Book Review: "Waiting on a Friend" by Natalie Adler

It’s 1984 in New York City’s East Village. AIDS has started ravaging communities all over the country, but NYC has been hit particularly hard. Renata has been seeing ghosts of people who have died, some she was friends or acquaintances with, some she never knew. She isn’t quite sure how to help them, but for the most part, they don’t cause trouble.

When Mark, Renata’s best friend and roommate, dies from complications of the disease, she is devastated. She wasn’t at the hospital when he died, which was how she imagined it would be. So she’s eagerly awaiting Mark’s ghost to visit her. But for some reason, he’s not showing up.

“I thought about the ghosts I had known. Were any of them suffering? How would I know? Who can really tell what goes on in someone else’s life, or death? Some of them remained, outwardly, at least, concerned with the petty issues of their lives, and others were above everything, as if they had one foot in our world and another in a place we couldn’t imagine.”

As Renata mourns Mark and takes tentative steps toward a relationship with a nurse she met, Claude, she tries to move on. But at the same time, a company has popped up in the city promising to rid people’s apartments of ghosts or other disturbances. Renata is convinced this shady company is not doing the good deeds it purports to do, and it’s up to her and her friends to try and uncover their true motives.

“How was I supposed to mourn anyone—Mark, François, my mother, whoever was next—when it would take the rest of my life to accept that they were gone when they should have been here still? How do I mourn someone when I can’t get over that one fact, that they were supposed to be alive but they were not and there were people responsible for that?”

This is another terrific 2026 debut. It definitely packs an emotional punch, and some scenes remind me of the movie Longtime Companion, which I love. How much would we love a glimpse of loved ones we’ve lost, just one more time?

Book Review: "Disco Witches of Fire Island" by Blair Fell

How could I resist a book with a title like this? My thanks to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the advance copy!

In 1989, Joe and his best friend Ronnie plan to spend the summer working and playing at the gay mecca of Fire Island Pines. Ronnie is looking for a sugar daddy, while Joe realizes it’s time to move on from grieving his late boyfriend Elliot, who died of AIDS.

When Ronnie’s promised job and accommodations both fail to materialize, Joe meets Lenny and Howie, two older gay men who are housecleaners on the side. They take Joe under their wing, and although they’re tremendously kind and generous to him, they seem to have a lot of secrets and quirky habits. What are they hiding?

Howie and Lenny are part of a coven of disco witches. They use dance to conjure up protection for the younger gay men who might become overwhelmed by the availability of sex and drugs on Fire Island. Both of these have destroyed too many men already, and they’re committed to protecting Joe. But the coven has been depleted by the loss of many of its members to AIDS, so they’re not as powerful as they once were.

While Joe works as a bartender, he finds himself attracted to a bisexual ferryman, and tantalized by a muscular man that keeps disappearing. Lenny and Howie try to warn Joe away from the mysterious hunk, saying that he represents impending danger. Will the disco witches be able to keep everyone safe?

This was such a fun, poignant, nostalgic, and steamy book. I can’t pass up anything set in the 1980s, and when you throw in a little magical realism—plus disco—I’m hooked. I really enjoyed this, and it made me think back to those we’ve lost.

Book Review: "The Loves of My Life" by Edmund White

Edmund White was the first gay fiction author whose work I read back in the 1980s. He’s definitely one of the legends of the genre, and at 85 years old, he’s still writing. This memoir was my book club’s pick for the month and it certainly provoked a lot of discussion!

“Did I always endure unreciprocated love because I could only love (and write about it) when I was rejected? Did my low self-esteem seek out rejection, as in I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would accept me? Or does everyone hope to trade up to a newer, better lover? Not social climbers but amorous climbers?”

This memoir isn’t your typical chronicling of White’s literary career or anything like that. In this book, White looks back on more than 60 years of sexual encounters. He touches on everything from his childish escapades while growing up and taking his curiosity a few steps further as a teenager, to sex he paid for (and, in some cases, was paid for), as well as the risks he and many other men took, given the illegality of homosexual activity both in the U.S. and abroad.

White doesn’t mince words when describing some encounters and the men he was with. Some of his memories may be shocking, some were tame, and some were tremendously poignant, given how AIDS decimated the gay community in the 1980s and 1990s. And while the sheer number of encounters may seem unbelievable, for many men during that time, having the opportunity to be free from hiding their true selves often led to unbridled activity.

