You Exist too Much is a drifting novel about queer identity, generational trauma and belonging. It raises so many critical discussions from such a valuable perspective, but seems apprehensive to fully dissect them.

We follow an unnamed Palestinian American narrator as she navigates life and love as a bisexual woman, struggling to reconcile opposing sides of her identity.

'It is a bizarre and unsettling feeling, to exist in a liminal state between two realms, unable to attain full access to one or the other.'

She yearns for connection but is stuck in a cycle of self-sabotage and carelessness in her romantic relationships. This pattern, as it often does, forms in the shadow of the acrid and neglectful, perhaps even abusive, relationship she has with her mother. This was the most interesting dynamic for me, and I wish we'd spent more time in flashbacks to the narrator's childhood, to their life in Palestine, and that there'd been more reflection on her mother's behaviour and the toxicity that comes to rot the love between them. Understandably, the narrative focus remains in the present and in the journey to heal and continue moving forwards, but I do feel something was lost in this limitation.

This debut had such emotional honesty and plentiful potential, but ultimately the lack of development was disappointing. I can't help but think that with more time, this could have been a sweeping intergenerational masterpiece to the effect of Zadie's White Teeth.