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camille_catterpillar's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A moving novel that goes to surprising depth for a procedural mystery. Nava speaks tenderly of precarious times in the LGBT+ community, paying homage to sexual and cultural identity, to the plurality and complexity of these identities and their intersections.
henrismum's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Audiobook (All of my entries on The Story Graph are audiobooks.)
#2 in series (I started reading this series in February 2023. I have not committed to it yet.)
Will I read other installments?Probably Not Maybe Definitely
I already own the next two books in the series, so I'm locked in, but this book and the first in the series were so heart-wrenching that they are painful to read. The writing is excellent but the subject is sad.
This was a mystery, but within it was about how gay men flocked to SF and found family after their parents threw them out. Then the book was about HIV / AIDS in the early years.
Back in late 1980s I had two friends who each had a gay uncle. Both men got AIDS and died. They were so young; I don't think either was forty. It's so sad.
So many men died while the government ignored the disease. Things are better now. There are pills, but I get very angry when men refuse to use condoms. I worry about the young men now. They don't realize how many men had to die till something changed.
Comparison to others in series:Not as good About the same Better
The narrator was Thom Rivera. Great voice for Henry.
Source: Audible
#2 in series (I started reading this series in February 2023. I have not committed to it yet.)
Will I read other installments?
I already own the next two books in the series, so I'm locked in, but this book and the first in the series were so heart-wrenching that they are painful to read. The writing is excellent but the subject is sad.
This was a mystery, but within it was about how gay men flocked to SF and found family after their parents threw them out. Then the book was about HIV / AIDS in the early years.
Back in late 1980s I had two friends who each had a gay uncle. Both men got AIDS and died. They were so young; I don't think either was forty. It's so sad.
So many men died while the government ignored the disease. Things are better now. There are pills, but I get very angry when men refuse to use condoms. I worry about the young men now. They don't realize how many men had to die till something changed.
Comparison to others in series:
The narrator was Thom Rivera. Great voice for Henry.
Source: Audible
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Addiction, Death, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
zed_dog's review
hopeful
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book is a mystery novel almost incidentally—it’s really a rich, literary portrait of gay culture in San Francisco in the 1970s and 80s, a complex and tragic story of destructive love, and a moving exploration of how to live authentically in a climate of fear and in a culture that despises you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, and Sexual content
Moderate: Suicide attempt
lx2's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Another beautiful take on the gay mystery. It's well-crafted and heartbreaking. Nava doesn't give you what you want or what you expect because he gives even more. Darker than the first one, but grippier for sure.
lilyrooke's review
5.0
Utterly devastating, Caved in Bone follows two timelines, both of which were incredibly strong. Having been kicked out, Bill makes a life for himself in San Francisco, forming friendships and desperately longing for a loving relationship. Meanwhile, in a future timeline, Henry Rios investigates Bill's death, trailed by the shadows of alcoholism and trying to recover his sobriety, while delving into the ghosts of a city ravaged by the immense communal loss created by AIDS.
Reading Michael Nava's novels feels like a necessary education. He is so good at blending genres, melding incredibly emotive romance with gritty detective mystery, all set against the thematically resonant backdrop of a community being ravaged by a disease no one understood, and so many falsely attributed to the wrong causes. Sometimes this book felt like a wail of grief, sometimes a scream of fury. It felt like a tribute to so many lost lives, as well as a celebration of countless men whose hopes, dreams and aspirations were cut short. The author never shies away from the cruelty and horror of AIDS or the reality of living through those years in one of the cities that took the first wave, but amidst the confusion and fear, there is solidarity and love and family.
That's before even starting to talk about Henry's battle for sobriety, or the depiction of Bill as a lonely outcast desperate for love, whose trauma and devastating life experiences lead him into perpetuating the cycle of abuse. All of this is done so well, with such nuance, over so few pages, amidst a gripping plot, and I'm just in awe. I love this series so much.
