My thoughts on 'WITH OR WITHOUT YOU' by Brian Farrey

With or Without You by Brian Farrey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


OK, I have to say that I wasn't sure about this book at first. When I was about 100 pages in I almost put it down, but I decided to keep going and I am glad that I did.

Not that the first 100 pages was bad or uninteresting, but because it was like a chick-lit book but with two boys. For anyone that knows me, I do not care for chick-lit books or at least most of them that I have read anyway.

The first 100 or so pages was all about relationships, love, etc. But then I peeked ahead and I seen that the whole book was not like that.

This book is about relationships, love, honesty, betrayal, confusion, fitting in, of course, being gay and HIV. It is also about understanding, trust, and discovering who you are.

And those are the things that kept me reading.

Evan has a best friend, Davis, and a boyfriend, Erik, who nobody knows about. Erik is the perfect guy. He is smart, loving, understanding, talented and hard working, dedicated. Evan is talented and kind but he is also lost and still trying to discover who he is and what exactly he wants in life.

The whole story is mostly about Evan and Erik, but it is also about Evan and Davis. Evan and Davis had their futures planned together (as BFFs), but then certain things happened and Davis got mixed up with the wrong people because they made him feel as if he finally 'belonged'. His judgement was clouded by that, but luckily Evans was not. I think that if Evan didn't have Erik that maybe he would have fell for the the wrong crowd too. But he didn't and because he didn't he tried to make Davis see the truth.

It was a very dangerous path and what Evan did was very brave and unselfish of him. But while he was being loyal and trying to help one person, he was being disloyal and unintentionally hurting someone else.

I couldn't believe the things I read in this book about HIV and 'bugchasers'. How horrible!

On a sidenote, anyone who has an Erik in their lives are very lucky and they should do whatever they can to keep them in it.



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