Excellent subject matter! A deep study that the history still be approachable and remains engaging. Such a fascinating take.

I'm afraid I DNF'ed this book as it contained racism. I know it was published some time ago but I don't think it's fair to Black readers to have to read language that could cause them harm. Also, I didn't love the way it was written. It reads like a slightly disorganised auto-biography and not a wholly believable one at that.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this text in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a treat. I'm not usually drawn to auto-fiction but it really did encapsulate the vibes, lives, and experiences of many queer and lgbt people pre-HIV/AIDS and immediately after. I do think too much happened off-page, or the author would reference something from a previous time period (e.g. something we used to do in New Orleans) that was never mentioned before when they were actually in New Orleans.

Overall I'm super glad this has found its way back into print and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Some books come with a warning in the first few pages—this is going to hurt. Tramps Like Us is one of those books. And oh, does it deliver on that promise.

Part memoir, part fiction, this is the story of Joe—queer, searching, furious, kind. It begins with a flight from an abusive home in Missouri and unspools into a decade-long journey across 1980s America: hitchhiking along the East Coast, finding temporary safety with friends in St. Louis, falling in and out of love in San Francisco, and trying to outrun the ghost of loneliness that seems to follow wherever he goes.

At its core, this book is about found family, heartbreak, and the relentless search for belonging—in cities, in people, in someone’s arms at 3AM. It’s about what it means to be young and queer and scared and still choosing to live out loud in the face of addiction, disease, and societal neglect. And while it doesn’t shy away from the devastation of the AIDS crisis or the trauma of abuse, it’s also full of humor and joy and the kind of friendship that feels like a lifeline.

The narrative voice is stunning in its contradictions: Joe tells his story with a kind of matter-of-fact clarity, even when he's high, heartbroken, or knee-deep in chaos. He doesn’t ask for sympathy—just that you listen. And somehow, in that voice, we feel it all more deeply: the quiet devastation of grief, the giddy abandon of queer joy, the long ache of searching for someone to call home.

It’s also a book deeply rooted in its era. You feel the political backdrop of the 70s and 80s—queer liberation, punk resistance, the looming specter of Reagan-era moralism, and the slow-motion horror of the AIDS epidemic—as it seeps into every relationship, every city, every decision. But the book never feels like a history lesson. It feels lived. Scarred into the skin.

Joe’s friends—Ari, the roommates, the lovers, the strangers he meets on the road—are beautifully rendered in minimal, unflinching strokes. Some stay. Some vanish. Some die. But none are forgotten. They form the beating heart of this book: a misfit family held together by care, chaos, and the need to survive.

There’s no tidy arc here. No redemption. No Hollywood ending. Just life—messy, painful, beautiful, fully lived.

If you’re the kind of reader who finds poetry in the margins of grief, who believes found family can be as sacred as blood, or who’s ever gone looking for love in all the wrong places just to feel something—this book might hit you like a freight train.

And if you’ve never lived this life? Tramps Like Us invites you in anyway—not as a voyeur, but as a witness. To the joy, to the heartbreak, to the sheer, staggering truth of it all.

Book 25 of 2025 - ✅! Thank you to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux | MCD & Joe Westmoreland for an ARC of Tramps Like Us: A Novel by Joe Westmoreland in exchange for my honest review.

Tramps Like Us by Joe Westmoreland was originally released in 2001. I’ll be honest, before NetGalley, I had not heard of this novel, but the description and cover intrigued me.

Tramps Like Us is essentially a fictionalized version of Joe Westmoreland’s life as a gay man leaving his (abusive) childhood in Missouri, and traveling through the American south (New Orleans, Florida) then making his way to New York, then San Francisco. This epic book spans over multiple decades, and focuses on found family, and his coming into his own as a gay man from the 60s, through the AIDS crisis in the 80s.

