Reviews

My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson

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kendalllou33's review

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

brbcrying's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

a novel that gives a captivating lesson on queer history is a novel worth reading. Rasheed Newson’s “My Government Means To Kill Me” is the perfect Pride Month read, and its relevance to my life and that of so many other queer men around the world is truly paramount. it is written as a fictional memoir of the life of Trey and his exhilarating journey of self-discovery in 1990s New York. he leaves his wealthy black family from the Midwest in exchange for an independent life at the young age of 17. reading his story, we are almost transported to the exact location of everything he busies himself with. but as he struggles with his life, we all experience with him the toll and devastation of the AIDS epidemic. presented in a way where fiction is seamlessly blended with fact, the novel lets us experience what life was like as a Black gay man in the past. we are graced with the presence of historical figures, icons, and legends as we continue to digest the fictional life of Trey. clinging desperately to this narrative, i was transfixed by how lifelike everything in the novel was. but perhaps the most phenomenal part of this tale is how the protagonist continued to thrive in old age. a fairytale, this novel was a spectacular dive into the best and grittiest parts of LGBTQ history, and i am incredibly honored to have read such a life-changing experience.

izzy_reads7's review

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challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Trey is a character that a lot of people will be able to relate to due to his naivety of coming of age into adulthood and being introduced to a huge metropolitan city like New York City, which symbolizes entering "the real world." I really liked him and was rooting for his story until we reached the plot point of the rent strike, which is when the story went downhill for me. I will elaborate on that in a bit. The side characters were all diverse and well-developed, including some real people who are big names in New York City but whom I wasn't familiar with.

I love how the author made us explore New York City through fresh and open eyes, just like Trey. We truly come to understand and adapt to the city as he does. This book effectively showcases the corruption of the New York City government at the time and the overall grittiness of the city in the 1980s.

This book is definitely worth annotating. The prose is intelligent and thought-provoking. However, I think it would work better as an e-book as the footnotes can be quite distracting. At the same time, without the footnotes, I would have been confused. I wish the footnotes were placed at the back of the book so they could be referred to without interrupting the flow of the story.

Everything went downhill with the plotline of the rent strike. It felt a bit too obvious and on-the-nose. It seemed like the author just wanted to express anger towards a specific politician. Seeing that name on the page took me out of the story and made me think of somebody else. I don't want to mention the name because it was quite shocking. Reading it on the page was disorienting for me. At this point, the story lost its intrigue and momentum. However, the book is informative regarding the civil rights movement and the LGBT movement. I learned a lot from it. Overall, it's a pretty good debut book. I believe the author will continue to grow with more books.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars.

laurenbowling42's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? Yes

4.0

To start off, autobiographies aren’t my favorite to read. And even though this was fiction, it was still in the vein of an autobiography. It was good though! I didn’t know if I wanted to stick through it but I did and I’m glad. It depicts one young man’s story in NYC during the 80’s AIDS epidemic. The footnotes in the kindle book taught me a lot and gave me a lot of insight into the civil rights and gay rights battles.

parisofnowhere's review

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reflective 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? Yes

5.0

oceanvuongfan's review

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5.0

A fictional memoir of a young, gay Black man coming of age in 1980s New York, filled with narratives of queer identity, political awakenings and activism, and the impact of AIDS on the queer community—especially gay men, especially POC—during this time period.

Incredible storytelling. Incredible character perspective. Incredible use of a fictional protagonist set within a historical context that makes use of real historical figures.

Despite ‘My Government Means to Kill Me’ being a novel, it reads so much like a nonfiction memoir. The voice that Rasheed Newson is able to capture through Trey, the protagonist, is vibrant and raw but so realistic.

laurensofar's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A lot of heavy material and layers, but it was written in a way that it all worked and wasn’t hard to navigate.

I would have liked there to be more about Martin and a potential more romantic love storyline to add a little more depth to Trey as an individual. Regardless, fantastic book and writing. Also, it didn’t shy away from the harmful political landscape of the 1980s that killed so many communities (not to say that is not currently still happening).