AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR * AN ESQUIRE BEST BOOK OF 2022 * A STYLIST BOOK YOU CAN'T MISS IN 2022 JJ is someone who is incredibly naive while being willfully ignorant, almost seeking to place themselves into situations wherein they are tumbled like dry leaves. They abhor work—they have no ethic for that if we’re being honest—& spend all their time squatting at friends’ houses until they decide on a new location to sustain their nightlife needs. The flamboyance of life is not lost on JJ, they take full advantage of the freedoms of youth yet, in all the time that has passed since the introductory paragraphs, leading us to the moment we encounter this written eulogy to a dead lover, JJ has made zero progress in developing a sense of self. All of which was to say, the emotional heart of this novel I understood more than I felt. I didn’t blame the heroine for her terrible taste in men, but I felt I zero connection to either the terrible Thomas James or the less-terrible Adam who provide the corners of this nasty little love triangle. And, of course, maybe that was the point: this is, after all, a story Bibby is narrating and better for it to be about her than the two basic cis men in her life, but I think with them never feeling quite real, it impacted the realness of Bibby too. At Certain Points We Touch is a novel about remembering the past, doomed love, and a millennial stumble through friendship and cities, as a writer tries to tell the story of their dead lover. A trans writer living in Mexico realises that it is the anniversary of the death of a man they loved, and starts to write the story of them, together and apart, and the messy, toxic, desperate affair they had. A debut that lies in the gutter while looking up at the stars, with moving, if sometimes overindulgent, results.

But there’s also no opportunity to grow. There’s grey space in their time in the most formative years of adulthood. Jetting off to people who don’t treat each other poorly. Intersections of poverty and queerness and internalized socialization are complex. It gives a lot of space to show all the characters, including Thomas, in a very humanistic light. One that makes it really difficult to condemn anyone, even when they ought to be perhaps, especially in this day and age of cancel culture though, when you have the full measure, or near it, the ability to shun seems to allude to a fate worse than death. Before it was even fashionable. Screamingly funny, scandalously hot, opulent, deep - a devastating torch song of obsession and excess' JEREMY ATHERTON LIN, author of Gay BarWhen did you know you were dead? I’m asking you a question that I know you can never answer. It is now ten years since we met, six years since we last spoke, four years since your death, and I’m writing you this from Mexico City, under grave obligation. It is not a letter, since I know you cannot reply; maybe it’s another monologue, certainly it does not require a second choice; let’s call it plainsong then. This is the chant recalling your life, it is fiction, it is biography, it is transfiguration”. I was provided with a digital ARC of this book thanks to the publishing house, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ), , in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren's debut novel is so exciting. The writing is so fresh, funny and gripping - and carries the trademark wit that I have always loved from Lauren' TRAVIS ALABANZA At the end of the day, this is not a bad book. This is a case wherein I am not the target audience & I recognize that this work will find its way to those readers who will adore every aspect of it. The author is a dedicated & tender writer, I felt very moved by certain passages & immediately immersed in the narrative. However, I was hoping to see more of what was expressed in the prologue. I was hoping for this story to be just as tender as the prose. I suppose that is quite like reality; we might hold out hope for something as much as we wish but, in truth, we come upon things unprepared. Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. This book was not an easy read under every aspect, but I think it is an important novel nevertheless. This novel talks about a trans writer recollecting through letters and memories a relationship with an ex lover. A love that marked their life and made them believe in something close to love. The writing in this one was really wonderful, I have to say that, and that was one of the reasons I thought I was going to like this book way more than I did.It’s four in the morning, and our narrator, a trans writer living in Mexico City, is walking home from the club when they realise that it’s February 29th – the birthday of the man who was something like their first love. Piecing together art, letters, dirty DMs and memory, they set about trying to write the story of a doomed love affair that first sparked and burned a decade ago. You see, it came over me like a compulsion, like food poisoning, like a scream in the dark tearing me violently from a dream: the exhortation to finally put this down on paper.

