Crux by Gabriel Tallent
Published by Riverhead Books
Publication date: January 20, 2026
Genres: Fiction, Coming-of-age, Literary
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Life in a nowhere town in the Mojave Desert should be torture for teens, but Daniel and Tamma are rock-climbing freaks and the area is filled with challenging boulders. Best friends since childhood they spend every waking moment not in school out on the rocks, but as Crux opens it is senior year. Daniel is a gifted student likely to be accepted at the best schools while Tamma is close to dropping out. Author Gabriel Tallent plays on their disparities to heighten the novel’s tension as graduation looms and decisions about the future need to be made. While they’ve talked endlessly about becoming climbers professionally the realities of life intervene.
She and I want to set off into Canyonlands and be dirtbag climbers.”
“Dirtbag, what do you mean by dirtbag?”
“It means opting out of the valorized status economy. Live in a vehicle. Sleep in the wilderness. Work, but only to save up enough money to keep climbing. Own little, buy less, and see wild, beautiful places while there are wild, beautiful places left. I love climbing. It’s all that’s kept me alive these last few years, it’s the only thing that’s important to me. That, and this friendship I have. –Daniel
On the surface this is the ultimate best friends coming-of-age novel. There’s all the angst of pending adulthood crashing up against fantasies of living a life where you can pursue any dream you have. Unfortunately, when both are hit with tragedy the differences between them become even deeper. It’s now that their true natures fully reveal themselves. Tamma is a force, her vibrance leaping off the page in the face of ongoing neglect, poverty, and abuse. She provides the majority of the story’s momentum as she knows what she wants and nothing is going to stop her. She is all action even in her darkest moments. Daniel is the thinker and when hit hard with a life lesson he descends deep into his own mind, trying to reconcile his belief in truth, beauty, and purpose despite being told by adults that it’s not a real thing.
Crux beautifully examines the layers of these best friends, two children who had no one else, who came into young adulthood as each other’s person. At the same time, Tallent is making a big ask of the reader with two of the novel’s elements. Written in the language of hard-core, die-hard rock climbers it’s the equivalent of reading a book in a foreign language. While the sport itself exerts pull with its danger and adrenaline, that energy is lost trying to figure out the meaning of each word in the rock-climbing scenes. The second challenge is Tamma’s shockingly foul mouth. I wasn’t offended, but it obscures some of her wonderful spirit. She is the story’s beating heart, but looking past her over-the-top response to everything is the crux of Crux.
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*I received a free copy of this book from Riverhead Books in exchange for an honest review.*
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