Reviews

I would recommend this book to everyone! It’s very engaging and has a very inviting writing style where you feel welcomed into the subject matter instead of being talked down to which reflects Ruth as a person well. I truly appreciate that even though Ruth, a straight woman, was the main storyteller, the gay men impacted by AIDS she cared for were almost always the centre of discussion. Several chapters are dedicated to stories of these wonderful men she cared for dearly and it felt like she truly understood that it was important to highlight their lives. This book will stick with me forever and will always leave me with so much to think about.

Content Warnings

fullybooked22's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

I found this to be such a fast-paced read, i found myself staying up much later than anticipated to keep reading it
it was incredibly sad and inspiring as is to be expected of a book covering the AIDs epidemic but there was consistent humour and joy aswell.
Would very much recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about the topic or just as a fascinating memoir

interesting as well in terms of articulation of domestic issues like divorce and death, but also the choices Ruth had to make that in many ways didn’t benefit her daughter Allison but did benefit the hundreds of individuals she helped to look after

also found the co-writing really interesting, it’s openly addressed in this book in a way you rarely see

the ending was sad — even by the epilogue it feels like ruth never received support from her community