At Certain Points We Touch” is a very impressive debut—the writing seems like it could only have been written by a very experienced writer. Ten years earlier, and our young narrator and a boy named Thomas James, long aware of one another across bars and readings and other murky late-night gatherings, fall into bed with one another over the summer of their graduation. Their ensuing affair, with its violent, animal intensity, its intoxicating and toxic power play, will initiate a dance of repulsion and attraction that will cross years, span continents, drag in countless victims – and culminate in terrible betrayal. Overall, while I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book, I'd definitely recommend the author, and I'm interested to see what they bring out next. From an electrifying new voice, a "stone-cold masterpiece" (Olivia Laing) of queer friendship, first love, and unbridled youth. You know from the start that it is building towards Thomas James' death, and you really understand how the narrator wants to hold off getting there and telling a death they weren't there for as much as they want to unfold the story. The book is also a knowing wink towards writing and autofiction, considering what is memory and story even when something is meant to be 'what happened', but this is combined with exploits and community and stumbling into things whilst young in ways that stop it just feeling like a book about writing a book.

Lauren John Joseph

I will be upfront & state that I was instantly enamoured with this story. This is one of the few—if not the only—case wherein a prologue has enticed me to read on; sweetly drawing me in with a writing style that was heavily prosed without being excessively vapid for the sake of keeping a word count. However, upon reaching the 30 percent mark I began to lose interest in what the author was presenting; I simply did not care. Therefore, should you have come upon my little review sent into the void of the inter-webs, please note that my sentiments are purely subjective. This is not necessarily a bad book nor does it present a necessarily bad story. JJ was a transgender performer and writer. He describes a hapless dalliance with a gorgeous lover (first love) from London. In one of those “queer circles are too small” moments, it turns out I’m actually reasonably familiar with the work of this author, having seen them in performance several times over the years. But I didn’t actually connect their name with their previous stage name because I’m an idiot. This is a masterful novel, sharp and clever, that explores how we tell stories and what millennial queer life is like, almost haunted by the ghosts of previous queer culture in London, San Francisco, and New York. At times it feels like an older novel, but then it throws in modern references and muses on the longevity of digital culture, and you remember that this is recent. In fact, the parts about digital preservation were some of my favourite bits of writing in the book, musing on how a MySpace profile could endure if civilisations couldn't. It's four in the morning, and our narrator is walking home from the club when they realize the date is February 29th-the birthday of the man who was something like their first love. Piecing together art, letters, and memory, they set about trying to write the story of a doomed affair that first sparked and burned a decade ago.

Ten years earlier, and our young narrator and a boy named Thomas James fall into bed with one another over the summer of their graduation. Their ensuing affair, with its violent animal intensity and its intoxicating and toxic power play will initiate a dance of repulsion and attraction that will cross years, span continents, drag in countless victims - and culminate in terrible betrayal. Love is like learning a foreign language, a new tongue every time. You have to study the rules and the grammar, but until they become instinctive in you, you will always be fumbling to conjugate, incomprehensible and confused. Until the language is alive in you and automatic, and you can skip between tenses with ease of motion, you remain nothing but a child whose words cannot be taken seriously. Until the day arrives when you can talk about what you have, what you have had, what you once had, without stopping to run throughYo tengo, Yo tuve, Yo tenía , then you are lost in illiteracy. Love has to be intuitive, second nature, a reflex, but I hadn’t reached that point with you yet. I wasn’t at one with the logic of the language, so I could only feel pained, I couldn't ask what it was that had wounded me. I couldn’t formulate the question, I could only sob and offer more inexpressible groanings.”Thank you to the publisher for providing me an advanced e-copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. With your right hand, you extend what I first read as a gesture of a gun towards me, then you wrap the two straightened fingers around the twisted strap of my bra and say, ‘What’s all this then?’ I do not think this books is “for everyone” but of those of us who this is a good fit, it feels like we were meant to read it. Or perhaps this fell into my lap at just the exact right time; who's to say? I was pleased to see mention of Ocean Vuong around the 85% mark because there are so many things about At Certain Points We Touch that reminded me of Vuong’s work. The poetic pros, the intense (at times graphic) imagery, the commitment to memorialized past, and even the narrative structure. I am convinced that any fans of Vuong’s On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous will find a new favorite here.