I almost didn’t see this book in the stacks I was digging through the other day but was so happy to see Brontez Purnell’s name. I read his other book 100 Boyfriends a lil while back and loved it.

This is a novel that is actually similar to that memoir. Since I Laid My Burden Down follows Dashawn who is dealing with his own messy life and other people’s deaths all at once. He comes back to Alabama from California to attend a funeral and has to face a lot of memories and people and stuff.

There’s also a lot of sex–meeting random guys, flashbacks to fucking older guys, sleeping with his dead ex-boyfriends little brother. Stuff like that. But the culture at large would like to push it to the side, deny it, hate it. So Purnell’s blatant honesty is just perfect. He isn’t trying to make the guy look good or noble or something. Dashawn is very much wandering around, waiting to see who they’re supposed to be still. It’s great.

-Rachel Wagner

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