Book Review: We Are Lost And Found
This wonderful, heartwarming book follows a sixteen year old boy, named Michael, navigating life though the 80s, trying to live life to the fullest, getting things ticked off his list of goals, yet at the same time trying to deal with the “gay plague” that got everyone on the edge of their seats.
Michael lives his life in fear of the “gay plague” that is threatening every person in the world, trying to fall in love without catching the unknown plague that no one really has a clue about. Trying to be happy and leave a mark on the world before times runs out for everyone.
“I don’t know how I’m going to keep everyone I care about safe. Or if I can. Or what safe even means.”
I’m personally in love with James and his self confidence. Michael is such a native sweetheart still learning the ropes and ties of the gay world and how to deal with the negative and positive attitude towards the world evolving around the gay culture and where he really stands in the world. Everyone is living in constant fear when AIDS, which was commonly known as the “gay plague”, according to the book, found its way out of the deepest black hole to haunt everyone. And finding the true meaning of friendship. Michael learns to find his voice, and possibly his first true love with all the madness going around in the 80s. The relationship between Michael and James is so unbearable. My heart sinks with what happens to James, Michael being the ultimate good hearted person that he is, takes every step with his two best friends, James and Becky.
“Time is a circle surrounded by a growing storm. And we’re in the eye of it.”
I personally felt that towards the end the story took an unexpected turn, from the house party to the ending. I personally thought Michael would’ve ended with him. But Dunbar just shows us in this wonderful story that everything doesn’t always plans out the way you want it to be and that you need to overcome challenges and make a stand and let your voice be heard. And that you should embrace whatever happens you have to either make it much better or make it worse. You need to own your fear.
“But I am going to own my fear. Own my voice. Own my love. Own my life. And I’m not giving any of them up with a fight.”
Dunbar has managed to pull us deep underwater with this beautifully accurately and relatable story that took place in the twentieth century, from the booming nightclub life in New York to the awful devastated, unknowingly “gay plague” that took the 80s by storm. We Are Lost And Found is sympathetic like Tom of Finland both revealing what life was during the AIDS pandemic that took the world by surprise and how people reacted to the gay world during the 20th century.
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