Book Review: I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver

 "I Wish You All The Best" by Mason Deaver 

Ben De Backer is non-binary. When Ben decides to tell their parents in the hopes of being accepted, their worst fear materializes when they are thrown out of the house. Freezing with no where to go, they call their sister Hannah, that they haven't seen or spoke to in over a decade. With the help of Hannah and her husband Thomas, Ben is able to start over at a new school for the remainder of their senior year. It isn't easy for Ben but they find solace in their new art room and even sometimes with friend Nathan Allan. Nathan is Ben's total opposite: loud to their silence, energetic to their calm. They develop a friendship that will cause Ben to question and further explore their identity and ultimately they become the first person besides their sister that they come out to. This is a wonderful book of soul searching, friendship, and ultimately acceptance. 4 🌟

This novel is my first attempt at exploring what it means to be non-binary. It was raw, it was powerful, and it helped me to better understand the importance of pronouns and what it means to identify as an enby (term for non-binary people). 

I appreciated the struggle that Ben experienced by trying to explain their identity to Hannah, it helped me to realize it isn't as clear cut as it seems. Even those who are non-binary themselves still experience confusion in regards to terms and the way they identify themselves. A good example of this from the book is when Ben explains how they previously believed they were gay, but over time they realized that wasn't quite right. The story goes on to further explain this but I felt this was a great example of how identity and gender can be much more than just male versus female and why. 

I recommend this for anyone who is curious about what it means to identify as non-binary and I'd also like to make mention it is written by a non-binary author.  This is an incredible coming of age novel in terms of identify and gender and I believe I will be making many recommendations to read it in the future.