I've read all of Bill Konigsberg's other books so I read Destination Unknown

 

So Destination Unknown by Bill Konigsberg was one of those books that sort of took me by surprise, even though I follow Konigsberg. I’ve read all his other books thus far, and Openly Straight was actually part of the inspiration for one of my university assignments, but when this book dropped, it somehow passed me by completely.

The blurb says that the first thing I noticed about CJ Gorman was his plexiglass bra. When Micah and CJ connect in New York City, Micah is pretending to be more out than he really is. CJ isn’t just out, he’s loud and proud, and Micah can’t help but be drawn to him. A connection forms between them. Is it friendship? Romance? As their lives become more entangled in the AIDs epidemic that’s laying waste to their community, whatever it is between them will be tested – but it will also be a lifetime and a bond that will determine their futures.

The first chapter open up on Micah in this club that he doesn’t really want to be in. He goes to the bathroom where some club kids start insulting him because he doesn’t look great. He’s a bigger person and doesn’t dress very well, but then CJ comes in, getting called Dale Bozzio (the person he was basically dressed as), and Micah ends up introducing himself as Miles. Poor Micah, homeboy was terrified to be around all these queer people, and he even says to CJ that they’re the first openly gay person he’s ever spoken to. CJ then pulls him into a bathroom stall, saying that he essentially needs a sidekick. The second has the two of them walking home and almost getting gay bashed. Micah then actually admits his name is Micah and CJ tells Micah to call him – but he doesn’t. The two then run into each other again in chapter three when Micah is at work, ushering in the theatre he works at, when CJ turns up and the two end up going for dinner.

I think as a whole, Micah was cute as a character. He admits that he’s very green. And in that, he’s green to being gay, since he’s only out to one of his friends. Compared to CJ, Micah knows nothing about being gay, or the gay world of New York City where the two of them live. So, between him and CJ, they have this almost symbiotic relationship throughout the book. CJ helps Micah both figuratively and literally come out. Like, he helps him literally come out, and also come out of his shell and just be more confident in himself. And on the other side, Micah helps CJ basically reign himself in and get on, not the total straight and narrow, but closer towards the straight and narrow.

There’s this moment where Micah and CJ are out to dinner, and Micah thinks CJ is going to get them to dine and dash and ends up going back into the restaurant, only to find out that CJ did actually pay. This all happened just because of the way that CJ acts and speaks in the beginning, barely revealing any real information about himself and lying about just about everything, so Micah was having a pretty difficult time trusting him. And honestly? Fair. I would be the same in Micah’s shoes. I also definitely felt a lot of Micah’s frustration towards CJ since he did lie so much at the beginning of the book. Even when CJ started being honest, it was hard to tell what he was really being honest. Micah also has this whole hook-up thing going on with a closeted jock from him school, Napoleon. And when Micah tries to break it off, Napoleon mentions that it’s not like he has a boyfriend, so there’s no reason for them to stop.

I think part of Micah’s greenness came from the fact the AIDS epidemic was happening. Throughout a lot of the book, homeboy, is absolutely terrified of it. Not only is he being scared by the general public’s opinion of it, there’s this man he works with at the theatre, Walter, who has AIDS, and Micah is seeing how it affects someone in real time. Micah is basically being forced to witness first-hand what AIDS does.

As a whole, this is definitely one of those things just happens books. There’s obviously Micah and his relationship with CJ, which goes on a whole rollercoaster throughout the events of the book. Not that relationships don’t in romance books, but more than I’ve normally seen or read. Then there’s also Micah’s quest to be out and to help CJ. Also, with him being friends with and developing a relationship with CJ, who is exponentially more out than him, and how that affects the people in Micah’s life now – like his parents and current best friend.

I will say, I could kind of tell what was going to happen towards the end, especially with some of the characters and how they acted throughout the book. I don’t mean this in the kind of way that I beat the book somehow. It was more just one of those things that, if you ignore the book being set in the past, you could easily tell what was coming for the characters, whether you wanted to or not. In a way, it was almost one of those books that only had one ending that it could have had, no matter what happened. Kind of like that thing where all roads lead to one ending – it was like that.

And I did think the ending was hopeful. Obviously, with us being in the 2020’s now, we know how things went with AIDS and how the situation is, thankfully, better than it was. I do, however, think the book could have gone on for a little longer. That’s not to say that it didn’t achieve what it set out to do in the space that it had, I did just think that, especially in the last quarter of the book, that it could have taken the time to slow down a little. But even then, there is definitely a part in my brain that thought the speed that things moved at was on purpose – that perhaps it was going with the whole idea of how life is fleeting and how it comes at you fast, like maybe that was the point.

Compared to some other books that I’ve written about, I don’t have that many things to talk about with this book, and that’s simply because with the way that I read this book, I just never really stopped to write anything. I just sat there and consumed what I was reading. I guess that’s a good thing. But one thing I do have to mention was one specific line that I just had to stop and write. That was, “I didn’t want it to get easier. I wanted it to magically go away.” And this was in reference to Micah just wanting the fear from AIDS to go away. But I just love the sentences, because that’s something, conceptually that I feel as well. Why do we have to face these awful things? Why can’t they just go away?

But that’s it. That’s everything I’ve got to say. I liked this book, and even if I didn’t stop to write all that much, that’s about it. I liked it. It could definitely be a little heavy for some people, I can see that. So be aware.

Okay, bye!