Elliot just wants to blow up his life. His long-term boyfriend/domestic partner Gus is great, but Elliot is starting to feel like Gus is suffocating him with his day-to-day help. Elliot likes his job, but he's starting to feel like he's just not appreciated there. And Elliot loves his friends, but is starting to wonder if they really "get" him and his disability. Elliot is really going through it and I would describe this as a coming-of-age book even though Elliot is in his mid-30s. For the first time in his life, he is grappling with questions of identity. Elliot is not always likeable, but I ended up enjoying the book. It is a unique topic and point of view, plus Elliot does some real growing by the end. I have a feeling this will be one I remember.

Sometimes books are for you and sometimes they're not! This was just not for me

this book really wasnt written for me, so maybe take my review with a pinch of salt cos i dont understand the inner-workings of the upper class white gay society in LA lol. but this was such a snoreeee, i literally rolled my eyes at so many sentences:

- "he had bodyodyody"
- "every day i discover a new flavour of fucked up inside me"
- "piece of literature that rly made u think" (yes, "rly" in a novel PLZ!!!)

AND the fella kept quoting famous people but to the point that i'd say 25% of the book were other peoples words ... and it was only 250ish pages. plus i genuinely counted one of the sentences and it was TWENTY NINE lines long - no full stops.

these r obvs purposeful stylistic choices but come awwwn why r we publishing books that could be confused as twitter threads now. at risk of sounding like an utter wanker who cares too much about the english language (i swear i don't i must be in a bad mood), there were some redeeming bits: it was funny at times and i feel like a learned a bit about cerebral palsy (or, "cerebral lolzy" as elliot calls it … … … … lets move on)

summary: this prally woulda worked better as a netflix limited series (3 episodes only) (that gets taken off two months later)

I am BEGGING you to LISTEN to this book. Ryan O’Connell is the funniest person ever. I loved everything about this book.

“Sex is a way of announcing yourself, of telling another person who you are, and that night I realized I’d been presenting myself as someone I wasn’t and using sex as a way to escape my body rather than inhabit it” (291).

Ryan O’Connell has written a powerful novel about the love, addiction, and being comfortable in your own body. I loved this novel. It was smart, funny, and a very quick read. Highly recommended.

Good queer story with complex characters. Pacing felt rushed at the end but still loved the ending!

so gay and the perfect lite read after A Little Life. all the pages were pure comfort and it was an easy read. nothing amazing, nothing bad. will i think about this book in a month? no. was it enjoyable and fun from start to finish? yes!

buddy read with jade and i’m very glad we suffered through this together :)

there was so much underlying potential here, and so many elements that could have been so profound if they were explored, but they just weren’t. they were brought up and then dropped. the pacing was off; the ending was way too rushed.

i appreciate that elliot attempted some character development but it was just so quickly done and half-assed that it didn’t feel very genuine. elliot as a character was so obnoxious—don’t get me wrong, i enjoy a book with an unlikeable main character, but most of the time it just felt like the author was trying to paint elliot as quirky and sassy and that we were supposed to be rooting for him when he was just an awful person.

i also appreciate the representation, especially in terms of disability, but i just think that there have to be better examples of disability in literature out there.

i was looking forward to this one but :/

I enjoyed this book. It’s a bit graphically sexual and definitely not for everyone, but it’s quick and witty and has an excellent underlying theme. Sort of a mid-life coming-of-age. A main character with a disability and the focus on television writing in Hollywood were different and interesting. I’d never heard of the author or watched his shows, but I still enjoyed the book and I’d recommend to anyone struggling with addiction, living with a disability, or anyone feeling stuck in a current relationship.

Could have done with half as many pop culture references but I did like this one.