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Summary
Summary
A CBC Young Adult, Teacher & Librarian Favorites 9th - 12th Grade Selection
A Rainbow Book List Top Ten Title for Teen Readers
A School Library Journal Best Books of 2022 Selection
"This is a brilliant affirmation of the power of love on so many levels, with a wide range of appeal." -- Booklist , Starred Review
In the spirit of the author's massively popular Twitter thread, Tucker Shaw's When You Call My Name is a heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York City in 1990 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Named "this summer's most powerful LGBTQ+ novel" by GAY TIMES , this book is perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H. K. Choi.
Film fanatic Adam is seventeen and being asked out on his first date--and the guy is cute . Heart racing, Adam accepts, quickly falling in love with Callum like the movies always promised.
Fashion-obsessed Ben is eighteen and has just left his home upstate after his mother discovers his hidden stash of gay magazines. When he comes to New York City, Ben's sexuality begins to feel less like a secret and more like a badge of honor.
Then Callum disappears, leaving Adam heartbroken, and Ben finds out his new world is more closed-minded than he thought. When Adam finally tracks Callum down, he learns the guy he loves is very ill. And in a chance meeting near the hospital where Callum is being treated, Ben and Adam meet, forever changing each other's lives. As both begin to open their eyes to the possibilities of queer love and life, they realize sometimes the only people who can help you are the people who can really see you--in all your messy glory.
A love letter to New York and the liberating power of queer friendship, When You Call My Name is a hopeful novel about the pivotal moments of our youth that break our hearts and the people who help us put them back together.
Author Notes
Tucker Shaw is a writer and editor who first found his family in New York City's East Village in 1991 when he was twenty-three. Over the decades he's worked in magazines, newspapers, and advertising, When You Call My Name is his first novel with Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 10 Up--The year is 1990 and two queer boys on the cusp of adulthood find themselves searching for community and purpose in New York City. Ben is living with his older brother, a doctor, after their mother finds his stash of gay magazines; Adam is working at a film store when he meets the man who will become his boyfriend, first love, and raw introduction to the reality of being a queer man in that era. The boys' stories are told from alternating points of view and barely intersect, allowing Shaw to comprehensively explore the effects of the AIDS crisis on the queer community. This book is historical fiction, riddled with early 1990s pop culture references that teens may find perplexing, but the frank, personable writing style circumvents many of the challenges the genre often has in generating teen appeal. The subject matter is intense and unspeakably tragic, but it is the deliberate inclusion of belligerent, unrestrained queer joy alongside the characters' realization that it is almost inevitable they, too, will become victims of the deadly virus, that makes this an invaluable addition to a genre that has largely excluded this piece of history. Ben and Adam both cue white. VERDICT A first purchase for all professionals serving older teens who seek to diversify their collection.--Austin Ferraro
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in 1990 New York City, Shaw's (Oh Yeah, Audrey!) bittersweet romance, told in alternating voices, traces the experiences of two white, gay teens grappling with life, love, and loss during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. When 17-year-old Adam, born and raised in the Village, falls hard for white musician Callum--who discloses his HIV-positive status after their first kiss, then disappears after they spend the night together--Adam's anxiety spirals. Meanwhile, fashion-interested 18-year-old Ben, newly arrived from Poughkeepsie after his mother discovers that he's gay, finds work with his brother's photographer girlfriend. Adam and Ben cross each other's paths regularly, slowly connecting as their story lines painstakingly detail Adam's hospital visits to now-boyfriend Callum, whose illness progresses, and Ben's first encounters with gay bars and Pride. Copious period-specific pop culture references pepper the novel, whose assured pacing and intimate tone balances elements of promise, possibility, and reality. In Adam and Ben, Shaw effectively captures the era's feeling of pain, uncertainty, and liberation for the gay community. Ages 14--up. Agent: Dan Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger. (May)
Kirkus Review
In 1990 Manhattan the paths of two young men intertwine. Eighteen-year-old Ben, fashionable and repressed, is forced to live with his doctor brother, Gil, when his mother kicks him out after discovering that he's gay. It's there that he meets Gil's girlfriend, Rebecca, an up-and-coming magazine and fashion photographer who understands him and nurtures his gifts. It's also where he keeps seeing Adam, a 17-year-old who's facing the horrors of the AIDS epidemic for the first time. Adam's boyfriend, Callum, a smart, passionate musician with dreams of conducting, is HIV-positive, and his illness has progressed enough that it's impacting his life. Adam fights to be a good boyfriend, to be responsible, and to keep Callum in his life until the end. Callum's death ultimately brings Ben and Adam together, but the story is not just about their connection; it's about the history of New York and the people who fought and coped, loved and lost, died and survived during the years when an HIV diagnosis was a death sentence. The novel is a love letter to this time and place and to the people of Manhattan. It masterfully pulls at the heartstrings, but logical readers may notice some inconsistencies, particularly in the portrayals of Adam's alternately attentive and distant parents. Still, this is a touching and beautiful story that comes close to touching the stars. All main characters read as White. A heartfelt reminder of a beautiful and terrible time in history. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Set against a backdrop of New York City in 1990, Shaw's novel is narrated in the alternating perspectives of two young men, Adam and Ben, both on the cusp of 18. Adam has always lived in the Village, an only child with two loving, if somewhat unconventional parents. His life is fairly stable; he works in a video store and will attend NYU in the fall to pursue his passion--movies. Ben has left a toxic home to stay with his brother and pursue his own passion: the fashion world. Adam falls in love with Callum, and they have a restrained relationship, which only becomes clear when Callum tells Adam he's HIV positive. Rather than driving Adam away, it pulls him closer as Callum succumbs to his illness. Meanwhile, Ben starts assisting his brother's photographer girlfriend, Rebecca, at fashion shoots, building a base for his own career. The two threads of narrative draw closer and closer until they converge. Both Ben and Adam are vivid, affecting characters, and the dialogue is refreshingly realistic. Shaw captures New York City in a glorious riot of images, some as brassy and bold as the Pride parade, some small and sensitive, like Adam's lonely hospital vigil. This is a brilliant affirmation of the power of love on so many levels, with a wide range of appeal.