True to the title of the book, White touches on his romantic relationships as well. He shares both good memories and bad, and there are clearly some men he was fonder of than others.

I’m definitely not a prude, but after a while I felt like some of White’s recollections became excessive. However, I love how he captured the changes in society and sexual freedom through the decades, and how he views sex now that he’s in his 80s.

Book Review: "The Very Long, Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl" by Bart Yates

Isaac is 96 years old, a historian and journalist, who is writing his memoir. But how do you summarize a life? He decides to focus on 12 different days throughout his life, days which truly had an impact.

Isaac’s story begins in Utah in 1926, when eight-year-old Isaac and his twin sister Agnes are trapped in an avalanche. From that point on, the book focuses on a specific day every eight years. Sometimes the circumstances are dramatic, like when Isaac is aboard a warship during WWII, and sometimes they’re simpler and more joyous.

While some people appear in one vignette only to never be heard from again, the core characters are Isaac, Agnes, and Isaac’s best friend, Bo. Aggie is the fiery, opinionated one, who cares fiercely for her brother, and Bo is truly affable and loyal to both Dahl siblings.

“…few things on earth are more frightening than the possibility of love.”

I enjoyed how the story was told but at times it felt very Forrest Gump-like, with Isaac popping up at different points in history. And while I’ve always been a fan of Bart Yates’ writing, some of the events chronicled seemed very overdone, like the Dust Bowl and the Civil Rights Movement.

This was our book club pick for October. Some people were conflicted, some really found the book moving. I fell somewhere in the middle, although there were places that made me feel real emotion.

Book Review: "Four Squares" by Bobby Finger

What an absolutely fantastic, moving, hopeful book this was. Easily one of my favorites of the year.

“One of the toughest things about any friendship is remembering that the mere act of listening is often not only enough but also the totality of what the other person wants. Sometimes there is no follow-up question, no complementary personal anecdote, no soothing cliché that will do more than a silent nod or caress on the hand or pat on the knee.”

Bobby Finger’s new book begins in 1992 in NYC. It’s Artie’s 30th birthday and he and his two best friends, Adam and Kim, are going to celebrate. They’re still in the midst of losing friends to AIDS, which makes them cling tighter to one another. That night, at their favorite bar, Julius’, Artie meets Abe, a closeted bisexual lawyer who will be the love of his life.

Thirty years later, Artie has a successful writing career (mostly as a ghostwriter), and a relationship with Halle, Abe’s daughter. It’s a quiet life, and once Halle moves across the country, it’s a lonely one, but Artie is determined to thrive. And when a freak accident leads to his becoming a member of GALS, a center for queer seniors, he opens his life to a new circle of friends, realizing that the length of a friendship isn’t what matters.

The book shifts back and forth between the 1990s and 2022-23. It’s sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and just absolutely beautiful. It’s the story of friendship, love, chosen family, fear, and hope, as well as the power of connection. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time.

Book Review: "They're Going to Love You" by Meg Howrey

The latest novel from Meg Howrey is a story of ambition and family dysfunction, set against the backdrop of the ballet world.

With a mother who was a former Balanchine ballerina and a father who managed a dance company, could Carlisle want to be anything other than a dancer? She pursued it with great gusto, especially because it gave her more chances to enter her father’s glamorous world, where he lived in Greenwich Village with his partner, James, a former dancer-turned-teacher.

She loved spending time with her father Robert and James in particular, although in the mid- to late 1980s, the AIDS crisis decimated their circle of friends. But James also taught her about the world, about art, life, and of course, dance. Until a betrayal occurred which tore them apart and estranges her from her father.

Nineteen years later, Carlisle has made a life for herself as a choreographer and dance teacher. One day she gets a phone call—it’s James, and he tells her that her father is dying. She’s not spoken to her father in almost 20 years, but James thinks he’d like to see her before he dies. Doing so reopens old wounds and forces Carlisle to confront the reasons for their estrangement.

Howrey is a former dancer and she brings such authenticity to her descriptions of the dance world, the hunger to perform. I felt like there was a little too much detail here, which bogged the plot down, and it took SO LONG for the reason for Carlisle and Robert’s estrangement to be revealed. (And honestly, I was like, "That's it?")

I’ve seen some great reviews of this, so it might’ve just been me. I have enjoyed some of her previous novels.

