It’s 1980 in Milton, a British industrial town where it rarely stops raining, and the only dream that Isambard Fox—twenty-one, slender, head-full-of-books, and unapologetically ginger—has ever had is to be a rock star. In his dimly lit bedroom, Bard practices for a bright future that hardly seems possible to reach from the dreary present. His bullying father is pushing him into becoming yet another cog in the city’s industrial machine when Bard’s younger sister Cassandra—sixteen, bold, bratty, and beloved—introduces Bard to an American guitarist named Kai Harper.

Kai is unlike anyone Bard has ever known—nineteen, mixed-race (what Hawaiians like him call “hapa”), disarmingly open, and powerful in a way that even he himself doesn’t fully understand. Bard distrusts the uncanny influence that Kai seems to hold over people and resists the feelings that Kai inspires in him. But when his father’s control boils over into cruelty and puts Cassandra in danger, Bard realizes he must enlist Kai’s help. In doing so, Bard must also confront his own fear of the vulnerability inherent in revealing his true self—and his dream—to the world.

A story of love, pain, and music played out in dingy clubs, suburban bedrooms, and wet city streets, If I Never Saw the Sun features a culture-clash romance and the kind of songs that save your life.

Cover and illustrations by Xyra Brittney.