Nicole Abadie

They're talented.

They party.

They have a good time.

And then as the book progresses, it's almost like one by one.

they are afflicted by this dreadful disease.

And the book is completely unsparing in its description of AIDS and how devastating it is for the individual sufferer.

It also looks at it from a political perspective.

You see the way that these men are treated as pariahs, even by nursing staff.

You see demonstrations where police lay into them.

You have observations about why the drug AZT is still so expensive.

And it really did just make me stop and think for the first time of how it would feel to know that by having sex in a certain way, you might actually die.

And that's not something a lot of us have had to think about very much.

But this book really did make me think about it.

As well as the darkness, there was a really lovely side to it, which was

you saw the compassion of the men caring for each other and those who were close to them who did care for them when they really needed it.

One of the characters at one point says, you have to take care of the people you love.

And I almost feel like that was the theme.

So there's the balance of darkness, the horror of what happens to them and the way this group is decimated.

And then there's the light and the beauty of those who show compassion and kindness.

I did.