REVIEWS

"Worth more than one read, Home invites a generation of readers into a modern genre of fiction. Readers of all ages can enjoy the coming of age love story. There is tangible care put into the characters, making them come alive off the pages from the first chapter. An author capable of defying tragedy for joy is a brave one indeed; Home proves happy endings can tell more than a tragic one. Despite the lack (though not completely without) of commonly used tragedy in queer media, this story carves Itself into a not often used corner of queer media, and thrives in it. Take main character Lake for example, so inwardly wrought and yet beautifully portrayed outwardly to readers. His anxiety and OCD are positioned so similarly to queerness, you can feel the "otherness" expand and encompass all qualities of his identity. How lovely is it to find that specific "otherness" embraced and fleshed out rather than put under a microscope and tested to a its limits. Brennon's commitment to joy in Home reads like a love letter to queer, specifically a POC queer identity; a queer reality. Home presses past overused genre qualities to achieve something greater. Proving love is worth more when found, when needed, proving love is possible through change and growth and fear. That found family is a force of nature to the queer identity...seen in Lake's unfamiliarity to love's simplicity, directly juxtaposed by Ezra's desire to unlearn easy love. The dissimilar but paralleled lives of the two boys bring them together like destiny. Lake's ebb and Ezra's flow warms readers up to the identity politics played out in 215 pages. The final chapter, both a love letter and a promise of a future, is commendable. What a lovely encapsulation of learning to love in multitudes, in a world not always willing to teach kindness."

- Mal (she/her)