This was a journey! Everything I’ve come to love about this author, was given in this story. Sad, dark, growth and heartache. It was beautifully written and a story that needed to be told.

Another book from this author that grabbed me from the first page and didn’t let go until the last. This is such a special story that has so many layers and nuances that unfold throughout the book. The characters are all so complex and beautiful. Although it’s a small part, I enjoyed the mystery element intertwined in the overall story. The ending of the book is perfection.

I think I have at least one other of Nazemian’s books, but this is the first one that I’ve read. The writing and characters are so compelling in this book. I usually have a really hard time with long chapters, but I couldn’t stop reading this one, even though it only has about nine chapters which are each somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 pages long.

The story follows two different timelines: the present, in which Kam faces a return trip to Joshua Tree, the park where he last saw his boyfriend Ash, and the early days of Kam’s relationship with Ash two years earlier leading up to Ash’s disappearance.

Because the chapters are long, there aren’t a lot of transitions back and forth between these two timelines. This helped keep me immersed in each storyline and meant that I was going to get a lot more information every time I switched to a new chapter. I liked that.

I’ve sometimes read books that show a reflection back to a lost loved one or relationship that didn’t last, and sometimes those stories leave so many unanswered questions that reading the book can feel unsatisfying. Desert Echoes does provide Kam some closure, though it’s not the information he expected to uncover. He does begin to process his feelings and see his life in a new way once he has the information he needs, and once that happens, other things that felt left in limbo in the story begin to shift into place.

It has the kind of ending that might feel too easy to some people, but readers looking for an uplifting ending will definitely appreciate the way that Nazemian closes Kam’s journey. The back of the book has a moving note from the author explaining his emotional connections to the story, too. It explains why he writes about these topics with so much authenticity.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book a lot, even though it’s a story of grief. I’m glad I read it, and I am excited to read more by Abdi Nazemian.

I originally found Abdi Nazemian's work after reading Only This Beautiful Moment and proceeding to tell everyone I knew about it. I sped through Desert Echoes, finishing it in almost one sitting. While I was a little disappointed that I knew how the ending was being set up I'd still highly recommend Desert Echoes. Now I need to go back and read everything Nazemian has written because he's becoming one of my favorite YA authors. Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

“I’m here in the present, haunted by the memory.”

Desert Echoes revolves around the grief of Kam, a junior in high school who is struggling to move past his boyfriend, Ash, who mysteriously disappeared in the middle of Joshua Tree National Park. Kam grapples with his traditional Iranian parents who do not understand his sexuality while also watching their marriage fall apart due to his father’s addiction. In between this, he has to deal with his classmates blaming him for Ash’s disappearance while his best friend pressures him to leave the past in the past. When the Gender and Sexualities Alliance at his high school decides to have their annual trip at Joshua Tree National Park, Kam must decide whether going back is the right thing for him, even if it's against the wishes of the people who care about him. Or, if returning there after two years will do more harm than good.

Abdi Nazemian’s novel is a devastating tale of heartbreak and perseverance. Kam seems to face one obstacle after another: coming out to his parents, navigating a relationship while trying to keep the peace with his best friend, and watching those he loves crumble under weights he doesn’t understand. The novel is told through two time periods. During “First Year,” Kam and Ash meet and a relationship begins to form. In “Junior Year,” Kam is failing to come to terms with the fact that Ash is most likely gone. I enjoyed the flashbacks, as they made it possible to understand the depth of Kam’s feelings towards Ash and the stances of Kam’s family and friends, including why they never quite trusted Ash. I found myself a little disappointed as moments that felt significant seemed to be brushed past, and scenes I anticipated went by too quickly. The majority of the novel was spent building up to the potential moment that Kam would go to the desert, and the ending came rather abruptly. I did find other aspects of the book enjoyable, as I thought the characters were well-rounded and carefully developed within the plot. Overall, I found Desert Echoes very interesting and structurally unique, but I found the compassion lacking as the novel came to a close.

