Nerds & Beyond Book Club: ‘I Wish You All the Best’ by Mason Deaver

Nicole
4 Min Read
Image Courtesy of @Myst_On_Fyre
‘I Wish You All the Best’ by Mason Deaver. Cover art by Sarah Maxwell. Jacket Design by Nina Goffi and Stephanie Yang. Image Courtesy of Scholastic

Welcome to the very first of our interactive Nerds and Beyond Book Club series! The book we will be reading during the month of July is I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. This young adult novel from Scholastic, PUSH is a 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection & IndieBound Bestseller. This book has mentions from Entertainment Weekly and PBS and even blurbs from The Washington Post, NPR, The TODAY Show, and New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli: “Heartfelt, romantic, and quietly groundbreaking. This book will save lives.”

 

Here is a summary of the book:

“It’s just three words. I am non-binary. But that’s all it takes to change everything.

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.

At turns heartbreaking and joyous, I Wish You All the Best is both a celebration of life, friendship, and love, and a shining example of hope in the face of adversity.”

Mason Deaver Image Courtesy of his Instagram

The author, Mason Deaver, is a non-binary author and bookseller who lives in Charlotte, NC, where the word ‘y’all’ is used in abundance. Typically, they’re writing incredibly queer stories, but when they decide to take a break, they love gardening, baking, and playing video games. You can find them online at various places like:

Twitter: @masondeaver

Instagram: @mason_deaver

And their website: masondeaverwrites.com

 

To participate in our Book Club, just send an email to staff@nerdsandbeyond.com with “Book Club” in the subject line. We’ll be emailing out discussion questions this week to be posted in an article at the end of the month.

 

(To answer the question that you’re sure to have, that song from that scene is “The Good Side’” by Troye Sivan! You’ll know what we’re talking about when you get to that page!)

Nerds and Beyond is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

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By Nicole
Nicole joined Nerds and Beyond in 2019 and is excited to finally get back into writing. As a life-long nerdy fangirl from New Jersey, she loves Supernatural and its fandom as well as anything Wayward, Kings of Con, Lucifer, Wynonna Earp, and the musical Bandstand. She’s constantly listening to Louden Swain, The Station Breaks, Briana Buckmaster, The Avett Brothers, The Mots Nouveaux, or any of Aaron Mahnke’s podcasts. When she’s not [procrastinating] on Twitter, you can usually find her binging Netflix with her dog, reading fanfic, or daydreaming about being back in Arizona or Disney World!
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