This book…. was a beautiful read. I got really attached to Ben and their story. Even though I am not part of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I am by association and it is something I want to learn more about because I feel like everyone should feel safe being themselves.
I wish you all the best is the story of Ben, who lives with their parents after their sister left ten years ago. After finally gather the courage to come out to them as non-binary, they are faced with an unexpected reaction: they are kicked out of their home. Their estranged sister (and husband) take them in, and they start a new life at a new school. But trauma is still there, with a lot of other repressed emotions. Ben meets Nathan, who wants to become instant friends…
This book celebrates being different, family trying to do their best, acceptance. I love the passages with the therapist, too.
Cheers to book focusing on characters that are diverse. I really wish books like this one existed when I was a teenager…
About the author
Mason Deaver is a non-binary author and librarian in a small town in North Carolina where the word ‘y’all’ is used in abundance.
When they aren’t writing or working, they’re typically found in their kitchen baking something that’s bad for them, or out in their garden complaining about the toad that likes to dig holes around their hydrangeas.
Juvenile Fiction
PUSH
14 May 2019
336
When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they're thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents' rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school.
But Ben's attempts to survive the last half of senior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan's friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life.