Kirkus
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A 16-year-old boy confronts his ghosts with a little help from his friends in this debut that has a dollop of the fantastical. Salem Amani lives at 17 Yew Tree Lane with his mother and Asha, his hardworking older sister. The lore in their English village is that the house is haunted, and people steer clear of it. Sal (no one can properly pronounce the name his late Egyptian father chose) wants to be left alone and not address the issue of any ghosts. He has just one friend, Dirk, until new arrival Pax shows up on his doorstep with a casserole in hand, a veritable invitation to friendship. At first, Sal is put off by Pax, particularly his paranormal curiosity, but soon the three boys are hanging out at school. They also adopt popular Elsie, who’s been ousted from her friend group. The four become a staple, and Sal and Pax fall hard for each other, a relationship that’s perhaps the most ebullient element of Sal’s life. But parts of his life still gnaw at Sal: the loss of his father five years ago, his white mother’s absentee parenting, and the constant replaying of a night that fills him with a pained terror. Grief is a resounding character in this strongly written novel, a low-ebbing throb that grows louder as Sal hides further behind his wall of sadness. A beautifully executed queer romance and exploration of family that’s haunted by loss and elevated by love. (Fiction. 12-18) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.