The Great Believers book review

Unicorns, Bigfoot, equal access to health care. Why should that be on the list with all these fictional things? Keep reading to find out what book I'm talking about and what it has to do with belief. 

Hey, y'all. My name is Kyla Denanyoh, and today, we are talking about a phenomenal book. Rebecca Makkai wrote The Great Believers, a fiction book with a literary theme. 

Off jump. Spoiler alert. This book begins in the 1980s all about people who contract HIV and people who are judged for who they love. And let me tell you, I was a child in the 80s, so I remember hearing about HIV and learning about AIDS. After living in the pandemic and seeing all of the misinformation going out, seeing all the people terrified about how to get it, how to spread it, and how we shut down. After living through that, I read about how people were victimized, terrorized, and isolated. The author did a brilliant job. I felt like I was in Boystown, Chicago, finding out what was happening. It was so so so good. 

So, one of my favorite things about the books is when Yale and Fiona go to pick up the cat. Of all the people, all the characters Nico and Terrence, and all these when they remember the cat, I loved it, right? And the reason that's so important to me is because it was so realistic. Fiona was like, Oh my goodness. I told my brother I would look after this pet. How? How? Right. But then also for Yale, and he fed the cat before he left. Right. And then life happens, and things move on. And so your friends are dying. Your siblings are dying—the cat. 

But the cat is such an integral part of the story, right? You see the cat curl up with certain people, and it judges other people. And then, even towards the end, the cat was one of the last guests to visit with Yale. That was one of my favorite plot twists because the cat was present throughout the story. 

So, there was one shocking thing in the book. This is a little bonus. I could not figure out why we were following Fiona. The book starts with a funeral of someone close to Fiona. But we get to see Fiona 30 years into the future and how her life is now. And I'm like, who cares? What is the whole point? Towards the end of the book, we find out why Fiona is not only so integral, right? We discover Claire's birth story and how that ties into Yale. And so it does come around, but let me tell you, Fiona, okay, whatever, who cares? 

So, would I reread The Great Believers? Yes, absolutely, yes. Because I was not an adult then, I don't have adult memories of the time. Reading this book and finding out, like, you might as well have just been transported into Chicago, 1987, boom, this is what's happening, right? If you were to fly on the wall taking pictures, you would write down your description of those pictures, which would be this book. Okay, absolutely phenomenal.

Until the next book review, Kyla