I’m not one to shy away from difficult material, and it’s clear that Westmoreland (and the fictional version of himself) had to deal with more than enough strife over his life - more than any one person should have to bear. The writing-style, however, is where the book lost me. It was very matter-of-fact, with little description. If you’ve read some of my other reviews, you might know that I also don’t click with writing that swings too hard in the other direction - with too much description, and little action or dialogue. I feel like there could have been a happy medium here, and because there wasn’t, I found it hard to connect with the characters and thus, the book.

3/5 ⭐️ overall, and 2/5 on the 🌶️ scale. While I do not consider this a romance novel, and the scenes are not particularly steamy, the scenes are explicit. #NetGalley #TrampsLikeUs

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the EARC.

Trigger warnings: HIV/AIDS, S.A., Drugs, Death, Homophobia.

*Spoilers*

Tramps Like Us is a telling of Joe a gay man in the 1970's and 1980's and what life back then was like for queer men and the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. The story starts with young Joe in his childhood in Kanas City dealing with his abusive father who Sexual assaults his sisters. Him starting to realize his attraction to men. We follow him through years of hitchhiking the country and travels as he searches for his purpose in life. The story takes him to New Orleans, San Francisco with his closes friend Ali. They find the meaning of what it is to make your own family and how to always be there for each other. As the AIDS crisis starts and how their fear for each other and what it means for their family you see the depth of what it truly did to the community. This is a memoir style novel based on the the authors life so it can seem to drag at times and has a very I did this then did this style. To me it was worth it to see the time through the authors eyes, but it's a style not meant for everyone. I loved this book and it truly makes me appreciate what the queer community has been through.

This is a gem of a book!!! that's all i am saying and i am glad i got to read it!! thank you netgalley!!

Gorgeously written book that's a blend of memoir and autofiction, done by the author as a way of processing his earlier life and what happened to him and his friend group as they experienced the AIDS crisis.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with a copy of this book.

Part memoir, part fiction, Joe's amazing book takes us on a joyride of running away from home to preserve his life from his father's anger, hitchhiking along parts of the American East, finding a safer place in Saint Louis where he shares a home with good friend, Ari, with whom he moves to San Francisco, and where he starts experiencing the devastation of the AIDS crisis. Together with it all comes a plethora of drugs, he and his friends share to make life feel more bearable and enjoy the moment, not to mention the wild sex scene of the 1970s and 1980s.

All along the book, I usually felt as if Joe was always looking for a place to belong and be able to find peace of mind, something he couldn't find while growing up back in his native Missouri, always in rage with his father abusing his sister and threatening him with death. Not only a place to belong, but also someone to share his life with. And maybe, isn't it what many misfit boys and girls of those years were yearning for, running away from home and making a new life possible? The AIDS crisis brought a sense of setback and moralism, and it is no wonder it was first called "gay cancer". I tend to see the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s movements as a way to break away from all the turmoil and fear brought up by the Cold War and the wars the USA and the Soviet Union were playing around the world, killing thousands of young people, when not discarding the combatants as garbage when back home. The Hippies, the heavy Rock'n'Roll, the Punks, the Black Panther Party (aimed to challenge police brutality and systemic racism), the gay liberation movement, the feminist movement etc., all born from the urge of groups within society to question long-held assumptions of right and wrong, of morality, but also a need to bring out voices to express and demand respect and freedom, a way to speak up.

There were excesses, many, and Tramp like us is quite an interesting vision of those times. But as the saying goes, "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs".

Westmoreland's writing is both tender and wild. And he truly speaks up!

Westmoreland’s writing is honest and raw. He doesn’t hold back from showing the highs and lows of queer life during a time of change, joy, and deep pain. The story feels real—sometimes messy, sometimes beautiful, and always full of heart.
What stands out most is how alive the book feels. Joe and Ali’s adventures are exciting, funny, tragic, and tender. And as the threat of HIV begins to rise, the story becomes even more powerful, showing what it means to survive and remember.
The writing can be a little loose at times, but that almost feels like part of the point—it reflects the wild, unpredictable lives these characters are living.
4.5 stars

"I ran away from home the first time when I was four years old."

