Review: I Wish You All the Best

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Trigger warnings for this book: assorted forms of queerphobia, parental rejection of a child coming out, parental emotional and/or physical abuse.

Mason Deaver's long-awaited #ownvoices nonbinary debut leaps high as one of the most groundbreaking YA books of the year, and sticks the landing pretty well. They write Ben, an eighteen-year-old enby forced to move in with their estranged sister (though she takes them in, no questions asked, and their truly, religiously awful parents rightly become the estranged ones in turn) as a scarily relatable portrait for anyone who has to deal with a wide variety of root causes of anxiety. Namely, parents who refuse to accept them when they come out. And the PTSD that Ben suffers as a result of that violent rejection, well...I'd always offer them a hug, though with their touch aversion they might say no. But moving in with Hannah, Ben gets a fully accepting home to live in, a therapist who helps them grapple with their anxiety and gender-identity issues, and a new school where they get to make new friends - and even a potential boyfriend in the sweet, flirty Nathan, who adorns the cover alongside Ben. It's not the happiest book of the year, but it does prove one of the most bittersweet overall - especially the ending, which I promise validates every page before it.

(Though Ben's parents still deserve, forever and ever, to rot in hell.)

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