May the Best Man Win: Zr Ellor

Product Information

You wanna talk about the plot, what plot? The only thing here was 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 ;) Did you do any research for this book and if you did, what’s one of your favorite things you learned? I think I’d get along with Lukas best—he’s (mostly) always got a calm head on his shoulders. Jeremy has too many of my worst features, and is sort of always primed to be upset—not that I can blame him for that, with the year he’s had! But Jeremy shares my habit of anxious catastrophizing about extreme events, so I don’t think we’d be good to hang out together, even though I wish him all the best! We’d drive each other up a wall. One reason I wanted to do dual narrators in this book was to show how nothing happens in a vacuum. Jeremy and Lukas are both influenced by each other, in ways they don’t always understand but become clear to them and the reader over time. They’re also influenced by their school and their families, neither of which are quite as supportive as they need. Oftentimes, when we or a person we care about is acting out, there’s something wider in their world at play. By showing what drives Lukas and Jeremy to act as they do, I hope readers will learn to look beyond the surface when a friend is struggling.

I had many problems with this book but first off, the characters. Specifically the main ones. As a transmasc (and non binary) person i was really excited to meet 𝗝𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗺𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘀, our main character. He's definitely my least favorite mc that i've read about in a while. Most of what happens with Jeremy throughout the book is just him messing up his relationships. He has huge anger issues which never get better throughout the novel. Jeremy definitely has a right to be selfish but there's definitely so much development that he should've gotten. plus, the autism was only mentioned when lukas was struggling with something, and the storyline was never really closed. we didn't get an autistic story that empowered you, that showed you how to embrace it; instead, i feel like we got another one that left us hanging, no steps forward. 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!

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. Today we’re pleased to welcome ZR Ellor to the WNDB blog to discuss his YA novel May the Best Man Win, out May 18, 2021! This is my first time seeing a feminine trans boy in a book, and I relate so much of his inner struggle with that. The fear of people doubting who he is and using his femininity against him. And his mom, seeing his feminine parts as signs of detransitioning,,,, ow,,, that was too relatable. This is something I’m still working to overcome, just a few days ago I was told I needed to take off my nail polish to be taken seriously. And now Im working up to wearing skirts out and piercing my ears. Neither Jeremy’s, nor mines, gayness and femininity negates our maleness. Both! When I’m drafting, I generally outline two or three chapters ahead of my current position. I like having some idea where I’m writing to next, as well as having the flexibility to adapt things further down the line should a new idea occur. What surprised me about this book was how easy the first draft came out—it only took me three weeks to write! It was like I’d had the character voices inside me all along, and the second I let them speak, they had a wonderful world full of things to say. the dialogue felt so unrealistic and dramatic to the point where i was frowning at the book. also, other things just didn't make sense, like how lukas was blamed for something jeremy was a part of, while he was all okay...

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. if you read all of that i applaud you, and i really do hope i made some points here. i can sadly NOT recommend this book in any way. stay safe, y'all! There is autistic rep in this book which I was excited about but it was very poorly executed. Lukas faces systemic inequalities in his classes and i hated the fact that nothing happened about it. There really wasn't much purpose for it there if it wasn't going to be fleshed out properly. May the Best Man Win is a contemporary, but world-building is just as important in this setting as it would be in SFF. Can you tell us how you built out Jeremy and Lukas’s world? 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

Need Help?

i did write a proper review of this a couple of months to update the jaded one below but i have no idea where it ended up and Maybe i will write another proper one someday but this book is 1 star for me and that is enough for now i think a lot about how much i thought this book would mean to me when i saw that it was about an autistic boy who was grieving for his brother, and that there was a trans character and that it a queer romance. i am a trans autistic person who’s brother died not long before i read this so i was so prepared for it to hit hard for me and!! it did but in the wrong way there are a few things i just didn't like, but there are also lines and events i thought were straight up problematic. let's start with the more personal things though: 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. 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?