This story took place in 1980s in Chicago. It opens on the MC planning suicide because he cannot imagine letting his family down when they find out he is gay. I won’t share anymore about the story, but I graduated high school during that time and found it to be absolutely realistic! I found the twists and turns of the story to be intriguing, and I love how flawed (yet realistic) the characters were. The one flaw I found was the lack of description of the lovemaking of the love interests, when there was so much given of the tawdry hookups in the backrooms of the bars. Overall, I found this book to be highly enjoyable, including the narration (which I haven’t been a fan of when I heard him in the past).