I was glad to finally see a book that told the story of this tragedy, but it did not meet expectations.
The author unsuccessfully and tenuously tries to connect the UpStairs fire to the broader gay liberation movement. Filled with clunky turns of phrase, the storytelling read like a Wiki 101 introduction to LGBT rights and was non-intersectional in its approach to discussing the systemic failures surrounding the response to the fire. Comparing the fire to the 16th St Baptist church bombing, a horrific hate crime, was in incredibly poor taste. The book was also marred by the author’s respectability politics.
Pronunciation of names and places was inexcusable and so poor that I could not finish the audiobook.