Reviews

Equally sweet, devastating, and hopeful with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Feels like kind of a mood piece more than a story, though it does have a plot.

louanna23's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

randomfurlong's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Captures the keenness of first love and first steps out into the world, emotional landscapes compressed by the spectre of AIDS, but also how strong feelings are in youth, in first flush. It really feels the tenderness of lived experience and does well at balancing the grandeur of its characters’ journeys with the reflective contrast of their brevity. It does stretch too hard to exist in a cultural moment, loading itself with names and songs and places in lieu of a more natural evocation, and that’s also reflected in the frequency simplicity of the descriptive passages. But the open-hearted nature of it towers above all, and it made me cry more than any book in recent memory.

meganishere's review against another edition

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5.0

An absolutely devastating and lovely, captivating and damning story of love and the many shapes it can come in. I went into this assuming Adam and Ben would end up together but I fully appreciate the friendship that blossomed in its place

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