Our Review… Fall in love with these two wildly vibrant seventeen-year-old friends as they try to escape what could be their fate in dirt-poor rural America. In climbing, the crux is the hardest moment of a route – the turning point between triumph and defeat that demands total commitment in the face of uncertainty. It is these is the crux, both on and off the wall, that form the beating heart of this remarkable novel: those small but pivotal moments where the only way forward is to choose courage. Tamma is the foul-mouthed manic and utterly magnetic trailer-park pixie dream girl forever climbing through her best friend Dan’s bedroom window. Dan is the straight-A student, devoted to climbing and quietly in love with Tamma – even if that love remains utterly platonic. Together they dream only of escape. Growing up in the shadow of Joshua Tree National Park, climbing becomes their one true freedom – a way out from the poverty, illness and suffocating expectations that haunt them. On the rock face, every move is earned and every small victory feels monumental. As their final year of high school unfolds, the stakes of both life and climbing rise ever higher. With echoes of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Demon Copperhead, this wildly unusual novel will have you flying over rock faces and battling demons right alongside Dan and Tamma. A truly magnificent novel. Review by Nicole
