e-Audio, 10:50:29
Narrated by: Lauren Ambrose, Vikas Adam, and Michael CrouchRelease Date: June 4, 2019Published by: Balzer + Bray
Read from: July 27-31, 2019Stand-aloneSource: Library (Overdrive/ Libby)TW: DeathFor fans of: Romance, Historical Fiction, YA, LGBTQIAP+, Multiple POVs, Positive Body Rep, Realistic Fiction, Stand-alone
It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.
Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.
Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance…until she falls for Reza and they start dating.
Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.
As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart–and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Reza is new in town and he knows he’s gay, but he also knows he can’t tell anyone, especially his mom. Reza is terrified that he’ll contract this disease that’s been spreading through the gay community. And then there’s Judy who loves fashion and falls in love with Reza. She’s become a member of ACT UP because her uncle is a gay man living with AIDS. And lastly, there’s Art who is Judy’s best friend. He’s also gay and out to the world. He rebels by attending protests and taking pictures of the AIDS crisis.
I have never cried that hard from a book before, but this one made me wish I had bought stock in Kleenex. I have to admit though, I was a bit emotionally invested in it. Confession time: My uncle is living with HIV. It’s not full blown AIDS (and he didn’t contract it in this way) but it still showed a lot of similarities to what life used to be. And the more I can relate to books, the more I like them. And although this was something very hard for me to relate to, I still could. And if you’ve read this book, you know why I cried for about 45 minutes during the end of this book.
The only reason I didn’t give this 5 stars was the plot. It was told in three different POV’s, which is why I think it started to drag in some places. And at times I felt like it was being kind of repetitive. But I really liked the times when they spoke about Madonna. I’m loving all of these books that are coming out and paying homage to older artists, like Madonna in this one and BIG and Tupac in others.
And for someone who doesn’t usually like historical fiction, I really liked this. I liked the focus on Madonna, and I also liked the focus on the AIDS epidemic. It educated people about the situation, but it wasn’t preachy and it wasn’t info-dumpy. That’s the only way I like historical fiction. I’m also finding that if I LISTEN to historical fiction instead of physically reading it, its a bit easier for me to get through.
This book that wouldn’t have normally worked for me ended up being exactly what I needed right now. Nazemian seems to know exactly what I like in a book. They always come out to be the thing I need when even I don’t know it. This book was everything and I hope that it gets into the hands of everyone that needs it.
