I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I Wish You All the Best, by Mason Deaver, is a YA contemporary romance and coming of age novel about Ben De Backer, a high school senior who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.
After coming out to their parents, they are kicked out in the middle of winter and go to live with their older sister Hanna and her husband Thomas.
At Ben’s new school they are befriend by Nathan Allen, and they soon develop feelings for him. However, Ben isn’t out to Nathan or anyone else at school.
I loved this book, and though I’m cis, Ben’s journey to accepting their self and dealing with their anxiety, depression, and issues of self love and self worth resonated with me as I’ve struggled with those issues too.
Also, the way they overthought things, were super self conscious, and how they expected the worst gave me flashbacks of my teen years.
I loved the voice in this; it was as though Ben was telling it right to me. But have a few issues. I found some of Ben’s actions stupid/borderline selfish such as how they resented Hanna for abandoning them when she left home or how they didn’t tell her about the message from their mom and their meeting with their parents.
Also, I felt Nathan’s character did veer into manic pixie dream boy and magical negro territory at times. Nathan spends the bulk of the book trying to get Ben out of his shell and being his emotional support. Aside from his being comedic relief, hot, and liking books (which he’s never shown reading), there isn’t much to his character. And most of the other characters get the same superficial treatment. Besides Ben and Nathan, Mariam, Ben’s nonbinary Muslim vlogger friend, is the only character who’s given depth.
The ending also felt a bit rushed.
Overall, I did enjoy this book and highly recommend it. I give I Wish You All the Best four out of five stars.
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