Originally published in 2001, Tramps Like Us by Joe Westmoreland is an epic‐style semi-autobiographical novel about his life as a gay man during the 1960s through to the 1980s in the USA. In less than 30 pages, the reader gets the real sense of Joe's intense life.

Growing up in a conservative and strict household, we soon learn that closeted Joe was abused by his father, his mother rendered powerless, and his siblings equally diminished (many trigger warnings here). This novel shines in its sincerity and vulnerability, with its life lessons in self‐discovery and belonging. Westmoreland does not shy away from the most harrowing descriptions of his life, with some choking and emotional moments that might upset the reader (it is a difficult topic), but without sensationalism. Early in the book, in his teens, after much beating and witnessing, Joe leaves his home and hitchhikes from Missouri to Florida where he starts his nationwide backpacking. Crisscrossing through New York, New Orleans and San Francisco, he is exposed to the glamorous and sexual queer life, where drugs and men are never lacking. The author's descriptions of clothing, music and cultural aspects are truly encyclopaedic in queer culture, and I can imagine this novel's imagery of a fabulous period full of glitter and pain (wait until the AIDS crisis) that will appeal to many readers interested in the gay identity and pride in the USA.

Unfortunately I could not connect with the history on a deeper level, perhaps due to the fact that my upbringing was completely different, and the matter‐of‐fact narration is not to my taste, or the memoir-style of a novel that does not experiment (like Catherine Airey and Maria Reva). One must really question certain aspects when reading a memoir-style novel. The use of language and the personal struggles of an individual might sometimes be exaggerated, misleading the reader. As an example, at some point in the book the author expresses he is bored and depressed. Well, depression is deeper and more damaging than being bored (it is nitpicking, but you get the point). Another aspect I wish were different: he tells the story too quickly, with not enough depth to the characters or even his thinking (at least initially). Joe was an intense teenager/young adult who apparently lived his life as a dare, placing himself in dangerous situations that were common at that age. Bear in mind his upbringing, time and place that led his almost nomadic life to find his chosen family, identity and meaning. Each journey is individual, but in our individuality we can create a beautiful community, a chosen family, many LGBTQ+ people strive for.

Ultimately, I failed to connect with the narrative style and story in general, even though I have an interest in queer culture and history. Nonetheless, Joe Westmoreland's story deserves to be told and read. His story must survive. It is an important period in time of queer history in the USA during the AIDS crisis. I suspect this memoir can be engrossing in understanding this period, as well as exploring musical and queer references from the USA.

Rating: 3.0/5

Big thanks to editor Jackson Howard for resurrecting this gem and giving it the attention it deserves. #TrampsLikeUs is a fantastic work of auto fiction that should be required reading especially for anyone who identifies on the queer spectrum or looking for something to read during #Pridemonth

A gay, “On the Road” the book follows a young man named Joe in 1974 who shortly after graduation packs up his belongings and sets out across the country escaping an abusive and increasingly unhinged father. We follow him over time and through cities finding friendship and lovers, comfort and hedonism, a time capsule of what was both before AIDS and during. There’s such a rawness and gritty sexiness to his narrative that places you in the center of urban centers such as San Francisco, Manhattan and New Orleans you can almost smell the poppers. Loved it.

When I first read this in the Aughties it was already historical fiction. It was my life, my graduating class, and my generation of gay men who were, to all intents and purposes, vanished. Many died that I knew...almost none I was really close to until the late 1980s.


Reading the story again, at well over sixty, reminded me forcefully of that *horrible* severing. All hope seemed to die. With every memorial service there was less reason to feel as tough anyone cared, as though people like me were on anyone's priority list.


I started volunteering here and there. I saw christians at their abosulte worst. Mothers rejecting dying sons, fathers speaking loudly with their absence...it was the last nail in my faintest glimmers of religiosity.

