Desert Echoes

From Abdi Nazemian, the award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, comes a suspenseful contemporary YA novel about loss and love.

Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . . but only Kam returns.

Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship—and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again.

Desert Echoes is a propulsive, moving story about human resilience and connection.

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Published Sep 10, 2024

320 pages

Average rating: 4

1 RATING

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Community Reviews

Wiccanth
May 15, 2025
4/10 stars
This had such an interesting premise—very Shaun David Hutchinson, which I love—and I wish I had liked it much more than I did. I could not stand the dialogue, every time someone had to say something, it came off as very preachy—especially Bodie omg. I understand the importance of representation, I mean, that's why I read these books in the first place, but when discourse is being used for the sake of discourse instead of propelling the plot further? That's when you lose me. I can't shake the feeling of it being inauthentic or a little virtue-signalling, but that's me. For this reason, the story could have been much tighter, and all these important discussions on heritage, queerness, etc., could have been integrated much more seamlessly.

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