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A review by lilyrooke
Carved in Bone by Michael Nava
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