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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
In Damion Hamilton's quasi-autobiographical work of fiction, Weirdo, Damion spends his days inside a book warehouse where the production speed dictates his worth, then goes into the city each night carrying books and notebooks as he tries to pass within spaces that were never built for him. He studies strangers on trains, lingers in cafes near universities, and reshapes himself through reading and writing, all while holding onto a private identity he cannot reconcile with the life he lives. Brief connections surface in public places and fade just as quickly, leaving him moving between roles that never fully settle. As the pressure builds through work demands, legal trouble, and family loss, Damion increasingly adopts a detached identity and organizes his daily life around maintaining his distance from others.
Damion Hamilton’s Weirdo puts that titular label squarely on Damion, although I certainly don't see him as such. Still, the narrative does an excellent job of showing how Damion himself doesn’t run from it, but he doesn’t fully settle into it either. I like Chrissy, who comes in with a different kind of energy. She’s open about where she’s been, and she reaches toward a connection in a straightforward way. When she steps into Damion’s life, he hesitates, and that hesitation costs him. The author creates incredible settings that reinforce where Damion's head is at, from a gas station alley, narrow and dim, to the bedroom at his parents’ house, full of books and scattered notes, where he spends long nights drinking and writing. This is literary fiction for readers who appreciate someone working through who they are in real time, something many of us feel every day. Recommended.
