DISCLAIMER: I received this book on a free read-to-review basis from the author, Carmen-Shea Hepburn. Many thanks to her for giving me the opportunity to read and review her book. This does not in any way affect my review, opinion(s) or final rating. 
 This book left me a little uneasy. 
 It's dark, but not dark enough to be truly unsettling. It's raw, but not raw enough to be emotional. I want to applaud Carmen-Shea Hepburn for venturing out of the lines of conventionality and bravely telling a rather unusual, yet beautiful story. 
 Amanzimtoti: The Ridge tells the story of a South African boy trying to find his identity in a place where homosexuality is viewed as disgusting and wrong. Because of this, he struggles with who he is, and desperately tries to excuse his sexuality and his feelings, even going so far as to avoid hearing the word "gay". It broke my heart to read this book, because I now have a glimpse of what it feels like to deny your own sexuality to yourself your whole life, and what some people are facing simply because they're not heterosexual. I felt for Wayne whenever he had a panic attack or became depressed, and also whenever he displayed his obsessive-compulsive habit of digging his nails into his skin. And I was appalled at the self-harm he inflicted on himself, and the treatment from his family because they thought he was "wrong", and the way he punished himself in the hopes that he "wouldn't be like that". (He couldn't even bring himself to think the words "gay", or "homosexual".) 
 I wavered between giving this 3 stars or 4 stars. This book felt a little repetitive after a while because of similar descriptions used a lot. I can't count how many times I saw the word "ferrous" or the phrase "(long) line of heat" (that's a legitimate phrase? seriously?). Also, Carmen-Shea Hepburn beats around the bush plenty with her descriptions, or repeats the same thing she said in an earlier sentence but with different words. It was basically just a thousand ways of saying Wayne was attracted to Kyle and felt guilty for it. This started to feel like infodump at times and made me balk for a while until I got used to it. I felt like she could try not to constantly "tell" us about Wayne's feelings for Kyle and try to "show" it to readers instead, letting them infer this conclusion from occurring events. 
 Guess what saved this book? The twins. I loved them to bits. Jessica was so sweet and Travis so loyal. I think without them I'd have given the book 3 stars. But they're a huge plus and such lovely, beautifully written side characters, so I added an extra star. 
 But I'm writing this review while still in the afterglow of finishing this book, so in time I may bring my review down to 3 stars. We'll see. 
 This was a good solid book though. If I had had to pay for my copy, I wouldn't say it was a waste of money. It opens the reader's eyes to some societal issues, and the inevitable crisscross of religion and traditional beliefs with LGBT.