PositiveThe New York Time Book Review... poignant ... turns into an unexpected and inventive strain of what one might call millennial noir ... Each of Daniel’s interactions adds to a portrait of modern resignation while providing sly revelations that whisk the plot forward ... In some ways, Daniel embodies the noir antihero. He is aloof and cynical, and harbors a dark secret that ratchets up the suspense as much as his own investigation into Aubrey’s past does. Yet his character defies easy molds. The term \'intersectionality\' hardly does justice to the cat’s cradle of his demographic markers and traumas ... Rodriques’s prose is as measured as it is nuanced. This gradually comes to seem less a stylistic choice than a means of survival for his protagonist: It isn’t until we meet Desmond that Daniel’s grip on language and self-modulation eases ... This and later scenes of dialogue with Desmond make for the novel’s strongest moments. As the two friends exchange hip-hop references, unsentimental confessions and ideas for \'all-Black heaven,\' the familiar flow and biting wit of their banter help Daniel accept the inalterable nature of the past ... But toward the end, there’s an abrupt shift to a new narrator who suggests that Daniel and Desmond still lack \'the good sense to figure out what questions they need to ask to learn what they don’t know.\' This removed perspective undermines the characters’ growth, along with virtues like resolve and hope. In keeping with noir cues — and a disillusioned generation — the future remains uncertain, beyond their control, subject only to forces as mutable as the Florida coastline.