Book Review: "Destination Unknown" by Bill Konigsberg

Two teenage boys, one openly gay and one closeted, navigate friendship, love, and fear in late-1980s New York City.

"Destination Unknown is for everyone who has ever been made to feel ashamed of their identity, anyone who has ever been told that their lives are less meaningful because of who they are.”

It’s been amazing to see the number of books being written over the last few years about coming to terms with your sexuality in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. Each of these books has touched me in many ways, but few have spoken to me the way that Bill Konigsberg did with Destination Unknown.

It’s 1987. Micah is gay but only his best friend Deena knows. One night they’re at a dance club and Micah spots a beautiful young man wearing a plexiglass bra. He is C.J., and Micah is both attracted to him and envies him for the freedom he has in being himself, everyone else be damned.

That moment launches them into a friendship, one that is at times flirtatious and at times protective. Micah is trying to find the courage to come out of the closet, but more than that, he’s deathly afraid of getting AIDS. He’s not even sure how you can get it. At the same time, he realizes the confidence and bravado C.J. walks through life with isn’t always genuine, and covers up fear, hurt, and loneliness.

This is such a beautifully written, emotional, evocative book. I remember being so much like Micah in so many ways, desperate to be “the real me” but so afraid of what that might entail. Konigsberg captures this time period so well, I almost felt my collar popping and smelled the excessive amount of cologne I used to wear.

I absolutely loved and was moved by this. Thanks to Pride Book Tours and Scholastic for inviting me on the tour for this book, and providing a complimentary copy.

Book Review: "My Government Means to Kill Me" by Rasheed Newson

Rasheed Newson's debut novel is a moving, informative story of a young, gay Black man’s coming of age in 1980s New York City.

“…all great activists start off as young people who don’t really know what the hell they’re doing.”

Trey leaves his wealthy family in Indiana and turns his back on his trust fund and moves to New York City in the mid-1980s. He has very little money but refuses to compromise his values by hustling. He meets an interesting group of friends and explores his sexuality despite NYC being an epicenter of the AIDS epidemic.

After volunteering at a home hospice for those dying of AIDS, he gets pulled into the early days of ACT UP, an activist group trying to get the government to provide better support to those living with the disease. Along the way he tries to navigate his guilt about a childhood incident, deal with the demands of his family, and better understand the dynamics of sex and love.

This was a really good book that felt like a memoir. Trey is essentially dropped into an historical narrative and comes into contact with a number of individuals both key to the gay rights movement and those who caused trouble for it. Newson peppers the book with footnotes about different people and references in the book, and while many times I feel footnotes in books are distracting, these were really informative.

Having been a bit younger than Trey in the mid-1980s, I still vividly remember this time in history, and figuring out my sexuality a few years later was still as confusing, frightening, and complicated in the midst of uncertainty about AIDS. This was a fascinating story.

Book Review: "When You Call My Name" by Tucker Shaw

Gorgeous and emotional, When You Call My Name evoked such memories for me.

It’s 1990 in New York City. Adam is 17 and has just been asked out on a date by Callum, an aspiring conductor. Adam quickly falls for Callum, who is a few years older than him, but something seems to be holding Callum back.

Ben left his upstate New York home after his mother discovered his secret stash of gay magazines, and he heads to NYC to live with his brother, who is a doctor. Fashion-obsessed Ben gets a glimpse into the world he wants to be a part of, and he falls in love with the city and its possibilities, even if his brother doesn’t quite get him.

When Callum disappears, Adam desperately searches for him, until he finds that he’s in the hospital, slowly declining from AIDS. Adam devoted himself to caring for Callum until he reaches the end, and the toll that AIDS has taken on the gay community overwhelms him.

One night, when Adam is at his most vulnerable, he meets Ben near Callum’s hospital. Ben realizes that Adam is in pain and needs help, and although their connection is brief, they begin seeing each other at random times. Sometimes their encounters are meaningful, sometimes they say the wrong things, but both start to depend on one another more than they’re prepared to admit.

This is such a beautiful book, one that so accurately captures the mood of 1990, the sadness, defiance, anger, and fear that pervaded the LGBTQ community at that time. It’s a book about the power of friendship, love, chosen and blood family, and finally finding yourself. This reminded me a little of The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels (a favorite of mine from a few years ago) in the emotions and nostalgia it evoked.