cw: AIDS; parental rejection; parental abandonment; rape (framed as dubcon); abusive relationship; homophobia; references to suicide
absolutely nothing *~*researchy*~* to see here; an ongoing reading list
1. A Study in Scarlet 2.5/5
2. The Hound of the Baskervilles 5/5
3. The Adventure of the Final Problem 4/5
4. Bath Haus 4.5/5
5. The Forest of Stolen Girls 4/5
6. The Red Palace 2/5
7. The Silence of Bones 1/5
8. Lay Your Sleeping Head 4/5
9. Carved in Bone 5/5
Reading Michael Nava's novels feels like a necessary education. He is so good at blending genres, melding incredibly emotive romance with gritty detective mystery, all set against the thematically resonant backdrop of a community being ravaged by a disease no one understood, and so many falsely attributed to the wrong causes. Sometimes this book felt like a wail of grief, sometimes a scream of fury. It felt like a tribute to so many lost lives, as well as a celebration of countless men whose hopes, dreams and aspirations were cut short. The author never shies away from the cruelty and horror of AIDS or the reality of living through those years in one of the cities that took the first wave, but amidst the confusion and fear, there is solidarity and love and family.
That's before even starting to talk about Henry's battle for sobriety, or the depiction of Bill as a lonely outcast desperate for love, whose trauma and devastating life experiences lead him into perpetuating the cycle of abuse. All of this is done so well, with such nuance, over so few pages, amidst a gripping plot, and I'm just in awe. I love this series so much.
cw: AIDS; parental rejection; parental abandonment; rape (framed as dubcon); abusive relationship; homophobia; references to suicide
absolutely nothing *~*researchy*~* to see here; an ongoing reading list
1. A Study in Scarlet 2.5/5
2. The Hound of the Baskervilles 5/5
3. The Adventure of the Final Problem 4/5
4. Bath Haus 4.5/5
5. The Forest of Stolen Girls 4/5
6. The Red Palace 2/5
7. The Silence of Bones 1/5
8. Lay Your Sleeping Head 4/5
9. Carved in Bone 5/5
shile87's review
5.0
Fear is an acronym, Henry. It can be either Fuck Everything And Run or Face Everything And Recover. Which is it going to be?
x_tora's review
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
no2camels's review
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
claudia_is_reading's review
5.0
Another excellent novel by Michael Nava but that is no surprise.
Henry is sober now, albeit struggling, and working as an investigator in an insurance company when he is given Bill Ryan's policy, and from the beginning, we know something is not right.
There are two parallel stories here, both with the background of San Francisco just before and at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and it's sad and gritty and yet...
Bill's story is terrible, his adult life and his death a consequence of the hate he had to face as a teenager, his struggle coming from a deep conviction that he's not worthy of love. Nick is too young and too naive to be able to help him and thus all the elements for a tragedy are set.
Henry is a lot like Bill, and even as he is fighting to overcome his alcohol dependence, he still falls into self-destructive paths. But through his investigation on Bill's death and with Larry's help, he manages to understand this and stop. At least, for now.
The story is gripping, the writing superb, the mystery of Bill's death engaging, and even when this isn't a happy story, at all, it's a hopeful one, and I loved it.
Thom Rivera brings to life this book amazingly.
Henry is sober now, albeit struggling, and working as an investigator in an insurance company when he is given Bill Ryan's policy, and from the beginning, we know something is not right.
There are two parallel stories here, both with the background of San Francisco just before and at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, and it's sad and gritty and yet...
Bill's story is terrible, his adult life and his death a consequence of the hate he had to face as a teenager, his struggle coming from a deep conviction that he's not worthy of love. Nick is too young and too naive to be able to help him and thus all the elements for a tragedy are set.
Henry is a lot like Bill, and even as he is fighting to overcome his alcohol dependence, he still falls into self-destructive paths. But through his investigation on Bill's death and with Larry's help, he manages to understand this and stop. At least, for now.
The story is gripping, the writing superb, the mystery of Bill's death engaging, and even when this isn't a happy story, at all, it's a hopeful one, and I loved it.
Thom Rivera brings to life this book amazingly.
golem's review
4.75
This book is going to stay with me for a long time. It's wonderful to see Nava, now a splendid mature writer, go back to Henry Rios in the 1980s. It's a painful, moving AIDS novel. It captures something that's very difficult to remember now, which is the precarious hope and joy of fledgling queer communities just before the AIDS crisis. This book brings us back there, and forces us to mourn that time--but in many ways it's also a book about now: our current hope and hopelessness, our current epidemic, the violence that young queer people still face. Nava has a great interview about this in LARB. Painful, hopeful. Must-read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Dementia, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction and Racial slurs