How We Named the Stars

Poet Ordorica (At Least This I Know) makes his fiction debut with a heartbreaking tale of a first-generation college student exploring his sexuality and roots while reckoning with grief. Daniel De La Luna, who is secretly gay and a virgin, enters the fictional Cayuga College in Ithaca, N.Y., feeling like an outsider. He finds some measure of acceptance from his “brutally attractive” roommate, soccer player Sam Morris, who is also in the closet, and who the reader learns early on will die during their first summer break (the circumstances are revealed later). On a camping trip, Daniel “overflow[s] with desire” for Sam, but is afraid to make a move and thus ruin their friendship. They share a drunken kiss, after which Daniel is wracked by guilt, regret, and fear. He senses that “the man of his dreams is bound to break his heart,” and an email from Sam at the end of freshman year does just that, as Sam suggests they break off contact because he’s not ready to explore his sexuality any further. Daniel heads to Chihuahua, Mexico, for the summer, where he learns more about his late uncle who was out and proud, and whom he was named after. While there, Daniel begins dating the rich and handsome Diego, but this promising relationship hits the skids after Daniel learns of Sam’s death. Another, equally devastating revelation causes Daniel to spiral. Ordorica portrays Daniel and Sam’s encounters with tenderness and heat, and Daniel’s aching and poignant narration, which seamlessly alternates between addressing the reader and speaking directly to Sam, is chock-full of wisdom. This is dazzling. Agent: Caro Clarke, Portobello. (Jan.)