I think AIDS crisis narratives are tricky, because unless the character was one of the exceedingly lucky ones that managed to survive until treatments became widely available, the story is more than likely to end in one way. So then the question becomes, what is the audience meant to get out of watching a character slowly die due to governmental neglect and homophobia? Some narratives answer that question in spades; "A Normal Heart" and "It's A Sin" immediately come to mind. This book, I found to be a big 'why? 

Brian, a gay man with AIDS, returns home to Appalachia as he's dying to face rampant homophobia within his family and community until he eventually succumbs to his illness. It felt like his character had irresponsibly little agency. He simply existed as a mirror for the cis het characters around him to eventually understand their bigotry (through the martyrdom of his death. 

I wanted to like it. It's written by a queer and trans author. But I just found myself getting angrier and angrier about what I felt was the irresponsibility of the narrative as the story went on