Thanks so much to Fierce Reads, Storygram Tours, and Tucker Shaw for inviting me on the tour for this book and providing a complimentary advance copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

Book Review: "After Francesco" by Brian Malloy

Wow, Brian Malloy's After Francesco is just an absolutely beautiful, moving, hopeful book.

It’s 1988. The gay community in the U.S. has been rocked by AIDS. For 28-year-old Kevin and many others, life is an endless journey of watching friends waste away and die, and attending far too many funerals.

Kevin hasn't stopped mourning his partner, Francesco, in the two years since he died. He still lives in their NYC apartment. Everyone tells him he should try and move on, but he can’t seem to find the motivation to do so, preferring to numb the pain with alcohol.

When he hits rock bottom, at the urging of friends and family, he returns home to Minneapolis to live with his aunt Nora. He tries to move forward in fits and starts, and with the help of a support group for people whose partners have died, he feels like he’s making some progress. But he is further tested by news that his best friend is nearing the end of his struggle with AIDS, so he heads back to NYC.

This is a gorgeously written, emotional book about grief, fear, feeling like no one understands how you feel and what you’re going through, and the guilt of surviving that many felt (and still do). How can you get on with your life when your partner and your friends didn’t have that chance?

There is certainly sadness in After Francesco but I never found it overwhelming. Malloy captured the feel and vibe of the late 1980s so well. I began coming to terms with my sexuality then, and I remember the fears and uncertainty surrounding dating and sex because no one was 100 percent sure how you could get AIDS.

For me, this book stands with The Great Believers and Christodora, two other terrific books which chronicled that time period. (You should totally read those if you haven't.)

Book Review: "The Prettiest Star" by Carter Sickels

Wow, Carter Sickels. Your gorgeous new book utterly undid me.

"We live our lives not realizing which moments are special or which are ordinary—what will we remember, what memories will we try to grab onto, to hold close? All of these moments that make up a life."

It’s 1986, in the heart of the AIDS crisis. Six years ago Brian left his small, suffocating Ohio hometown for the freedom of NYC. He had the opportunity to live the life he wanted, to be who he wanted without worrying what others think. He was finally free of fighting with his father, knowing he was different than everyone expected him to be.

Now, AIDS has taken his boyfriend and many of his friends, and he faces the same scary journey. He writes a letter to his mother telling her of his diagnosis and that he wishes to come home and visit.

That visit causes numerous ripples—for his parents, who just want to keep him and his condition a secret; his teenage sister; the rest of his family, whose ignorance and fear is indicative of the mood of the country at that time; his grandmother, whose unconditional love is a beacon amidst chaos; and the entire town, which comes unhinged with one simple act.

This is a beautifully written, emotional book, perfectly capturing the struggles so many people with AIDS had to deal with, especially in the 80s. It’s a story about coming to terms with your life and its impending end, and how fear can change people you love yet others will surprise. It's also a powerful story about love, family, and friendship, which sometimes comes from the unlikeliest of people.

Sickels has truly created a masterpiece that I read in one sitting. It moved me beyond belief and I’m so glad I read it. This will easily be one of the best books I'll read all year.

Another book read for Pride Reads!

Book Review: "Like A Love Story" by Abdi Nazemian

Wow, this book hit very close to home for me.

It's 1989 in New York City. Reza has just moved with his mother to live with his wealthy new stepfather and stepbrother, and attend his final year of high school. He knows he likes boys but all he sees in the media are images of people dying of AIDS, so he knows he has to keep his true self hidden.

Judy has always been her own person, an aspiring fashion designer with a bold sense of style. She spends all of her spare time with her best friend, Art, and her uncle, Stephen, who is dying of AIDS and is a prominent member of ACT UP. The one thing Judy wants to find is love, but she doubts she'll ever find anyone to love her for who she is.

Art is out and proud, a talented photographer who tries to put the constant bullying of his peers and the disdain of his parents behind him. He documents the work of the ACT UP activists through his photographs. Stephen is his role model, and he spends so much time learning from him. Art wants to find someone to love him, but love and sex in the midst of so much uncertainty around AIDS frightens him.

Reza and Judy start dating, and Art feels like a third wheel. But Art and Reza are drawn to each other. Reza tries desperately to fight his attraction to Art, because he doesn't want to disappoint his mother and he worries that acknowledging his sexuality will doom him to a death sentence of AIDS. Art wants Reza, but knows that Judy is happy with him, and he doesn't want to betray his one true friend.

