that long ago and I would have never stop talking to my BEST FRIEND because someone bullied and misgendered him. And then complains about him talking too much over the summer about his problems. Wow, sorry that he is going through something kind of traumatic and needs you to be there for him.
And the Ben thing, aren’t this like your only friend, Jeremy?? The only one who is still on your side? And you went that did that. Ok. Just say that you all hate each other and be done with it.

Lukas was the only character in my opinion that made a little sense. Boy, just forget about this horrible people and live a happy life, you deserve it.

With all my respects to the author, I think this was the worst way to go with such a great idea. It was not very well written, confusing in some parts which is surprising for how little the plot moved through the first half of the book. I didn’t like the characters and I was bored reading it because I felt that nothing had truly happened.

So basically, poorly written bad characters with a boring pace but good representation.

Ouarda 

Nice plot, but man, Jeremy sucks. 

I liked the way the book portrays the mentality of high schoolers, because let's be honest, no one is mature and emotionally evolved in their senior year. But Jeremy still sucks.

Eliana Mor

I take back every good thing I said about this book because I hate the author now

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.

Flavia Louise

anderson elizabeth

This book is a toughie. On one hand, I obviously think that the representation is phenomenal and ZR nailed the way that most teenagers miserably fail at communication. Because what is being a teenager if not one degree off from knowing the truth with your crush. I went into this book thinking that it would be, at its core, a rom-com. Especially based on the way the cover shows Jeremy and Lukas I thought that it would be a lot of fun and bantering when in reality this book got dark. I think that this book is super important and the fact that we get both points of view is something that I think adds a lot to the plot and tension of the book.

I have a lot of empathy for both characters because I remember what it is like to be in love with someone and know that neither one of you is telling the whole truth because you're afraid or frustrated or you just don't know what you feel so I think that the author did a great job with conveying that. I know that someone who is not trans I can't speak to the experience of what Jeremy goes through. I think that both Jeremy and Lukas are well-rounded and fleshed-out characters. 

Something that was kind of frustrating with this book was how unlikable Jeremy got at times but I also know that he's in his first year after coming out as trans and taking hormones for the first time and getting used to the way that your body is changing his got to be a wild ride. So when reading his points of view when he was just completely self-destructing I tried to have a lot of empathy but I also know that it's okay to not always be over the moon about every single character that you read. I think that he is a phenomenally written character. It just happened that it's not always like his personality. Both Jeremy and Lukas felt like they were constantly on Catastrophize Mode™ but I also have to remember that they're in their senior year of high school and everything always feels like it's high stakes at that point in your life. Overall I think this was a good book and I will continue to read other books that ZR Eller publishes in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me access to an ARC of the audiobook. I enjoyed the narrators that were selected for this novel.

Sofie

omg I'm so exciteeeeddddd

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EYYOOOO GOT AN AUDIOBOOK

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Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the eARC for review!

Do not let this incredible cover fool you. This is not a fluffy, easy story. 

TW: Transphobia, dead naming, misogyny, bullying, attempted sexual assault, harassment, violence, homophobia, ableism

Exes Jeremy and Lukas have a lot on the line with the Homecoming king title. For Lukas, it means stepping out of his late brother's shadow and earning a sure acceptance into one of the ivy leagues that would finally make his parent's proud. For Jeremy, it means everyone has finally accepted what he's always known: he is a guy, and he's not gonna let his pseudo-progressive school and some transphobic classmates stand in his way. But before he came out, Jeremy used to be Lukas's girlfriend, and Lukas never understood why he ended things. Competition heats up as the two vie for the crown, and neither of them seem to care who they hurt in the process.

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!

Lets start with the good: I feel like I am better for having read this story. Ellor goes very into depth on several trans issues, and even though I wasn't a huge fan of Jeremy's character, I really understood where he was coming from. He has a truly great arc in the book, and his chapters definitely opened my eyes more to the trans experience. Ellor also delved into ableist issues with our other lead, Lukas, who is neuro-divergent. His chapters stuck out to me; Lukas's voice was so raw, so needing, so lost. I wanted to give him a big hug.

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. 

All that said, I found the book a bit tough to get through because, obviously, it deals with some heavy themes. But more so because I really didn't enjoy Jeremy's character. Like I mentioned, I understand why he is the way he is. He's a small guy struggling to be seen in the world as he sees himself, constantly having to remind others of his gender identity and queerness. Fighting against transphobia, both overt and unconscious. So I get it. But like... he is also kind of an asshole. I won't go too much into detail (you'll have to read it for yourself!), but let's just say his arc is one of the most dramatic in the book.