So being there wasn't...nice...but it did make me recall the value of community (and the reality of burnout). When my true love was dying of CMV in 1992, I had men around me who loved him, and who supported me so completely (thanks Joe and Domingo!) that I could latch onto Ali and Joe as they created their magic circle, as they ran from haven to hearth looking for home.

It was breathtaking. It was heartbreaking. It was very much the way I want to remember the squashed possibilities of gay liberation...none of this *fighting* for equal rights we've been distracted with for decades, but coming up with new ways to define ourselves in the world.

Not even my grands have come back to that level.

What might have been, sighs the young heart in the elderly chest. Visit it for y'all's selves.

Memoirs are always emotional but this one caught me in my feels. It was so raw and intimate it felt as if the author was telling me his story directly to my face. I had chills throughout the book.

I wanted to like this and I did conceptually, but I didn’t enjoy the writing style at all. I was close to giving up on this at many points and I’m still unsure on why I didn’t do just that, but I spent over a month forcing myself to read at least a few pages of this every few days just for it to end up not becoming any more enjoyable and leave me feeling a little like I wasted my time, which feels a little rude to say about a fictionalised memoir, but like I said, it’s mainly the execution of this that’s bothering me. I’m still a little surprised I even managed to finish this book before the e-copy expired.

Where do I even begin with this? I am a sucker for a book set during the AIDS epidemic. I always have such a soft spot for them. This novel was no exception. I found myself deeply entrenched into the lives of these characters living their lives. It was like I was there with them, and I think that is what made the book so enjoyable for me. I don't have much else to say about this one other than I enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley, Joe Westmoreland, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Tramps Like Us by Joe Westmoreland is out now!

I wanted to love this, but unfortunately this did not resonate with me as much as I thought it would. There tone of the writing makes it hard to become fully invested in the story. So many things are happening to the main character and the people around them, but it feels as if it's just any other Wednesday.

Update :June 6: Posted an expanded New release review on TikTok. I found this valuable and challenging. The abuse material was particularly difficult. The dangerous father and many references to the father's SA of the sister hit raw nerves.

The era and descriptions of various cities and encounters took me back to my own journeys.The sense of exploration in sexuality, identity, independence, and the vulnerabilities of being young, on your own, and gay are depicted well. The road trip aspects, with meeting strangers, going to gay bars, handling propositions, and needing cash, all carried me along.

I enjoyed the connections via music and the references to specific songs. Material about the plague years is still rough going for me, no fault of the author. The introduction by Eileen Myles works well to give readers a way into the book. For me, it's a book to ride along with, letting go of expectations that apply to other kinds of books. There's a raw, partly-open, partly closed-down emotionality that felt real to me. Having come out and left home in my teens, I could relate a lot to this novel/memoir. The ways of finding closeness and supporting each other though hard times struck a chord. This is good timing for this rerelease.

I'll be thinking about Tramps Like Us for awhile, and recommending it. My thanks to MCD for the eARC via NetGalley for consideration. These opinions are solely my own.

Just re-published after more than 20 years, I decided this would be my Pride Month read. Westmoreland’s one novel, is a “thinly veiled autobiography” set in the 1060s thru the 1980s primarily. Most people would think it another book about drugs, sex, and the advent/ravishes of AIDS. There is a lot of sex, not explicit, and a lot of drugs. For me, because Westmoreland is my age, it was a coming of age book. The writing is roughly chronological and I could place my own coming of age and life experiences as I read - radically different. His childhood, relationships, and fearless (at least to me) moving around the county to find his found family and home were very interesting and inspiring. Originally published in 2001 by a small independent press, its debut was sidelined by 9/11 and his own health issues.

A Great Book For Another Reader
I enjoyed what I read and I feel like true homage was paid for the time, but it was hard for me to stay interested. I do feel like it's a good book, it's just not for me which is okay