RaveSouthern Review of BooksAccomplished writer McKenzie Cassidy stuns with his beautiful debut novel ... Told as a classic coming-of-age story, Cassidy’s narrator, fifteen-year-old Ian Daly, is a nuanced combination of the naivete of Huckleberry Finn and the shrewdness of Holden Caufield. This combination is highly effective, as Ian’s voice is both fresh and compelling. It is easy to be drawn into Ian’s world as he sets out on a solitary journey, one that begins at a funeral and ends at a wedding. Cassidy fills the space between these two touchstones with richly drawn characters, haunting landscapes, and rough emotional terrain. His protagonist is undaunted and determined to soldier on in search of something he cannot quite articulate, at least not at the start of his journey ... a thoughtful and tender exploration of a boy’s passage from adolescence to adulthood, a passage that is both excruciating and enlightening for Ian Daly.
