Summary

I Wish You All the Best opens with Ben and their mom and dad cleaning up the dinner dishes in their home in Goldsboro North Carolina on New Year’s Eve. Ben, who is the first-person singular narrator throughout the novel, is a non-binary teenager who has yet to come out to their parents. Throughout the dinner conversation, Ben narrates to the reader that they are “withholding information” in his answers to their inquiries about Ben’s life and calling themselves a “liar” when they say they are “totally fine” (3). Ben explains to the reader that they spent the day “absolutely freaking the fuck out about what I was about to do, re-watching videos on YouTube about how people did this, rereading old messages from Mariam, and almost throwing up the peanut butter sandwich I’d made for lunch (3), illustrating that Ben is...