When 17-year-old Otis’s childhood friend Meg comes to visit for the summer, both of them must come to terms with the death of Otis’s younger brother, Mason, which split their families apart three years earlier. Meanwhile, Otis learns to negotiate his relationship with Dara, his swimming coach, who believes that spending time with Meg will affect Otis’s chances of qualifying for the Olympics by the end of the year.

Absence is, unsurprisingly, a strong theme in the novel. Dara is missing an arm and Otis is deeply affected by the loss of Meg and Mason. Meg’s absence is a major plot point, and her return brings Otis to the jarring realisation that their friendship isn’t quite the same as it was. This is understandable, but Otis’s crush on Meg at times strains credulity. On one occasion, for example, the author asks us to believe that lines like ‘You are and e’er shall be my heart’s relief ’ could have been written in earnest by a 17-year-old boy in the 21st century.

Dara is set up as acid-tongued, annoyingly quirky and unsociable, but this impression is softened as it becomes apparent that she has depth and vulnerabilities. The long-overdue representation of a queer secondary character with a disability is appreciated, but Dara is perhaps a little too prickly. Her fixation with the phantom limb pain from her amputated arm provides an opportunity for character development, and her mirror box therapy is an apt metaphor for the disjunction between fantasy and reality.

The chemistry between Meg and Otis and the reminiscences between the two are sweet and realistic. But most of the plot depends on the reconciliation between these two, which requires a suspension of disbelief that is sometimes hard to sustain. Realistically, Meg should have moved on from the experience far more quickly than Otis, or at least her PTSD should have been portrayed as affecting her in more subtle ways.

Reviewed by Tanvi Valenkar

Age Guide 15+