UNDER THE FADING SKY

An unflinching account of a teenager’s descent into drug addiction.

Elijah Jensen, who’s Japanese and white and identifies as hapa, is a stellar older brother and an award-winning history buff who’s obsessed with mountain biking. His sunny California existence is pretty tranquil, and he’s on track for success, but everything changes once he becomes friends with Lee Young Fang, proficient mountain biker and “the smartest kid at the high school”—Richard Feynman is his hero. Elijah is in awe of Lee; they bond over commonalities, including being the sons of Asian moms who place intense pressure on them to excel. When Lee breaks his leg while doing a trick on his bike in a rural area with no cell service, Elijah runs for help and finds classmate Banker, an older kid who has a bad reputation at school. Elijah picks up the vape pen that falls out of Banker’s pocket when he’s helping Lee and later takes a puff—the proverbial gateway drug. It’s a pivotal moment in the narrative; soon after, both Elijah’s and Lee’s lives spiral terribly out of control under the influence of Banker. Kadohata writes the intimate moments of friendship between Lee and Elijah with sensitivity and critiques the toll the pursuit of perfection takes on young people. Unfortunately, many passages that follow Elijah’s spinning thoughts fail to move the story forward and require patience from readers.

An unevenly paced work that’s harrowing, relentless, and so very heartbreaking.