August is pulled between his desire to be a good son, his pining for other men, and his fears of persecution and alienation; this leads to heart-wrenching scenes revealing longing, hesitance, and internalized shame.
In emotionally fraught scenes, Ani lays bare the characters’ fragile states, with August grappling with his fear and excitement after a kiss or Segun processing his anger over past abuses. This timely and striking love story resonates with authenticity.
Ani’s novel is undoubtedly sincere, filled with a justifiably righteous anger over anti-gay hate crimes, and it’s apparent he cares about his characters. But they’re not fleshed out quite enough, leaning too close to archetypes. The writing is competent but uninspired, the plot formulaic, and the dialogue unrealistic. The author shows promise, but the novel feels like a first draft, though certainly a well-intentioned one.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