Lukas. My sweet bb Lukas. I love that kid. An angel who just wants to keep his family together. A kid who struggles with social cues and nuance and has no idea why the guy he loves dumped him out of no-where before coming out. A boy who wants to be homecoming king so he can get into an ivy school and finally fill the shoes left behind by his perfect brother. I'm a bit bias... he's definitely not perfect. He makes mistakes. He takes things too far in his competition for the crown. 

Complicated characters. Deep themes, troubling to some. Lots of ups and downs. A very relevant story in today's day and age; even as progressive as someone might think they are, there will always be things that cishet people can never understand. Thankfully we have people like Z.R. Ellor to tell the stories we need to hear.

Gabriel Noel 

ALRIGHT.

Anything I can say about this book has already been said much better than I could in the reviews here, so I will just agree with them. This book had an amazing premise and then was ruined by unlikable characters, bad takes, and poor storytelling.

I'm really disappointed in a lot of the lgbtq YA stories that have been coming out this past year and this one takes the cake.

As a trans man this book was something I was looking forward to and just totally fell flat. I don't want to write out all my issues here, because tbh, I don't really have the energy but pls feel free to ask any questions if you see this and are unsure of reading it. (tw for internal/external homophobia, transphobia, racism, slurs, and death.)

Marie Sturm

Switching POV's.
My heart went into it and I will never forget it. It has a few sentences that haunt me because they are so good, hitting so close to home!

Elska Bee

1.5

This book was a hot mess in a bad way. I wanted to like it so badly because it features a main character who is a trans guy and the other main character has autism. The rep side of things was generally handled well, and the internal conflicts about neurodivergency, gender, and sexuality were the best parts. *Contrapoints voice* aS a tRaNs pErSOn I felt that the internal conflicts and struggles Jeremy experienced were highly relatable, especially in relation to passing vs ideal presentation.

BUT unfortunately the good parts were few and far between. The plot was stupid and barely existent (so... I'm not American but I'm pretty sure winning homecoming king ain't that important, they act like everything will suddenly be perfect if they just win). I hated that most of the homophobia/transphobia was concentrated in one over the top neo-nazi privileged rich white boy that everyone can hate. There were other more minor and realistic instances of transphobia and the book would have worked better if they'd cut the bully character out entirely.

Which brings me to my next and most important point: this book is dark. If you want a cute and comforting queer read, this ain't it. All the characters, especially Jeremy, are f***ed up assholes and not in a lovable way. They make ridiculously dumb decisions that no person would make and consistently ruin their own lives and the lives of everyone around them. I could forgive it if that was the point, but it was just way too far off the rails to have a clear message. In the end there's some stuff about how it's okay to ask your friends for help, that community is important, and that you shouldn't push everyone away. But it feels a bit disingenuous considering how little the characters actually suffer any real consequences.

Heck, it wasn't even good from a romance perspective because the relationship development isn't on the page.

TL:DR you probably shouldn't bother reading this book.

Cecília Amaral

TW: ableism, transphobia, homophobia, bullying, deadnaming, misgendering, violence, death of a sibling


1.5 
Okay, hell is officially over! I finish it and what a torturous experience it was.

There's a Taylor Swift song called Better Than Revenge and a line that would pretty sure describe Jeremy is "Sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know, or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go". I say this because that's exactly what he does, THE WHOLE BOOK. I tried so hard to like him because he was the main character but at some point, I was just hoping he'd have a great character development so I could say I liked him at some part but I didn't feel that it happened at all. The thing is, Jeremy did so really bad and serious things, he stepped in people's emotions, made pretty reckless decisions against other people and didn't even felt sorry at all, of course, he thought things like "I'm a shitty person" but didn't apologize at the moment he recognized it, so at the ending, everything was brushed off and they lived happily ever after, BUT NOT ME. Of course, I empathize with the situations he found himself in, been misgender and people being transphobic was terrible but that doesn't mean you can be a toxic person, and especially being toxic to people who didn't have a thing to do with any of this, quoting one of my favourite series "sometimes you can choose to not be a dick", in Jeremy's case that would be "sometimes you can choose therapy ". At first, Lukas was the only parable character but by the end, he was looking exactly like Jeremy so you already know what I think about him. Their romance was even blander than my English essays.

