I liked how the writing was concise and understandable— though I admit, you do have to have some prior knowledge of Palestinian history before venturing into this read. Towards the end it was getting repetitive, but I did appreciate getting to learn two different perspectives. There were some things I was confused about before reading, such as the one-state/two-state debate, but it makes sense now. It did make me feel angry and sad at how all of this still rings true today and can be applied to the 2023-present Gaza genocide… but maybe there’s hope in the end. Free Palestine, always.

I had a hard time reading this. There’s a lot of information, which makes sense because it is a history book, but the way it was written made it quite difficult to focus — however it is undeniable that this book is helpful in understanding the entire context of the Gaza genocide. And as always, Free Palestine.

The beginning of the story was so promising, but unfortunately my excitement didn’t carry through the middle— and there’s that third act trope that I hate. Ash and Victoria are well developed characters, and I did get attached to them, but I wish they talked more. It was a lot of “let’s plan how we’re going to tell the world” without following through. When Ash’s parents mentioned that their daughter wanted kids, Victoria panicked. You’d think they would’ve had that discussion, but they brushed over every serious aspect of their relationship (besides public perception). Even when they needed to talk the most, they had sex instead. Their dynamic could’ve definitely been improved, but it was still a wholesome story about challenging heteronormativity and not sacrificing your happiness for others.

As a queer person, being aware of our history is so important to me— I’m always looking for new works of fiction or nonfiction, film or books, to learn more. I feel like the author managed to paint such a realistic story of the late 80s-90s and the AIDS crisis. I cried many times, I felt angry, and had so much love. These characters are far from perfect, but that’s what makes them human. There are so many important lessons in here, so many sentences that made me stop because of how seen I felt, so much to be appreciated. It hurts my heart to know this is one of the banned books. You can’t erase history, you can’t erase queer people. If there’s anything that I will remember from this book is that we are resilient, we have each other, and we are loved.