Reviewed by True

TITLE: Two Tribes

AUTHOR: Fearne Hill

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 321 pages

RELEASE DATE: August 5, 2022

BLURB:

It’s 1995, and troubled seventeen-year-old Matt Leeson harbours three passions: indie music, wartime history, and the posh boy he sits next to in maths class. Not in that order. One of those passions is closely guarded, along with a few other secrets Matt tucks away. Such as his abusive father, the cramped run-down flat he calls home, and the futility of his dreams to escape both.

Twenty-five years later, and plodding Dr. Alex Valentine, recently divorced, is looking back on a life less lived. On his failed marriage and the dull bore he’s become, on the empty, lonely weekends stretching ahead. And, in a corner of his mind, wondering what could have been, if only a slender, raven-haired young man hadn’t so abruptly vanished all those years ago.

First love. Teenage love. It should be nothing more than an opening chapter, right? A short prologue even, before the real test of adulthood begins.

But what if that chapter never closes?

Written with a light touch but please be kind to yourselves and observe trigger warnings for: death of a secondary character, depression, domestic abuse (off page), self-harm (off page), attempted suicide (off page)

REVIEW:

Wow, wow, and wow. The word ‘impressive’ doesn’t even cover the beauty of this story.

Even written with a light touch, this isn’t a light-hearted story, it’s harsh, awfully realistic, and at times right down painful, but there’s also an unquenchable light flickering, unconditional love and support.
I’m not sure how to review this, it’s an amazingly impressive story. My heart almost didn’t survive.

The story starts in 1995, we can follow Matt at seventeen, intelligent, secretly gay, with an awful home base, which certainly Alex can’t know about.
Matt and Alex are so different, where Alex has a warm, solid home, Matt gets laughed at for wanting to attend university, with an abusive dad like Matt’s. No fucking way!
Matt is hot for Alex and hates him for all the shine his upper-class life has.
Matt is a pretender, lying about a lot of things, the university he’ll never attend, his parents, his future.
Alex is head over heels (in his words ‘fallen arse over tit’) for Matt.

No one can know Matt likes boys more than girls. His mates would abandon him, his dad would kill him. There’s only Alex, sweet brave Alex, secretly they are together.
After a horrible night, depressed Matt vanished, leaving a confused and devastated Alex behind.

After we meet them in 1995 at seventeen, there’s a jump 10 years ahead. Did I say it was a harsh read?

After that, another jump, in the here and now, altogether twenty-five years later from where we started. Unexpectedly the two beautiful, scarred souls meet again, and feelings never faded. From this point, there’s the past, the present, and the future to look at.

“my mature, forty-plus-year-old heart skipped a rather immature beat”

It felt all so authentic, every timeframe had its charm, its music, pain and hopes. It was such a compelling story, stunningly written and impressively constructed.
I would love to peek into the author’s notes and timelines. I’m in awe of how she managed to create such an amazing emotional journey of twenty-five years. Thank goodness for the hea or else I’d thrown my iPad out of the window.

ALL the shining stars for this one.

RATING:

BUY LINK:

Amazon