James is an adult gay man from the United Kingdom who is currently living in Italy. His life has not always been easy, and it seems to weigh on him a great deal. Bogdan is a sixteen-year-old refugee seeking asylum in Italy after having fled from a war torn area. To his knowledge, he has no living relatives, or at least none that he knows of who have escaped the war. And as such he is essentially considered a ward of the state (or in this case, country). But for all that he has had a much more difficult life than James, more often than not Bogdan manages to hold on to a generally positive outlook on life. But even he has his darker moments and is also tormented by nightmares of his escape to freedom.
This appears to be the story of two lost souls finding each other, though their journey along the way is anything but easy or simple and does include many missteps. I received a review copy of this book, and am honestly not entirely certain how I feel about the story after I finished reading it. While I enjoyed the ending, the journey for the characters to reach that point is a very difficult one, especially when you consider that James is an adult, and a good deal older than Bogdan. And while the physical relationship that develops between the two does not start immediately, it appears to me to be far from an equal relationship by any means even before that happens.
Bogdan is all in, but unsure of himself, while James is lost, depressed, and has a fair number of other emotional issues that he needs to come to grips with, though neither of them seems overly concerned with the age difference between the two of them. Had Bogdan not been so young and still a minor, this would not have bothered me so much, but the fact that he was only sixteen and seeking out a relationship with an older man sets off alarm bells in my mind. Though in all fairness, the age disparity in the relationship seems not to be an issue for anyone else in the story. I’m not sure why that is, but it may be a cultural thing. I am not familiar with what the age of consent is in Italy.
This book is written by what I believe is a British author, as all the spellings are in British English rather than American English, and as such some words and phrases may appear a bit unusual to some readers if they are unaware or unfamiliar with the differences. One minor issue I ran into was that all times were merely referred to as “.am” or as “.pm” with no actual time listed. I don’t know if this was intentional or if the actual time of day in each instance was accidentally left out in the version that I read. I think that if the reader is patient, they can guess at an approximate time for activities that were being referred to, but for me it was a mild annoyance.
Bogdan is all in, but unsure of himself, while James is lost, depressed, and has a fair number of other emotional issues that he needs to come to grips with, though neither of them seems overly concerned with the age difference between the two of them. Had Bogdan not been so young and still a minor, this would not have bothered me so much, but the fact that he was only sixteen, and seeking out a relationship with an older man sets off alarm bells in my mind. Though in all fairness, the age disparity in the relationship seems not to be an issue for anyone else in the story. I’m not sure why that is, but it may be a cultural thing. I am not familiar with what the age of consent is in Italy.
This book is written by what I believe is a British author, as all the spellings are in British English rather than American English, and as such some words and phrases may appear a bit unusual to some readers if they are unaware or unfamiliar with the differences. One minor issue I ran into was that all times were merely referred to as “.am” or as “.pm” with no actual time listed. I don’t know if this was intentional or if the actual time of day in each instance was accidentally left out in the version that I read. I think that if the reader is patient, they can guess at an approximate time for activities that were being referred to, but for me it was a mild annoyance.
I do also need to warn that there are some incidents in this book that some readers may find triggering. Bogdan does have nightmares from his time fleeing a war. This book also does include a suicide and themes of emotional abuse, alcohol abuse, anxiety, depression, and bullying. For much of this story, it is not a happy book by any means. And as I mentioned above, I am not entirely certain how I feel about it. But I also do not believe that I am the intended audience for this story, and as such, that may be coloring my view of what happens within the tale. For some readers, I could easily see many of these experiences being helpful or allowing a reader to feel “seen” and less alone in the world. And this would easily be a redeeming factor of the parts that I had a difficult time reading, as those sections were not speaking to me, but very well could be helpful and meaningful for someone who has been through similar difficulties, or who is also going through a tough time themselves.
Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.
