Reviews with content warning for Grief - Les Optimistes

This took me longer to read than I wanted it to, it was longer than I think it should have been. It basically describes the AIDS epidemic in Chicago in the early 80s from the general viewpoint of 1 main character

(who eventually gets it from a casual fling- after being so careful with his then-longtime bf who cheated, got it, and thought he got it from him but didn't-and ultimately dies).

It alternates chapter-by-chapter with that and one of their female friends in the future in 2015.

Her brother was one of the first in this friend group to die, so she was always around these men. In the future, she's trying to find her estranged daughter and make amends. It ends a little bittersweet, as Yale (the main character) does indeed die and it describes his slow-ish decline. But Fiona (the girl) finds her daughter and they seem to slowly be repairing/building back their relationship

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sstarliper's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative fast-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

5.0

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kthumphrey's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have always known how the AIDs crisis painfully affected my dad and his friends in the 90s and beyond. This book encapsulates that pain perfectly. A lot of the characters remind me of people he’s talked about and people I’ve met and hung out with through my childhood. The generational trauma is so real.

Also, reading this book while experiencing grief in any sense is so beautiful. Both pain and beauty can exist at the same time. One of my favorite quotes so far, “if you learned new details about someone who was gone, then he wasn’t vanishing. He was getting bigger, realer.” I’m so glad I’m reading it when I am.

Upon finishing, this book was so hard to read at times. I almost needed to finish it to get it off my mind. This was the first book ever I couldn’t read late at night bc I was terrified of having nightmares.

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