Reasons We BreakReview posted January 6, 2026.
Hyperion, 2025. 406 pages.
Review written November 24, 2025, from a book sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2025 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#6 More Teen Fiction
Good girl Simran tutored Rajan in math all through high school. She was the first math tutor he could tolerate. After high school, Rajan shows up in her life again as a mentee in a program for helping troubled youth with community service. The rumors in their Sikh community say that he killed someone. Rajan's visiting his probation officer as scheduled and trying to stay clean.
Then his old gang picks him up to pull him back into the gang - and grabs Simran, thinking she's his girlfriend, as leverage. But that ends up turning out the opposite of expectations, as Simran volunteers to replace the gang's bookkeeper (who recently got arrested) just long enough to pay off Rajan's debt, so he doesn't have work for them and break the conditions of probation.
Of course, once Rajan finds out about that, he's not going to stand by and let Simran be in danger. But Simran is already intrigued by the puzzle of trying to figure out a rival gang's code.
One thing keeps leading to another, and we gain insight that everyone can have life events that break them and lead them to choices they might not otherwise have picked.
It was interesting reading this book at the same time I was reading Gregory Boyle's book, Cherished Belonging. Gregory Boyle works with gang members in Los Angeles, and is incredibly good at seeing their good hearts - and showing those good hearts to his readers. This story was fiction, but it also takes a compassionate look at teens caught up in gangs and all the difficulties of getting out.
The book also gives insight into the Sikh religion and that immigrant community in British Columbia - while delivering a suspenseful thriller about people we come to care about.