Chaitanya Srivastava's Reviews > The Gay Best Friend

I would like to begin by saying that if the world was ending and there was probably only ONE book you could read before it, I would easily pick this one and ask you to do the same. And hey, I am not exaggerating even one bit. I am in absolute awe of how incredible this book was and how it engrossed me so much that I had to take a half day off from work just because I couldn't stop thinking about it. No kidding.

The Gay Best-Friend, what an appropriate title for a book that is about a gay protagonist who finds himself torn between his two best friends who happen to be getting married and he has to keep up with both the groom and bride whilst also trying to get over his own breakup with his fiancé and an unexpected lover that may or may not tear down everything he holds so dear to him. In retrospect, this book is about so much more than what I have tried to sum up in a line.

So while I will be recording myself and restarting my BookTube just to share more detailed thoughts about this book, I have to share a few things in no particular order that absolutely had me gushing, laughing, and at times, even tearing up while reading this.

1. I have been a huge sucker to find stories of LGBTQ+ men with straight men as friends or with a bromance angle. It is something that I, as an out and proud bi guy have always struggled with. Hence, much like most things, I look at art, books, and movies to both find inspiration and fill the hole of what I never had. This book touched my heart with its genuine, extremely layered, and nuanced friendship between the 'gay with humble beginnings MC' and his 'straight rich childhood best friend'. To some, it may sound a little cliché, and you know what, maybe it is. But that's not the point. The fact that friendships like that between Dom and Patrick exist and that it goes far beyond what meets the eye to an outsider is enough to begin a conversation about how this is probably one of the few books that I have read in my lifetime that has been able to do it and do it so well. Not to forget the fact that how you deal with the trials and tribulations life throws at you with something as fundamental as being straight or not and the consequences it brings forth has been portrayed so realistically and beautifully that I cannot sing enough praises.

2. The complexity in the undertone that is very skillfully woven into the narrative about being a person who deals with anxiety and overthinking is authentic to a point where at times I almost felt that I was not reading about Dom but an extension of me. I often wonder what makes a character special or just someone whom you would grow to care and root for, and this book has just put things in perspective for me. It is the little things. It's how you react when you are faced with something that you don't want to be dealing with but you have no way out so you muster whatever you have inside you, including chugging some alcohol if it's available, and you do you. It's about the thoughtfulness behind how you tend to respond and react to people who you love and care about. It's about being there for your friend and family in both little and big ways and a hundred other things that you would come to see if you read this book.

3. I absolutely cannot not speak about the impeccable romance and chemistry between the MC and the love interest. It had me on my toes right from the start. From enemies-t0-lovers, forced proximity, jock and nerd, forbidden love, to 'falling in for the celebrity' - IT HAS IT ALL and HOW!!!! Oh my god, I still reeling from what I just read! Very early on in this book, I had this strange little feeling, a feeling that I have longed to feel for some time considering this year hasn't been great for me in terms of how many books I have read or the kind of books I have read, and this is a feeling - a warm, happy, and almost trippy just by reading a story - hasn't happened since Casey McQusiton's Red White and Royal Blue or Kevin Van Whye's Date Me Bryson Keller. These two books are my absolute all-time favorite reads. Hell, I even have a 'history, huh?' tattoo on my forearm. But this book right here, in my very real, uncut, and raw honesty is probably the better of these two. I am not saying this because I just got off reading it right now but simply because, in totality, this book and the story it tells has far more layers, plots, themes, and topics that it touches upon, and how sensitively and thoughtfully it touches upon them is what matters in the end.

Okay so now this anyway a little too long of a review so I'll end it here for now by saying that please wait for my YouTube review where I would go gaga about this book in much more depth and tell you 10 more reasons why YOU SHOULD DROP EVERYTHING AND READ THIS LIKE RGHT NOW.

Thank you Sourcebooks and Penguin Random House India and Southeast Asia for giving me a chance to read this book as early as this. I am grateful. A big thank you to the author - Nicolas DiDomizio, for writing this thoughtful, well-crafted, and heartwarming story, I couldn't get enough. I had a lovely time reading this as I am an addict who needed to get off by finishing it as quickly as I did (and I am naturally a slow reader) and for all the beautiful emotions that you were able to stir within me by sharing this story with all of us. Take a big ass bow!