This book was such an easy read. The elder millennial humor dates it quite a bit, but I also feel like that’s relevant because that’s how a lot of people interact now. And plus, that’s my style of humor, so I enjoyed it. It read like I was on FaceTime with a friend of mine. The main character is fallible and frustrating and annoying, but I think that’s the point. Just because he’s gay and disabled doesn’t automatically mean that he should be a saint. There are some shitty gay people and some shitty disabled people. And I 100% get the thought process of ‘I’m so tired of people commenting on everything wrong with my body, so I just want someone to treat me normal for just a second. Even if I have to pay them’. I also enjoyed the way that addiction was portrayed. It’s not always so fucking depressing and obvious. Sometimes it just kind of sneaks up on you. And sometimes you can get addicted to everyday things or people. 

This book had so much potential. As a Queer person with cerebral palsy, O’Connell captured parts of my experience beautifully: the internalized ableism, the subconscious desire to be objectified, the anger and resentment, the self destruction. While it was hard for me to read and sit with these parts, they were raw and honest and I appreciated that.

Overall, this book feels like a first draft. I am excited to see my experience represented so accurately in O’Connell’s writing, but I think there is still a lot of work to do.

If you like Ryan O'Connell's other work you will like this book. If you find his work grating, you will find more of the same. The writing is written in a very IYKYK style with a lot of pop culture references and references that are common within the white gay male community. That being said I laughed out loud and scared my cats multiple times. 

Add this to the queer canon! Very funny; unexpectedly moving. Gay professional with cerebral palsy tears down his picture-perfect life, struggles with addiction, and tries to figure out what to build in its place. 

I would say the first two thirds of the book were a 3.5-4 for me and then the last third was a 5+. Truly funny, but also beautiful and vulnerable and hopeful. I do think that the pop culture references make the book very of-the-moment so like, read it asap if it’s on your TBR. 

First, let's start by saying this book is very funny and very sexually graphic. If you have trouble with graphic sex scenes, you won't be able to avoid those in this book. I have no such hangups (so I thought) but even I found myself blushing sometimes. The best parts about this book were about the author's / narrator’s disability and how it affected his sexual and overall confidence. As a woman of a certain age, I know something about society's messaging about bodies and sex, but this was from a whole other perspective on a whole other level and I appreciated it. The sweetest parts were about his relationship with his father. Although the book was very funny, I felt that a some of the humor deflected from the narrator’s "inner work" and the one-liners were used a bit defensively. As a memoir / novel (honestly it was hard to tell how much of this was or wasn’t biographical, it hit all the beats, but I actually wanted it to get more serious and delve more deeply into the feelings. That said, it is definitely worth a read or listen, and it left me wanting to read a memoir or informational book about CP.