bkmckown's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really sad, touching story of a girl and her uncle who dies of AIDS. Set in the 80s at the height of the AIDS pandemic/fear. Very emotional.
bkr's review against another edition
4.0
A book that only picks up on chapter 58/64... definitely a slow burn. Ultimately I enjoyed the story though it took a while to get where it was going.
A naïve girl upends her life and the lives of her family after her uncle dies of AIDS and she makes an unlikely friend. A great read for Pride month set in the 80's that speaks to the uncertainty of an AIDS diagnosis and the fear it wrought on the hearts and minds of those around you.
A naïve girl upends her life and the lives of her family after her uncle dies of AIDS and she makes an unlikely friend. A great read for Pride month set in the 80's that speaks to the uncertainty of an AIDS diagnosis and the fear it wrought on the hearts and minds of those around you.
jenna_cross's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this story! Coming of age in 1987 when your beloved Uncle just died from AIDS would be very difficult and eye opening. All the references to the time were spot on. Took me right back to my own childhood. Beautiful book!
makm's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
travelgirl77's review against another edition
5.0
Oh, to have more books like this to read! I truly enjoyed everything about this book. The writing was magnificent and the characters were so intricate, so lovely. And, June. I felt what she was feeling....every little bit. Whether it was fear, embarrassment, anger, love, loneliness, etc., I felt all of it. This book is an easy read, but that does not mean that it does not deal with challenging concepts or that it is somehow lacking. Rather it is so well-done and the characters, details, and story are such that you just want to keep reading. In fact, I cannot wait to read this again. Simply wonderful.
palliem's review against another edition
5.0
It's impossible for me to explain what made this book so gorgeous, but as I finished the last page, I could hardly bear to put it down and be done.
Simply stunning.
Simply stunning.
book_nut's review against another edition
4.0
An intriguing portrait of loneliness and death, with a coming-of-age story on the side. Not sure it needed to be set in the mid-1980s.
byrak's review against another edition
5.0
I was really sad I read the last 1/4 of this book while on a plane... it's the kind of thing that deserves a good cry as you finish it.
racheldarling7's review against another edition
5.0
If I could give this book a hundred stars, I would. It's too soon to put my feelings about this book to words. It broke my heart to pieces and then mended it again with such touching tenderness. This is the best book I've read this year.
stefaniefrei's review against another edition
4.0
Painting the Big Picture Together
"My sister, Greta, and I were having our portrait painted by our uncle Finn that afternoon because he knew he was dying.“ June's best friend is her mom's younger brother. The artist is the only person who fully understands the 14-year-old, with her love of the Middle Ages, her solitude, and shyness. So painting her with her older sister seems natural. It will be Finn's last painting. He is becoming thinner and weaker every time the girls come to visit his New York flat with their mom. Their uncle is dying from a desease that was new in the eighties. AIDS.
After Finn's death, with now 15-year-old June feeling all lost and Greta being mostly mean towards her, there is suddenly somebody reaching out who wants to give comfort. The young girl finds out Finn had been living with somebody. She gets to know Toby.
Okay - this book depicts the tender friendship of a female teen with an older man, of how he asks her to meet him without telling anybody and of how she goes to meet him. Gross - in any other context; Toby is gay and mostly trying to fill in the role uncle/paternal friend (would anybody have discussed this in eighties? And, why not?). This is a story about friendship, rivalry, jealousy, coping with death/loss, growing up, responsibility, fear, and many more. It is a coming-of-age story in the early days of AIDS, when people diagnosed where bound to die, prior to any medication beyond symptoms. It also were days of fear, when the disease was put off as “gay only”, and people where scared about how the virus would be transmitted.
All in all, this is a credible and emotional insight into the thoughts and feelings of first-person-narrator June, much of an “in-between” young girl, insecure, searching, overwhelmed by her many feelings and not standing up for herself. Mourning Finn, June only wants to talk to Toby to hear those stories about her uncle she had not heard yet. Meanwhile, her mother blames Finn's death on Toby, discussing even to charge him with murder. Given the time the novel is set in, I was able to relate back to that time when some folks warned against drinking from somebody else’s glass or be in the same room to not attract AIDS.
The book has a lot of nicely-set themes and colorful language, including the wolf-topic, and should be going down well with many teen readers, apart from pulling a bit too hard (and too obvious) on the readers’ heart-strings.
On the negative side: on impulse, I rated the book very well. With a night’s sleep, some characters make me really angry. June’s and Greta’s mom remains to come out as a self-pitying self-centered egoist who lives her grown-up life with the feeling to have missed out on the big opportunity, that Finn had it all, and Toby is somehow the one to blame. The attitude towards living as a gay couple is pure bigotry. The mother punished Toby, Finn, the girls, herself, no way out. And she gets her way with everything.
