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REVIEW: 'The Boy Who Fell to Earth' by A. Zukowski


Title: The Boy Who Fell to Earth

Author: A. Zukowski

Published: March 29, 2017

Publisher: Self-Published

Genre: Young Adult; New Adult; Erotic Romance; Contemporary Romance

Length: 335 Pages

Tags: Gay; M/M; Angst: Heavy; Comfort/Hurt; Coming of Age; Coming Out; Family Drama; First Time; Interracial; HEA; CW: Abduction, Addiction, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Emotional Abuse, Murder, Rape, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Suicide, Prostitution

About The Boy Who Fell to Earth

Jay Palmer is two months away from his sixteenth birthday. He doesn’t realise how his life will be changed forever when a gang of thugs leaves a badly injured boy on his doorstep. The biracial boy and his white single mum Maggie nurse the stranger, sixteen-year-old Aleksander Zukowski, also known as Sasha. Sasha ran away from care two and half years ago. He sleeps rough, is addicted to drugs and sells himself on the streets of London to fund his habit. For the first time in his life, he has a reason to change.

Sasha confirms what Jay already knows about himself but it won't be easy for Jay to come out to his macho mates in a largely black neighbourhood. Sasha has an uphill struggle to stay clean when his past threatens to throw him back into the abyss. Are the two boys strong enough to stay together against all odds?

4 HEART READ

REVIEW:

While some might peg A. Zukowski’s debut novel, The Boy Who Fell to Earth, as Dark Romance, I can’t agree. A dark romance would be akin to staring at a car crash. Zukowski adds the element of visible angels directing the traffic, as if to say, “don’t worry, all is well.”

Sasha (Aleksander) Zukowski (yes, the author’s name), is a homeless sixteen-year-old prostitute/heroin addict. He’s raped, beaten, and left for dead on Jay and Maggie Palmer’s doorstep. Jay, a fifteen-year-old biracial boy, feels immediate affinity for Sasha, the need to heal him. His Caucasian mom, a nurse, tends to the stranger who ultimately leaves in a few days.

But the boys have bonded. Jay, who never knew his father and feels estranged from the fully-black boys at school, naively trusts his immediate affection for Sasha, who becomes the first boy Jay kisses and tells he’s gay.

When Sasha returns to the streets, he cannot forget this precious moment of unconditional care.

Over the next two years of the boys’ lives, readers are treated to the car wreck of teen homelessness, and the angels of love and persistence.

Almost too many mishaps befall Sasha. In an interview with Because Two Men Are Better Than One, the author tells us, “The Gay Village in Manchester… was a playground for me when I was a new adult; no amount of cleaning up of the red light district was going to get rid of its darkness. But it was a time of innocence and true love, too.”

Having worked with many homeless youngsters myself, there’s the terrifying edge of truthfulness to all the events. This drove me to read, and read on, my breath shallow with dread.

At first it seemed the boys were portrayed in muted colors. But, as Jay and Sasha slowly come into focus, I realized Zukowski had been depicting the boys with depth throughout. After all, when readers are first introduced, the boys’ personalities hadn’t developed. Jay was too sheltered and innocent, Sasha too numb and hopeless. Over time, their voices mature, their emotional hues nuanced by experience.

Moments of crisp description sooth this emotional novel.

For example, “every breath I took sizzled into white mist,” Sasha thinks. At another point, Jay recognizes that, “Sasha was a paradox: a prostitute who was easily embarrassed by anything sexual.”

Because The Boy Who Fell to Earth is a YA/New Adult novel, and since Sasha is discovering his innocence through Jay’s, their own intimacy it treated with the hesitancy and respect it deserves. And ultimately, one sentence describes the book’s sweet poignancy. “The only way to grow up was to learn to love, and to accept that loving someone was hard.” Amen.

If you’ve ever doubted you made a difference in someone’s life, dig into A. Zukowski’s The Boy Who Fell to Earth and discover the light love can shine into the darkest soul.

A copy of The Boy Who Fell to Earth was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by A. Zukowski, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.

Meet the Author

I am a London-based British writer who grew up in the gay village and red light district of Manchester.

I was trained in screenwriting at the University of the Arts London; National Film & Television School and Script Factory, UK, followed by various misadventures as a film journalist, wrote and produced short films.

I enjoy creating strong characters and making them heroes in authentic settings and unexpected scenarios.

For more visit A. Zukowski’s website!

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