A young adult novel about Kam, a gay Iranian boy whose first love Ash disappeared in the Joshua Tree desert two years ago. The book cuts back and forth between his relationship with Ash and his present-day life, when he’s still mourning and grieving.

We learn that the situation is more complex – we learn about the feelings of his best friend Bodie, another gay boy who can’t seem to find a boyfriend; his father’s alcoholism and homophobia and how that undermines their home; his realisation that Ash might not have been as perfect as he imagined. It should be a moving story, but didn’t quite land for me.

I found this book tricky to read, and I don’t know why – I just couldn’t read much of it without getting distracted.

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