Greta starts out as the typical teen cocky beast. She then comes out to be feeling left alone, jealous for not being the only person in June’s life, pathetic. She is manipulative, a liar, and sorry for herself for any success she has. She does help June time and again, but when you think about how she tries to bully and push June to come a bit more out of her shell, she should probably swallow one of her own pills. Instead, she, like her mom, is allowed to pull it off.
The father does not play much of a role, hence not much of a role model. And he chats up his youngest daughter about how it does not matter to live up to your dreams, that one should rather do a job you hate as long as it brings in the money, to feed your family. Well, yes, be we do not all START OUT having a family, so we mostly CAN CHOOSE a job that does get paid and that we still might like?! Strange message in a teen book.
The alcohol – okay, teens do and did drink alcohol in the eighties, I was considered to be a nerd because I hated even the smell. I also hate the bigotry of books setting out to preach against drinking, but this book lacked ANY reflection on abuse, and there is some. I am not talking about Greta getting drunk, more about Junes approach which is taking it for granted and natural to become the experienced drinker of cocktails in the afternoon for no particular reason.
And the ending – Greta is helpful, but stealing the show and part of June’s story. And apart from that one decision of going home – what did June as a character develop?
So 5 from a first impression, 3 from the fact that characters were “allowed” to stick to some very debatable principles. 4 as a rating because I like the book as a base for probable discussions.
"My sister, Greta, and I were having our portrait painted by our uncle Finn that afternoon because he knew he was dying.“ June's best friend is her mom's younger brother. The artist is the only person who fully understands the 14-year-old, with her love of the Middle Ages, her solitude, and shyness. So painting her with her older sister seems natural. It will be Finn's last painting. He is becoming thinner and weaker every time the girls come to visit his New York flat with their mom. Their uncle is dying from a desease that was new in the eighties. AIDS.
After Finn's death, with now 15-year-old June feeling all lost and Greta being mostly mean towards her, there is suddenly somebody reaching out who wants to give comfort. The young girl finds out Finn had been living with somebody. She gets to know Toby.
Okay - this book depicts the tender friendship of a female teen with an older man, of how he asks her to meet him without telling anybody and of how she goes to meet him. Gross - in any other context; Toby is gay and mostly trying to fill in the role uncle/paternal friend (would anybody have discussed this in eighties? And, why not?). This is a story about friendship, rivalry, jealousy, coping with death/loss, growing up, responsibility, fear, and many more. It is a coming-of-age story in the early days of AIDS, when people diagnosed where bound to die, prior to any medication beyond symptoms. It also were days of fear, when the disease was put off as “gay only”, and people where scared about how the virus would be transmitted.
All in all, this is a credible and emotional insight into the thoughts and feelings of first-person-narrator June, much of an “in-between” young girl, insecure, searching, overwhelmed by her many feelings and not standing up for herself. Mourning Finn, June only wants to talk to Toby to hear those stories about her uncle she had not heard yet. Meanwhile, her mother blames Finn's death on Toby, discussing even to charge him with murder. Given the time the novel is set in, I was able to relate back to that time when some folks warned against drinking from somebody else’s glass or be in the same room to not attract AIDS.
The book has a lot of nicely-set themes and colorful language, including the wolf-topic, and should be going down well with many teen readers, apart from pulling a bit too hard (and too obvious) on the readers’ heart-strings.
On the negative side: on impulse, I rated the book very well. With a night’s sleep, some characters make me really angry. June’s and Greta’s mom remains to come out as a self-pitying self-centered egoist who lives her grown-up life with the feeling to have missed out on the big opportunity, that Finn had it all, and Toby is somehow the one to blame. The attitude towards living as a gay couple is pure bigotry. The mother punished Toby, Finn, the girls, herself, no way out. And she gets her way with everything.
Greta starts out as the typical teen cocky beast. She then comes out to be feeling left alone, jealous for not being the only person in June’s life, pathetic. She is manipulative, a liar, and sorry for herself for any success she has. She does help June time and again, but when you think about how she tries to bully and push June to come a bit more out of her shell, she should probably swallow one of her own pills. Instead, she, like her mom, is allowed to pull it off.
The father does not play much of a role, hence not much of a role model. And he chats up his youngest daughter about how it does not matter to live up to your dreams, that one should rather do a job you hate as long as it brings in the money, to feed your family. Well, yes, be we do not all START OUT having a family, so we mostly CAN CHOOSE a job that does get paid and that we still might like?! Strange message in a teen book.
The alcohol – okay, teens do and did drink alcohol in the eighties, I was considered to be a nerd because I hated even the smell. I also hate the bigotry of books setting out to preach against drinking, but this book lacked ANY reflection on abuse, and there is some. I am not talking about Greta getting drunk, more about Junes approach which is taking it for granted and natural to become the experienced drinker of cocktails in the afternoon for no particular reason.
And the ending – Greta is helpful, but stealing the show and part of June’s story. And apart from that one decision of going home – what did June as a character develop?
So 5 from a first impression, 3 from the fact that characters were “allowed” to stick to some very debatable principles. 4 as a rating because I like the book as a base for probable discussions.