[6] Set over a fifteen-year period from the present day to the near future, It Doesn't Have to Be This Way tells the story of three queer friends, Luthando, Viwe and Malcolm, and a young boy, Milo, as they navigate a dystopian version of Cape Town, which has been ravaged by the effects of climate change and social unrest.

Luthando becomes increasingly concerned with the climate crisis, as he participates in protests and designs digital advocacy campaigns to raise awareness and prompt action.

After his mother dies, he becomes involved in the religious end-of-days fanaticism that has become common in the city as "[g]roups of Believers impose tyrannical orthodoxy hostile to women and queers".

[9] Glen Retief of the Mail & Guardian wrote that the novel's "prose is vivid, and often mesmerising, the characters tenderly drawn and vulnerable, the situations surreal and disturbing".

[7] He noted that "[i]t is also an important and intelligent contribution to the slender oeuvre of queer cli-fi focused on the developing world" and that it "deserves a wide, supportive audience".