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What Members Thought
I really enjoyed this - it has this haunting sad quality to it, but also a kind of determination of spirit, perseverance in the face of really crappy stuff, and a sweetness, too - some of the things that Finn says about "the best people" or about feeling okay about death because you have always lived exactly the life you wanted are so very lovely. I'm not normally one for novels about teenagers or coming of age stories, but I think this managed to bridge that and be a book that handled the comin
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I should have liked this book more than I did. Precocious female narrator who likes history and getting lost in the woods? Gets along much better with gay men than straight ones? Lots of nods to musical theater fans with tons of references to South Pacific, sister relationships... There are lots of themes here I can relate to. I just couldn't hook into June's voice that well; I found her a little too cloying, I think. There were also lots of little things taking me out of the narration; too many
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It's 1987 and June's beloved uncle Finn has died from AIDS and none of the adults in her life are able or willing to help her deal with his loss or understand the choices he made in his life. When she's approached by Toby, Finn's 'special friend' who the rest of the family believes 'murdered' Finn, June must decide what to do. Set in the late 1980s when AIDS was so misunderstood and homosexuality was still considered almost criminal and certainly downright immoral, this book reminded me of just
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Moving read
Completely drawn in by the author's writing style. There was a haunting quality to it, made me think of how powerful forgiveness can be. Beautifully written. ...more
Completely drawn in by the author's writing style. There was a haunting quality to it, made me think of how powerful forgiveness can be. Beautifully written. ...more
I gave this book 4,5 stars actually, but decided not to round it up to 5 stars due to some reasons. But this book is definitely one of the best YA I've ever read. Tackling the issues of AIDS and LGBT in the 80s, dark past of a family, and sibling competition beautifully in a very well written storyline. The setting of NYC is also very believable, taking us back to the cool but sometimes scary era. I almost forgot how ignorant people were in the 80s on the issue of AIDS. And also how inconvenient
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For a rather sad book, there was also something light and lovely about this book. The nutshell is that an isolated teenager deals with the aftermath of her uncle's death. This is a coming of age story set in the 80s that hovers around the emergence of AIDS.
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Beautiful and heartbreaking. I loved every page.
Dec 05, 2012
Christy Laub
marked it as to-read
Jan 14, 2013
Kim
marked it as to-read
Dec 30, 2013
Rachel
marked it as to-read
Jan 12, 2015
Abby Mannelin
is currently reading it
Feb 24, 2015
Katy
marked it as to-read
Sep 20, 2015
Melanie
marked it as to-read
Sep 26, 2016
Brandi
marked it as to-read
Jan 08, 2017
Stefanie
marked it as to-read
Nov 22, 2017
Emily
is currently reading it
Sep 02, 2018
Melissa
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
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Aug 16, 2018
Maureen
marked it as to-read