Kam is obsessed with Ash. But everyone around Kam is not impressed with Ash. Something is weird about him. After Ash disappears in Joshua Tree, Kam is consumed with finding him.

I loved Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian. I just don't think Desert Echoes was for me. I didn't like the dual timeline. I kept getting confused on what time we were in. This was also just too "sad boy" for me. I get that's the point but I hated being in Kam's head.

Emotional, heartfelt story that is clearly personal to the author, which enhances the experience of reading it. First love, longing for connection, and learning to move on are prevalent in the book and it is all well-done!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the E-Arc of this book! I am so conflicted about this book and after much deliberation, decided on three stars. I loved Like a Love Story, so I was so excited to read this one. While still a truly brilliant novel, I still had some issues with it. For one, I thought the way the timelines were placed did not work as well for the mysteriousness that the book was trying to convey. The timeline pattern would go present, past, present, but I feel it would have worked better as past, present, past, present. Because we start in the present and end in the present, some things are spoiled prematurely. The timeline pattern I suggested would have added more suspense. Also, as much as I liked Bodie, he would be REALLY unlikeable at times, bordering problematic. In the end, I realize why his character acted like that, but it was still a little off putting. Ash was also off putting at times and it almost seemed like his character was not fully developed… maybe that was because of his mysterious, but I feel as if he could have been developed more.

Overall, I did enjoy this book…. But to me, it really does feel like it is unfinished.

I love this author, but this is not my favorite of his books. It was certainly well-written and I was absorbed in the sense that I needed to know how the story would pan out. But it was hard for me to buy into aspects of the relationship that takes up much of the book, and I kept waiting for change to happen. In the end, I think the reason I had a harder time with the book is because it is supposed to be about how complex that relationship is -- a first love, and also a love of a guy who is more complicated than we realize at first. I will continue to read Abdi Nazemian's books---I don't think my problem with the book had to do with the quality of the book, but more what I wanted from it and how it played out in the pacing/plot. So happy I had the chance to review this!

Kam hasn’t been okay for two years when Ash disappeared when they took a trip to Joshua Tree. He wonders if Ash is still alive. His friend, Bodie, wants him to move on, but Kam doesn’t know how. He thinks sometimes “we have to look back in order to move forward.” When there’s a trip back to Joshua Tree, Kam goes thinking Ash might be alive two years later. When Ash’s sister tells Kam something he didn’t know, it changes things. Is Kam able to move on and accept something he didn’t know about?

History is All You Left Me meets Hideous Beauty

‘Sometimes, we have to look back in order to move forward.’

Abdi Nazemian is a superb YA author. His previous books, Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, were fantastic. And here’s another amazing one. Think of History is All You Left Me, but maybe most of all Hideous Beauty. Desert Echoes is a beautiful, sad boy story, a mystery imbued with hope, written in a dual timeline: the year Kam returned from Joshua Tree without Ash, and two years later when Kam goes back to Joshua Tree and has to face what happened back then.

There’s Covid in this book, talk of masks, social distancing, and vaccines, things I hate to see in stories—I even DNF’d books with mentions of Covid in it. But for the first time, I didn’t mind because the Covid references portrayed loneliness and the loss of human connections so beautifully, both significant themes in this story. Kam craves those connections so much, of course with Ash, but maybe even more with his parents and Bodie, his best friend.

In the now chapters, Kam’s grief is palpable on every page. In the videos he watches, in the music he listens to, in the conversations he has with Bodie. And slowly, I realized his pain wasn’t only because of Ash’s disappearance. The same applies to the then chapters. The love Kam and Ash had for each other felt so energetic, almost frantic. I smiled so many times, and still …

When I found out more about the truth, my heart ached for Ash. At the same time, I wanted to hug Bodie so badly because his love for Kam shone so brightly from page one, and Kam was so oblivious.

This story is about first love and moving on, about (co)dependency and cravings, and like I said above about loneliness and human connections. And just like Only This Beautiful Moment, this story is incredibly personal. Tears burned in my eyes while reading the last chapter and then I started to smile so much! This story, including the title and the cover is gorgeous!