An incredibly important and unputdownable memoir. Jesse is a gifted storyteller and it was an absolute pleasure reading his book. It was so vividly described I felt like I was there with him. I was devastated for him for the trauma he experienced in his lifetime, and I believe in writing his book he’s done everything he can to use it to make him stronger (even though he didn’t deserve what happened to him at all, he’s pretty fantastic about making lemonade out of the lemons life has handed him).

*Trigger warning - includes discussions of rape, gaslighting, pedophilic assaults, underage sex work, and a cousin setting him up to get into trouble for her behaviour and avoiding accountability that resulted in Jesse being sent to a psychiatric hospital for a section for something he didn’t do but she did, which is utterly horrific. And I’m so sorry this happened for him.

Whilst he’s made mistakes as a result of trauma, he takes accountability for them and owns them, which is far more than can be said for some people.

Whilst jarring in places, overall an incredible read!

Jesse Scott offers a lens into growing up in the 1970s as an LGBTQIA+ individual searching for his family – both biological and his chosen family. From flashes to current day with Ancestry.com and Facebook tracing to finding himself as a young child dealt an unfair card, this book kept me wanting to continue reading, even into the early hours of the morning.

Scott’s honesty and genuine character regarding his mistakes he made in his childhood regarding drugs led me to see his growth as a person wanting to be better – a person who saw the ups and downs of life and held on through it all.

Searching for your origins, living during unprecedented times such as the AIDS epidemic, and finding your voice when the world’s worst horrors try to bring you down are all reasons for Jesse to have given up. Yet, his narrative to continue on, to live fully as an LGBTQIA+ individual, and to advocate for others was one that brought me to tears reading.

To be face to face with Jesse’s past and to read the intimate details was difficult as a queer individual; however, like other LGBTQIA+ narrative’s, his story deserves a place at the table and SHOULD be shared!!

A special thank you to Netgalley, Anamcara Press LLC, Jesse Scott, and Keri Ault for an ARC of this book!