TROY FORD

— Daniel H, Reviewer

“I did not always find Lamb to be a pleasant read, but I consider it a valuable and engaging one.

The story is one of painfully mundane tragedies delivered to us through the distinct, conversational voice of its narrator and exerts of Lamb’s writing. We’re given just enough detail and specificity to ground us in the scenes without straining the realism; it has the feeling of a makeshift memoir filled with both half-remembered events and vivid conversations that stuck with D for years after the fact.

Each character we meet feels, truly, like a person. We’re allowed to see unflattering, vulnerable moments between friends and the moments in someone’s life that develop into frustrating, poisonous cycles. Though the story is a snapshot of a very specific time and place, there’s a lot one can connect to; I empathized deeply with the impulse Lamb’s friends had to understand both the circumstances of his life and death more fully in the wake of their loss of him.

I was also glad to be given a glimpse into the era. The writing takes a very frank approach to D and Lamb’s attempts to find community and navigate all the risks–physical, emotional, and social–that came with being a gay man in the 90s. I think these very personal, grounded portrayals of queer history are worth cherishing.

It’s a book I’d recommend to anyone remotely interested in the blurb, the era, or in queer and literary fiction as a whole, though with the content warning that it includes discussions of drug use/addiction, suicide, and sexual assault.“

(Jan 24, 2026)