You wanna talk about the plot, what plot? The only thing here were two teenagers who don't know how to communicate, transphobic and homophobic people everywhere and a homecoming prom that's only here so we have an excuse to read a book about two teenagers that aren't even good to themselves. At least I learned more about toxic friendship ;)

The book should have been focused on the side characters that were way more interesting and just seemed to be there to show some "representation". This was such a disappointment.

Becca Futrell

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an audiobook of May the Best Man Win in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings: Death of Sibling, Bullying, Sexual Harassment, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Misgendering, Homophobia

How CUTE is the cover to May the Best Man Win? Very, amiright? Unfortunately, the book is not as cute as the cover. There's a lot of drama & triggering moments in May the Best Man Win -- I mean, just look at those content warnings above. 

I almost DNF'ed this book & after actually finishing, I've come to the conclusion that I could have gone the rest of my life with not finishing this one. But, I swear this review isn't just going to be me insulting this book, because there's one thing that I really respect out of it & that's the insight on discrimination against the Trans community. We all know that the Trans community doesn't have it easy -- they are often targeted in hate crimes, ridiculed by transphobes & in general, not treated as good as they should be. However, even recognizing their struggles, there's just something about seeing it play out on the pages of a book that really opens your eyes. 

With that being said, it's very unfortunate that a book that has such a heavy & important message is polluted with characters that absolutely suck. Okay, okay -- there were a couple of side characters that were perfectly fine, but our leading characters? No thank you. I spent more time being irritated with the characters than actually enjoying what was going on. I wasn't sold on the conflicts during their feud & I definitely wasn't sold on the enemies-to-lovers romance.

Kamila 

** spoiler alert **
           1,5⭐
I was really exicted for this book but now I am just dissapointed. 
- side characters felt like figures without any depth and were there just to help Jeremy and Lukas 
- Lukas figured out that he is gay after just 2 lines of thinking even though he said that he was attracted to girls before and suddenly he says that he is gay. It took me few months or even longer to figure out my sexuality so realizing you are gay in 5 minutes after 18 years of thinking you are straight seems kinda impossible 
- Jeremy and Lukas are so unlikable. Jeremy says that he is wearing mask but we never see what is under his mask even in his own thoughts. He even says that their egos are too big for this school. They are both very annoying 
- it sometimes felt like a bad wattpad novel 
- too much drama for small things 
- they often say that they are the most popular boys in school and used to be the most popular couple but it is not proved in any scene, only they say that 
- do universities really care so much about who was chosen Homecoming King/Queen? Because it seemed like this is more important than grades 
- '"Trans-exclusive radical feminists.” Anna picks up an old beret and tries it on. “A lot of them are lesbians, unfortunately. They hate trans people because they like to claim they’re the most oppressed queers in existence.”' Lesbians are only portrayed like this 
- feminists are portrayed as women who either are transphobic or care only about white people (especially men) and don't want to help minorities 
- Jeremy and Lukas are terrible to each other all the time but suddenly it turns out they are in love all the time? 
- I didn't like blaming Jeremy's agression on testosterone because I heard too many times that I have to forgive boys their behaviour because it is just their hormones

Ocean

DNF at 33%. I wanted to like this book so badly but the characters are just SO unlikeable. I was really excited for this one, it has trans rep AND autism rep and it sounded like it was right up my street. However, Jeremy is a really crappy character, he's horrible to everyone and seem intent on destroying all of his relationships. The way he broke up with Lukas was so cruel, and I knew then that there was no way he could ever become likeable in my eyes. Lukas isn't as unlikeable as Jeremy, but he's still not great. I did sympathise with both MCs at times for different reasons, but I didn't care enough to carry on reading their story.

Also, I didn't get far enough into the book to read this line, but there is a lesbophobic line about lesbians being TERFs. You can find the quote easily enough in other reviews. 

Overall, I just couldn't bring myself to care about the characters or continue reading the book because both of the MCs are deeply unlikeable (one more than the other tbh but still) and that's just not enjoyable for me at all. When I read a book, I want to love the characters and escape into their world. This book might work for some people, but it didn't work for me.

Together, they'll find out what a crown is truly worth.

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 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 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 of his 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.

JEREMY NAOMI for HC COURT

When both boys take their rivalry too far, they jeopardize the entire dance. To save Homecoming, they'll have to face the hurt they're both hiding- and the lingering butterflies they can't deny.

May the Best Man Win

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