May the Best Man Win

By: Z. R. Ellor

Narrated by: Avi Roque

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 Instead of bowing to the bigots and outdated school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise - and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend, Lukas, for the title of homecoming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.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Roaring Brook Press

©2021 ZR Ellor (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Honest

I’m going to be honest, the first half was slow and irritated me with the self-loathing and annoying main characters (to the point I considered not finishing), but by the end, I couldn’t put it down. The characters may be annoying in the first half, but by the end, they change and learn their lesson. This is a sweet story about figuring out yourself, what, and who is on your side and accepting that life isn’t perfect. It tells the honest and sad side of coming to terms with who you are vs. what the world wants from you, and because of that, it is not only a good book but a good story of finding self-worth and those who support you in the world, and acknowledging what you did hurt others and apologizing for it and growing after it. As someone queer, this is a good story that has several aspects LGBTQ+, and just people, in general, can find something they identify with. Definitely, a good book, and the end is better than the beginning. (Also has POC, non-binary, gay, and trans rep!)

Halfway through and trying

I want so badly to like this audiobook and the story itself. As a trans man who enjoys YA fiction it just isn’t easy to like this book. The narrator does a better job with Lucas (cis boy) than Jeremy (trans boy). The narration for Jeremy is very irritating, like this very stereotypical blonde cheerleader with a valley girl fry with a drop in voice from T (which is totally on point for the character Jeremy). I just couldn’t get past the stereotype. Jeremy’s internal battle is something that happens, but geesh it was annoyingly long.

Lucas so far is the best character in the whole book, and feels more dimensional than any other character in the book. He is a sweet kid on the spectrum who understands that love is love.


Good things: The book does address toxic masculinity, TERF vs intersectional feminism, and the pain of people not
wanting to date trans men because of their genitalia.