as a queer who once desperately tried not to be, this struck many sympathetic chords (to say the least). There is a distinct sabotage in the self-hatred fallout where one can't help but grossly implicate the innocents who love them most. That inevitability lives in these pages, evocative and still deeply relatable despite them being over 65 years old. The intersecting identities surrounding our morally gray characters were expertly woven in (obvi it's james baldwin) and created such vividly believable scenes and emotional dialogue. And all in under 200 pages?! Fucking legend. I'm just echoing what y'all already know but wow. A very human story that a very human me will keep in my human memory box for a very long time. Loooved.