I Wish You All the Best

I’m still recovering from this book but as my school courses began yesterday, I wanted to go ahead and write this review while I have a little time. I happened to see in Mason Deaver’s Instagram story that hoopla had the audiobook for I Wish You All The Best a bit more than a week early. I was SO EXCITED because I have a hoopla account via my local public library. Since this doesn’t affect first week sales and this is one of my most anticipated books of 2019, I decided to dive in head first. I’ll put the TW/CWs at the end of this post. Let’s jump right into the review! The characters in I Wish You All The Best were so amazing. Ben De Backer is now my child and I will defend them with my life. Seriously. They’re all so well written that from the very beginning I was fully invested in everyone on the page. It is obvious that Mason Deaver put their heart and soul into these characters. The representation offered is beautiful and each character could easily walk right off the page. I especially loved seeing the slow burn between Ben and Nathan. Slow burns are my new fave. There is one thing that I knew going into this review I would need to talk about so here we go. I went into the novel knowing that there would be amazing non-binary representation. It was just as amazing and more as what I was expecting. However, there was something else that I wasn’t expecting and it took me completely off guard. I don’t know how to share this other than to quote so…. “Touch aversion can be common in people who deal with panic attacks or people dealing with anxiety. In fact, there are some people who are just born or developed that way, like asexual or aromantic people.” I… was not expecting this? When I got to this part of the story, I was so surprised and overwhelmed that I wept. Like full-on-ugly-cry-don’t-talk-to-me-I’m-not-fine wept. I had to pause the story and walk away for a few minutes. This book is the first time I’ve seen any rep for being touch averse, which I am. I never thought I would see that represented at all and even now I’m tearing up about it a bit. I Wish You All The Best is a contemporary novel, which means it’s a realistic fiction set in modern times. The majority of the story takes place in Raleigh, North Carolina. I haven’t been to Raleigh, but I do live in another large city in the southern United States, so it wasn’t hard for me to get a feel for the environment. Also because of that though, I’m not the best judge of the large-scale world building. Honestly, I’m the worst at that with contemporaries anyway. But each of the locations was given enough of a description that it was immersive so do what you will with that knowledge. The story itself is perfectly paced from beginning to end, with twists and turns at just the right moments. I would even go so far as to say that I Wish You All The Best is a work of art. I can’t say I loved every moment of it because there were parts that were meant to make the reader uncomfortable (and I was) but this is a book I’ll definitely be rereading in the future. I Wish You All The Best was right up at the top of my most anticipated 2019 releases list. There is so much hype surrounding it. And it still manages to exceed all of the high expectations placed upon it. I can not wait to read more from Mason Deaver in the future.

this is a heartbreakingly sweet story about finding and thriving as your authentic self when everything seems impossible. as deaver mentions in their author’s note, this story is tragically and wonderfully validating for so many people. it’s a book i wish i’d been able to read growing up and am glad to have read now. highly recommend.

OMG! My heart! I've followed Mason Deaver for forever on Twitter and have slowly watched as he turned his #enbylovestory into I Wish You All the Best and it is worth all the hype. Because this book, guys! This book! It was one of those books that I finished and immediately knew was a game changer for YA lit. Not only is it the first book I've read with a main character that identifies as nonbinary but it's the first YA book about an enby teen I know of written my a nonbinary author. It makes my heart so happy to read a book where my enby friends will be able to see themselves in the pages. Mason Deaver approaches so many hard topics in this story and does it with the perfect balance of hope and kindness. It's a book about identity, family, mental illness, friendship, sexuality, love, and becoming comfortable in your own skin. It made me laugh. It made me cry several times. And it made me hug my book in places while grinning like a madwoman because of the cuteness. Parts of it were hard to read because Ben’s experiences reflected things I've seen so many of my enby friends’ experience. The fear and anxiety, of course, but especially the body dysphoria. And I personally could relate to Ben on so many levels. Especially with their anxiety. I Wish You All the Best is going to be such a powerful force in the YA community and I’m so glad it’s out in the world. It's going to touch so many lives and that thought makes me tear up a bit. I’m just going to be over here in my little corner of the internet wishing Ben and Nathan all the best.

I meant to write this review sooner, but I had a gender identity crisis. I'll explain later. First of all: oh my gods. This is one of the best YA books I've ever read. I couldn't stop talking about this book for days after finishing it, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. This book is so special to me for multiple reasons, some of which I'll get to in a minute. I'm so glad I found the audiobook on Scribd while searching for Pride Month reads. The book does tackle some tough subjects like misgendering, homophobia, and mental health struggles. The beginning was tough to get through, but I just had to keep reading to make sure Ben was okay. I loved them from the start and just wanted them to get the happiness they deserve. The mental health aspect of the book was so well written and accurate. It was refreshing to have such an accurate portrayal of mental health in a YA book. Ben and Nathan are 100% my favorite bookish couple ever. I don't think any fictional couple has ever made me feel so warm and soft. Both of them are just absolute sweethearts I wish I could be friends with. The entire time I read the book, I couldn't stop rooting for them, and once it happened, I had to stop the book to take a moment to just quietly celebrate. I mentioned that this book was special, and most of that is because it helped me find myself. I connected with Ben almost immediately, which I didn't really think anything of at first. The more I thought about this book, the more I started trying to pinpoint exactly why I connected so quickly with them. Spoiler alert: I'm nonbinary. Conversations with my best friend eventually helped me completely confirm it, but this book definitely started the journey for me, so it'll forever hold a special place in my heart. So thank you for that Mason.

!spoilers! I relate to Ben not coming out to their school when they transferred there even though they knew they were non-binary. I liked that Nathan misgendered Ben because it's so realistic! Some people might have just tried to avoid using pronouns if the main character is closeted but I liked that the main character could feel that sting of being misgendered (i know the pain 😫). The diversity in this book is amazing. It shows a lot of struggles teenagers have and I can definitely relate to, such as peer pressure and mental health issues, fear of coming out. Hannah reminds me a bit about my sister, they act similarly and reacted similarly when I came out. overall loved the book.

I loved this book. It honestly should be one of these books u read in school for how it tells of such important subjects. Thanks for sharing this story with us, dear author.

Kind of like a fanfic/retelling of Heartstopper but with an nb character. Super sweet, portraits trauma, mental health and anxiety very accurately, supportive friends and (some) family members, standing up for one self and overcoming fear. Touches some heartbreaking topics but manages to bring things into a more optimistic frame. My kind of feel-good book. I'll re-read it for sure over ice cream when I'm feeling down.

Me encanto!. Está historia me llegó al corazón. Hace 2 semanas que termine de leerla y aún sigo pensando en ella. Está historia habla sobre ser verdadero a lo que sientes y a lo que eres, como en camino te encuentras con dolor, miedo y soledad pero también encuentras aceptación, amistad, amor y el saber que no estas solo. En fin si pueden leer esta maravillosa historia por favor háganlo. La recomiendo muchísimo.

o livro veio com a capa amassada na lateral mas acredito que tenha sido falta de cuidado do entregar (aqui costumam só jogar os pacotes), mas o livro e a história são perfeitos. comprei a versão capa dura e é maravilhosa