Ilyas’dreams are forfeited even before he can fully contemplate them.
Teenage years are hard enough to navigate but it is even worse when you expect to be everything to everybody else but yourself.

To please his father, Ilyas hangs out with his boys aka DedManz, even if Imran, their leader is a questionable character and everything he does goes against what Ilyas stands for. He wishes he was brave enough to call him out, but what can he do, it would be 3 against 1?

One day, Imran crosses the line and Ilyas summons the strength of his creation and very own comic book hero Pakcore, British-Pakistani superhero whose powers can rival those Superman. The incident lends Imran’s in hospital, and while Ilyas fears reprisals once Imran is fit enough to return to school, it seems the situation has created the perfect planetary alignment for Ilyas and Kelly to meet and strike a friendship while suffering hours of detention.

Kelly and Ilyas are culturally worlds apart but it seems that those differences create a strong bond between them. Kelly accepts Ilyas for who he is and encourages him to practice his craft of comic book art and even lends in a hand. In return, well…there’s an hilarious Pikachu cosplay episode that pretty much define their friendship.

But like every friendship, theirs will have their ups and downs and hopefully they will come out the other side much stronger for it.

I loved the author’s first novel “I Am Thunder”, (by the way Muzna has a cameo mention in this one), and “Kick The Moon” is a slamdunk of a book.

I absolutely loved seeing the parallels and contrasts between the characters.
From Kelly’s mother’s cold success agenda for her daughter, one Kelly was not allowed to deviate from which was bound to backfire, to Ilyas’ warm and loving family dynamic within which he should have been able to flourish.

The author also raised some serious questions around social media and consent and the constant matter most teenagers are plagued with of not fitting in and the extend they are ready to go to remedy the issue.

‘Kick The Moon’ touched on a lot of serious topics but a strong injection of humour balanced things out perfectly.

In the end, through their friendship Kelly and Ilyas were brave enough to become who they were meant to be.

Thanking team @MyKindaBook for providing me with a copy of this title

LaChouett