Although I found the writing style to be a little jarring at times, I believe Loizou is onto something with this type of story. I'm always encouraging of people who write unusual characters, and Oscar certainly qualifies. There are moments of real interest, the strong opening has been noted by other reviewers. Give this a little more refining, and I think it could really be something. Like many new authors, it's going to take time. But I hope Loizou reads this with a smile, because I think the story is worth pursuing. And it's a fine achievement. ( )

As excited as I was to read this book based on its LGBTQ subject, I at times found myself bored with the prose and struggling to connect with Oscar. Overall I found his story to be compelling, but as a character it felt like something was missing. I was able to get through the book fairly quickly and thought overall it was pretty good, but could have been better. ( )

I received an ARC of this book from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.

Oscar lives with his foster mom in London. They are well off, she being a well read author. He’s at the age where he’s considering finding a job and moving out on his own, but has a bit of inertia as he’s recovering from his first breakup. When he finds himself having feelings for someone new, he struggles.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much of a plot here, and the author’s style wasn’t really for me. He uses a lot of incomplete sentences, and while I think he did this to reflect Oscar’s thoughts, it threw me out of the story.

I did like the ending very much, it felt believable. ( )

The opening chapter is promising, capturing my attention with its faint air of mystery; the writing is original and of high calibre. Unfortunately the next chapter failed to hold my attention, I put this down the the dialogue, the pointless conversations that in life I would have no tuck with, why should I want to plow through pages of them in a novel? Fortunately overall these comprise but a small part of the book, but the problem with them is that I lose my concentration, my mind wanders with the result that I miss anything that might relevant, affecting my comprehension of the story; I then have to go back and reread passages. This is a great shame because otherwise this is a great book.

Our main protagonist, young Oscar, is initially portrayed as a rather insignificant, ineffectual character, so successful is Loizou in creating this image of him that for a while each time his name appears I have to ask myself who is this Oscar? (This is not quite as bad as it might appear, I was reading two other books with young protagonists at the same time as this!).

The main theme of the story is Oscar's infatuation with his aging adoptive mother's young toyboy Tim, an infatuation that shakes him out of himself and helps him grow some balls. It's a good story with some appealing characters of which by far the best part is the high quality writing, (excepting a few of the conversations) it's a joy to read.

The book production too is of good quality, with embossed printing on the front and fold out flycover. ( )

*I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own*
I did not read this book all the way through, therefore I will not be giving it a rating. I couldn't really get very far into it. It was such a confusing book. I never understood what was going on. I couldn't tell what the plot really was either.
A lot of the wording in this book was pretty offensive and a little inappropriate. It was a little overboard if I'm being honest. A lot of the commentary seemed very unneeded. It just wasn't my cup of tea.