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A short, sharp portrait of abuse, and the scars it leaves.

Here, Angelo Tijssens introduces us to an unnamed narrator, a gay man likely in his twenties, who returns to his rundown hometown after the death of his mother, and reconnects with an old flame.

The chapters veer between the narrator's past, told in second-person and focusing on his alcoholic, abusive mother, and the present which is written in first-person.

I do wish this had been fleshed out a bit more, and was a bit clearer at times - sometimes, there are place or time shifts between paragraphs which aren't immediately evident - however Tijssen's writing (and Michele Hutchison's translation from the Dutch) mean it's not a major issue.

At just 90 pages this was a quick read, and I was all ready to give it 3 stars, until the end which bumped it up to 4 for me. Any gay man who has dated within the past decade, in the era of apps and Grindr and transactional encounters, will be able to relate.

Recommended.