Name: When You Call My Name
Rating: 3.666666666666667 (9 reviews)
ISBN: 9780241599402

Tucker Shaw

A heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York - perfect for fans of It's a Sin and Adam Silvera. It's 1990 in New York City. Adam is falling in love for the first time. Ben is leaving home for the last. Drawn by the city's irresistible energy, the boys are swept up into the queer scene, where the potential for life and love seems limitless. But as the shadows of prejudice gather, Ben and Adam discover how their newfound community is facing the looming threat of AIDS, which will touch their lives more closely than they ever could have imagined. Heartbreaking yet hopeful, When You Call My Name tells the story of the moments that break our hearts and the people who make us whole - and shows how together we burn brightest in times of darkness.

When You Call My Name

Kaia Mann

"I hope we never lose that outlaw feeling," Dennis says. "I know we all want progress, we all want gay rights, but I still want to hold on to that outsider vibe. It's so energizing, you know? "Double edges," Jack says. "It’s complicated."

They say that memories fade with time but I don't believe that's true. You carry them with you like stones in your pocket. Sometimes when it's quiet you take them out to roll between your fingers. Then you put them back in your pocket, safe again. You don't leave them behind.

In the spirit of the author’s massively popular Twitter thread, Tucker Shaw’s When You Call My Name is a heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York City in 1990 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H. K. Choi. Film fanatic Adam is seventeen and being asked out on his first date—and the guy is cute. Heart racing, Adam accepts, quickly falling in love with Callum like the movies always promised. Fashion-obsessed Ben is eighteen and has just left his home upstate after his mother discovers his hidden stash of gay magazines. When he comes to New York City, Ben’s sexuality begins to feel less like a secret and more like a badge of honor. Then Callum disappears, leaving Adam heartbroken, and Ben finds out his new world is more closed-minded than he thought. When Adam finally tracks Callum down, he learns the guy he loves is very ill. And in a chance meeting near the hospital where Callum is being treated, Ben and Adam meet, forever changing each other’s lives. As both begin to open their eyes to the possibilities of queer love and life, they realize sometimes the only people who can help you are the people who can really see you—in all your messy glory. A love letter to New York and the liberating power of queer friendship, When You Call My Name is a hopeful novel about the pivotal moments of our youth that break our hearts and the people who help us put them back together.

Hannah

I liked this book but it was way different then I have thought prior to reading it, I appreciate the 1990s new york and found the story pretty interesting as it touches on the HIV/AIDS epidemic ( what made me pick it up in the first place ) insane amount of 1990s pop culture references were distracting at times. It wasn’t a bad book and I appreciate the perspective of the history but I probably wouldn’t recommend however it has inspired me to find more books that cover that deal with the topics it covers.

Latitude Tamarind

This book is set during the height of the AIDS epidemic and it’s about two gay teenagers (17 and 18, I think), coming of age. It’s technically a romance between these two gay teenagers, but their coming of age is more at the forefront, I think? You kind of know that they’re eventually going to get together, and I didn’t really feel one way or another about it. The pop culture references in this book are also kind of rough, especially because for a lot of them, I Simply Didn’t Get Them, I Am Too Young.

And it’s really sad, and really slow in some places, and I think maybe I’d like to read it slowly, over the course of a summer instead of fairly rapidly for a review. (Honestly I was approved for this in December so that one’s on me.) Four and a half stars, rounded down for NetGalley.

When You Call My Name

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