(More of a 3.5 stars)

The story is told in two parallel narratives: the past and the present.

The past is wonderful - it chronicles the main character's relationship with his ex-boyfriend, his partner's HIV diagnosis and following treatment, and their life together in London. The main character decides to go back home to Singapore after this relationship fails, and the chapters set in the present then follow him on his journey to figuring out what he wants to do with his life. This part brought the rating down for me quite a lot - it takes a long time to really get going, and mainly reads like a shallow summer romance + travel journal.

The only character who felt well rounded from start to finish is Rob, the ex-partner. The other characters were ultimately interesting, but took an incredibly long time to exit their state of cliche and caricature.

The way Singapore is portrayed also felt slightly off; the local language, Singlish, is barely used, and even those characters who have never left the country don't speak it in the novel. The only people who employ it are random workers who say as little as one sentence. While many people seem to be under the impression that Singlish is only spoken by the lower classes, it is incredibly widespread and spoken by basically everyone. I assume the author wanted the book to be accessible to people outside of Singapore, but it just felt inauthentic and forced.

What I will say is that the portrayal of gay culture was really fun, and a bit of a nostalgic throwback to when I first watched the American Queer as Folk; the excessive clubbing and drug taking paired with reckless sex definitely had something familiar to it.