A heart wrenching tale about what it means to love, lose, and find yourself, A Mark on My Soul details the coming out of a teenage boy scared of what everyone else has to say. After Noah comes out to his friends, family, and the internet (perhaps the scariest place to be for a high schooler), he starts receiving anonymous messages from someone who claims to like him. As he gets closer to his email confidante, Noah starts opening up to his best friends Came and Parker about the possibility of actually finding love in high school. 

The anonymous boy and Noah chat for a few weeks before deciding to meet up after realizing that they might have more in common than they once thought, and the surprise is enough to have Noah reeling. After feeling like he’s been stood up by his companion, a boy Noah only knows by the pseudonym Altair, his best friend Parker arrives just in time to save the day. However, Parker’s not actually there to save the day, but rather date Noah. Parker is Altair, as Noah and the audience come to find out fairly early on, but Parker never said anything due to his extremely religious family and embarrassing crush on Noah. The two start to date, and as they get more serious, consequences of secrecy start rearing their ugly heads, reminding the two of them that there’s a lot more on the line than just their friendship. 

Jordan Greene delicately picks apart the complexity of trying to live as your authentic self while still hiding from those who are supposed to love you most in such a refreshing manner that it’s hard not to become emotional after reading this book. The juxtaposition of Noah’s newfound freedom and Parker’s grappling with faith and the idea of sin bring this book to life. This is a story rooted in fiction, but too often, it’s real; plenty of teenagers and young adults feel the way that Noah and Parker do throughout this work as they struggle to come to terms with themselves, each other, and the world that surrounds them. 

This work isn’t all sunshine and rainbows as it turns out, because the problems facing Parker become too big for him to handle by himself. Because of this, he ends up, pulling away from Noah before breaking up with him. In the break up, readers see Noah’s world come crashing down right in front of his eyes, as everything he has ever wanted is ripped out from beneath his feet. Meanwhile, Parker is stuck battling his inner demons by himself after coming out to his family; In doing so, Parker causes a riff between himself and his parents which ultimately leads to the most heartbreaking part of the book. 

In addition to the dynamics of navigating high school as a queer couple, Greene’s story sheds light on an ugly truth: there are people in the world that would rather die than be themselves. Parker falls into that category to the terror of Noah, as his overdose and eventual death lead Noah to be left heartbroken, grieving, and alone. 

Greene uses his platform to shine a light on an issue that is plaguing society but will not be fixed until acceptance is the norm; this harsh reality is just one in a long line of horrific truths about what it means to be queer as a teenager. This book was a 4.5/5 star read for me as it left me unable to form a coherent thought by the end seeing as it all went downhill so fast, but if anyone is looking for a YA LBGTQ+ read, this book is at the very top of my list for recommendations.