"There may be no harder place to be queer than high school, a place of bullies and slurs, a place steeped in rituals of heterosexuality. Who's dating who? Who kissed who? Who will be homecoming king and queen? Who will be your prom date? And you have to play along, because if you don't, your difference has a spotlight on it."

Abdi Nazemian's incredibly moving, heartfelt Like A Love Story so accurately captures what it was like to come to terms with your sexuality during the early days of the AIDS crisis. You were tremendously fearful of even kissing someone, because you worked out elaborate circumstances in your head by which you could contract the disease. And if you got AIDS, who would love you? Your family would abandon you, the government would gouge you on the price of drugs, and you would be a pariah? So why not hide your true self instead, pretend to be "normal"?

This is a book about friendship, family, fear, acceptance, and finding love. It's a story about finding the courage to be yourself even in a world full of fear, and finding your people, who will love you and accept you no matter what. It's also a beautiful love letter of sorts to those who came before us, who loved fearlessly and joyfully, who finally lived the lives they dreamed of, without worrying what people thought of them, and it's a tribute to all of the people who died of AIDS and lost loved ones and lived in courage rather than fear.

I had been waiting for this book to be released and I jumped on it the day it was published. I loved every single minute of Like A Love Story. It's gorgeous and funny and sad and beautifully written, and all too many times I found myself nodding, recognizing myself in certain situations. Nazemian put every ounce of his heart into this story and it shows, and I'm definitely going to go back and read his earlier books, because I love the way he writes.

I love books that effectively capture a specific time and place, and Like A Love Story did that. It is an important, hopeful book that deserves every accolade it receives.

Book Review: "We Are Lost and Found" by Helene Dunbar

Utterly gorgeous and emotionally evocative, Helene Dunbar's We Are Lost and Found feels like pages from a person's diary. It so effectively and beautifully captures the early 1980s in New York City, what it was like to be a teenager struggling with your sexuality and your desire to be loved and be seen, and the uncertainties and fears of the early days of AIDS.

Michael, James, and Becky are best friends. While Michael and Becky are still in high school, James is two years older, and is a performance artist. James is always the center of attention—his ethereal good looks and his magnetic self-confidence tend to pull everyone toward him.

Michael is envious of James knowing who he is. Ever since Michael's father threw his older brother Connor out of the house after he came out, Michael wants to do everything he can to stay under the radar, yet at the same time, he's just dying to tell his parents the truth. In fact, he wants to tell everyone the truth but at the same time, he's not quite ready to make that leap.

The one place Michael feels at home is at The Echo, a gay dance club. There he can lose himself in the music, flirt without consequence, and not have to acknowledge all of the anxieties he carries with him on a daily basis. He doesn't have to be stuck between his parents and his brother, he doesn't have to lie to his parents about where he's going, he just enjoys the few hours he has, simply to be.

When Michael meets Gabriel, he finally feels seen for the first time, by someone who is interested in him, not in using him to get to James. Michael is lost in the flush of first love, despite the fact that he can't really spend time with Gabriel except at The Echo once a week, despite the fact he can't tell his parents why he's happy. And the more his feelings and his desire for Gabriel intensify, the more his fears about AIDS start to consume him. How does anyone know who's safe? Is it safer never to be with anyone than to put yourself at risk, even if it is all you want?

We Are Lost and Found really struck a chord for me. While I was a little bit younger than these characters in the early 1980s, Dunbar really captured that period of time so perfectly. Coming of age and struggling with my sexuality in the midst of anxieties about AIDS was immensely difficult. The fears of how your parents would react to your telling the truth about your sexuality coupled with wanting to be loved (or even just liked) and the general upheaval of being a teenager was difficult enough, let alone wondering if being with a person could lead to a death sentence.

Dunbar is a fantastic writer. I fell in love with these characters and was really rooting for them, and hoped the book didn't take a severely maudlin turn. The book is told in vignettes more than chapters, and Dunbar doesn't use quotation marks to denote dialogue (at least in the advance version I read), but neither of those things bothered me in the slightest. I honestly could have done with more of the book because I was sad when it ended—it probably didn't help that I read the entire thing in one day.

Maybe some of those who lived through those days will remember things differently, but as someone who was close in age to the characters at the time the book took place, We Are Lost and Found was pitch-perfect. A beautiful book so well-told, one that I won't soon forget.

NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire provided me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!

This book will be published September 3, 2019.