ANOTHER DIMENSION OF US

Teens venture through time and space.

In 1986, Tommy Gaye struggles with romantic feelings toward his best friend, Renaldo Calabasas. In 2044, Pris, who has a form of vitiligo that manifests as black-and-white stripes and was adopted by her Uncle Myles, a kind former nurse, feels isolated because of her disconnect from any family of origin. The two stories intertwine through dreams, astral projection, and time travel after René is supposedly struck by lightning and develops a new personality post-recovery. He was, in fact, stolen away into another dimension, his body inhabited by an inhuman evil. The past is rife with homophobia and fears around HIV/AIDS. In the future, an unnamed Virus—as well as Fires—still constrains everyday life, but the acronym LGBTQIA+ has faded into irrelevance since “people just define their gender and their sexuality for themselves now” (though trans women of color still seem uniquely vulnerable to violence). Presented through multiple close-third–person perspectives, the book finally allows readers to join the characters on dangerous interdimensional travels about halfway through the story, with a strange cereal brand mascot as their guide. Unfortunately, some interesting plot elements suffocate due to the flat prose that is weighed down by frequent use of the passive voice that undermines even highly emotional scenes and is padded out with sympathetically bad high school poetry. Tommy is cued White; René is Argentinian.

Heartfelt but hard to get through.