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A review by carstairswhore
I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
2.0
I reallyyy feel like I’m in the minority on this one, but here goes.
I did enjoy this book. It was informative on non-binary and LGBTQ+ issues, and obviously builds a foundation of empathy and understanding from an ownvoices non-binary author to their cis or straight readers. That said, I didn’t love this.
I think one of the main places I struggled with this book is the characters. I felt like, for the most part, I had a really hard time getting a clear picture of *who* these characters were. What motivated them, what they liked, who they were outside of the obvious character traits. I feel like I had a lot of trouble connecting with them. Even Ben, I felt so flat at times. Deaver is a debut author, so I’m not ruling out their future works completely, but I just felt like all the characters were like cardboard. For example, take Hannah, Ben’s sister. She’s supposedly this person that they love and care for and yet I feel as though we know nothing about her. She’s just playing her role of Supportive Older Sister and that’s about it.
Also, nothing happens in this book? Which is fine! I don’t think it’s supposed to necessarily be a book with a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. But my expectations going in were for there at least to be more of a romance plot point happening, which we really don’t see until the last 30 pages of the novel. And while I think this book could start a lot of really important conversations about anxiety, depression, therapy, and LGBT issues, I do think that this book needed more of a plot, I guess? I don’t know. It just felt very monotonous—Ben gets up, they go to school, they joke around with Nathan, they paint—there was nothing exciting, nothing that motivated me to keep reading.
I Wish You All The Best wasn’t a *bad* book by any standards, and I do think it’s a really important book for the YA community and for teens today to pick up and have discussions about. I would probably pick up something else by Mason Deaver whenever they publish another book, but this one was just not it for me.
I did enjoy this book. It was informative on non-binary and LGBTQ+ issues, and obviously builds a foundation of empathy and understanding from an ownvoices non-binary author to their cis or straight readers. That said, I didn’t love this.
I think one of the main places I struggled with this book is the characters. I felt like, for the most part, I had a really hard time getting a clear picture of *who* these characters were. What motivated them, what they liked, who they were outside of the obvious character traits. I feel like I had a lot of trouble connecting with them. Even Ben, I felt so flat at times. Deaver is a debut author, so I’m not ruling out their future works completely, but I just felt like all the characters were like cardboard. For example, take Hannah, Ben’s sister. She’s supposedly this person that they love and care for and yet I feel as though we know nothing about her. She’s just playing her role of Supportive Older Sister and that’s about it.
Also, nothing happens in this book? Which is fine! I don’t think it’s supposed to necessarily be a book with a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. But my expectations going in were for there at least to be more of a romance plot point happening, which we really don’t see until the last 30 pages of the novel. And while I think this book could start a lot of really important conversations about anxiety, depression, therapy, and LGBT issues, I do think that this book needed more of a plot, I guess? I don’t know. It just felt very monotonous—Ben gets up, they go to school, they joke around with Nathan, they paint—there was nothing exciting, nothing that motivated me to keep reading.
I Wish You All The Best wasn’t a *bad* book by any standards, and I do think it’s a really important book for the YA community and for teens today to pick up and have discussions about. I would probably pick up something else by Mason Deaver whenever they publish another book, but this one was just not it for me.