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badbadwolf's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Homophobia and Terminal illness
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Misogyny, Homophobia, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Alcohol, Abandonment, Car accident, Child abuse, Bullying, Grief, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
_alias_ali's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Grief, Vomit, and Homophobia
Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Hate crime
Minor: Classism, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cancer, Biphobia, Car accident, Body shaming, Bullying, Addiction, and Child death
bumblemee's review against another edition
5.0
This book will stay with me forever, I think. And with it the names and stories of many men it tells you about, as well as Ruth herself.
I don't even know how to find the right words for this book. I'll start by saying that Ruth is a very impressive person. She just keeps going and going and going, she just does not stop, no matter the obstacles she's presented with. She's really good at reading people and finding out how to approach them - no matter if it's someone whose help she needs or people she wants to inform about safer sex practices when she knows they won't to listen if she doesn't do it right. Her resourcefulness had me stunned more than once.
As someone who wasn't alive during the events of this book, it feels like it's very good at transporting the reader to that time period. - I watched an interview with Ruth on YouTube and she said she thinks people are thankful that she's sort of a vessel for the stories of people that would've been forgotton without her. This is very true for me. I am thankful she let Kevin Carr O'Leary into her life/memories and write them down, because this was an important read for me and I think it is for others, too.
There's a lot of pain within these pages, it hurt a lot to read this book. The way Ruth and especially her guys (as she calls them) were treated was brutal. I know this was the reality then and it therefore didn't shock me, but that didn't take away any of the anger and rage it made me feel. Or any of the sadness. This book made me cry within the first 15 pages and a few times after that. - Because of the contens, of course, but also because the words that transported said contents.
The writing style feels just so appropriate, the voice is so clear. It has beautiful words, but it doesn't sugarcoat anything. Sometimes tragic things are delivered within a short sentence, somewhere among all the other sentences, which makes so much sense, because this new tragic thing was normality for Ruth, it happened all of the time. But this kind of writing does not take away any of the impact, instead adding to it in my opinion.
It isn't all sad though. There's also wholesome moments, drag shows and people with a lot of love for one another. Also, Ruth has a lot of wit and her voice can be very entertaining.
I liked how you get to know different individuals better and how all of them were treated with a lot of love. You get to know them trough Ruth's eyes and can tell how special each of them was, which is why I said in the beginning of this review that some of the names will stay with me.
All in all I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn something about these years of the epidemic in the USA and how it impacted the queer community. In my opinion this book is written with a lot of care. I must say though that it isn't an easy read, at least to me it really wasn't. I would recommend to read this when you're in a good headspace.
Oh, one last thing: This book centers on Ruth and her work and while it does deal with political issues, it doesn't go beyond Ruth's life and perspective. So if you want there to be a broader context and reflection on "the bigger picture", this isn't really the book for you as it stays very personal.
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Drug abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Suicide
Minor: Car accident
shamelesslyash's review against another edition
2.5
Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Domestic abuse, Blood, Addiction, Alcohol, Bullying, Drug abuse, Car accident, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Outing, Fire/Fire injury, and Hate crime
stabilesero's review against another edition
3.0
This has potential; if Burks left out the unnecessary snippets of her life (i.e. relationship with Mitch) and the grating repetitive nature of "I'm short of money" to "oh I know a guy, boom, I have $250".
It had me with mixed feelings because I really felt for the young men she cared for and helped, their stories really hit hard how cruel others were and how discriminated against they were. The desperate need for medical help and the appalling treatment they received.
This book also heavily knelt on religion and church which again, I found boring and tiresome as although I appreciate Burks' involvement with religion; it was another part that was unnecessarily dragged out and could have shortened the novel by qt least 100 pages.
I'm sure there are better novels out there about individuals who helped with the movement towards fairer treatment of HIV and AIDS patients and that's not to dismiss Burks' work, that's just to say I'm hoping there's other stories out there with more focus on the work and less on the religious uproar.
Graphic: Death, Grief, Homophobia, Chronic illness, and Hate crime
karac15's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Car accident, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide attempt
helloits_jen's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Hate crime, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Medical content, Xenophobia, Vomit, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Grief, Excrement, Death, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, and Religious bigotry
lily_west's review
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Dementia, Death, Homophobia, and Medical content
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Drug use and Addiction
bexh's review
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Violence
raelemkesprung's review
4.5
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Transphobia