It took me a while to get into the rhythm of it, but I loved Nova Scotia House. At first, I found the free-flowing structure irritating, but now I think I'm going to struggle to read something more structured because I enjoyed it so much. I loved the fast, desperate narrative. I heard the author talking on a podcast about how we assume sentences have to be neat, but that they’ve chosen to write in a way that's as close as possible to how we actually speak, and how our mouths move. Obviously the plot is sad, heartbreaking, devastating. But it's not misery-lit. It's beautiful to read about people carving lives away from the status quo.

Johnny is 19 when he meets Jerry, an older man who is HIV positive. Their life together, their love, is beautiful, glorious, and heartbreaking. How Jerry brings a new awareness and a new way of life to Johnny is breathtaking. I cried. Nova Scotia House is a book which has lingered with me. More than anything when I finished reading it I wanted to pick up another book, one written by Jerry, to hear and feel and experience his wisdom further. Charlie Porter has created a masterpiece of words and of our culture.

WIth thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
#NetGalley #NovaScotiaHouse #ParticularBooks #Penguin

I'm torn... visionary in idea, but a little lost along the way...

Nova Scotia House tells the love story of Jerry and Johnny during the AIDS crisis, finally drawing to a close with focus on the UK AIDS memorial quilt. The story follows forty-eight year old Johnny Grant reflecting on his relationship with Jerry, the 26 year age gap between them and his death from AIDS nearly three decades prior to the book's setting.The title links to Jerry's house 1, Nova Scotia House where they fell in love and faced the life together. As he narrates their story, we learn that Johnny continues to stay there close to the world they built together. In a unique and definitive voice, the narrative switches fluidly between then and now, we are brought into the heart of their story, the lessons learnt between the two in intense and changing times, and the moral of living each day with intention and no regret.

In not really knowing what I was expecting from this, I can't state much in terms of the reasons I wasn't enamoured. I think this is a robust novel in terms of the emotive vision it sets out with - the perspective of Jerry is unwavering in it's honesty, immediacy and overall vulnerability. There is no question that Porter understands and subsequently allows readers to understand the passion and drive of the central love story and relationship.
Now, maybe as a 'non-romantic' book reader, this passion and the focus on the relationship and all of its physicality was lost on me as to how and why the story needed to be told. The constant return to physical attraction and acts of love ended up feeling a bit try-hard or relentless, edging along to near loss of nuance and the intended main focus of the AIDS crisis. Not that it didn't make the relationship between Jerry and Johnny intriguing - but it felt like I wanted more insight into their connection and love beyond the physical attraction that allays the age gap between them.
I was quite enamoured by Porter's narrative style and it's echoing of the likes of McCarthy in places with minimal punctuation or pause for conventional structure in the syntax.

Unfortunately what should have been a powerhouse piece of historical fiction ended up being an experience of reading a novel that lent from both literary fiction and the popular commercial romances that dominant the TikTok sphere. What could have been something with so much impact unfortunately lost it's way and though very readable and engaging, just didn't pack the punch I hoped it would from the premise. This is an important story and it is told with truth, respect and key information that cannot be forgotten. More a jarring of taste than anything else.

In his poignant debut novel, writer and fashion critic Charlie Porter crafts a powerful tribute to queer love, grief, defiance, and survival amidst the dark reality of the AIDS crisis.

Johnny is 19 when he crosses paths with Jerry, an older man living with HIV. Their relationship—full of love, beauty, and inevitable heartbreak—becomes a transformative experience for Johnny. The way Jerry opens his eyes to a new understanding of life is nothing short of breathtaking. I was moved to tears. Nova Scotia House is a book that has stayed with me long after the final page. What stayed with me most was the desire to read a book by Jerry himself, to dive deeper into his wisdom and feel his truth. Charlie Porter has crafted a literary masterpiece that not only speaks to the heart but resonates deeply within gay culture.

Both a love story and a mournful reflection, Nova Scotia House captures the lasting sorrow of the AIDS pandemic, while celebrating the rebellious creativity of queer life—a life that resisted assimilation and capitalist pressures, drawing resilience from its marginalization and its endurance, even in the darkest of times. Porter's unique prose masterfully conveys the emotional, psychological, and political courage of those he writes about, offering both grace and relief to the pervasive sense of survivor’s guilt that haunts the community he reprisents.

This is an extraordinary and deeply affecting debut novel that delves into a queer love story set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. Narrated by Johnny, who looks back on his relationship with Jerry, the book beautifully explores themes of love, loss, grief, and the enduring power of community. Porter's unique, often unpunctuated prose creates an intimate, stream-of-consciousness feel, drawing the reader into Johnny's memories and reflections. It's a powerful and essential read that celebrates queer life while acknowledging its historical struggles, leaving a lasting impression. Overall rating 3.5 stars

A hit of pride month and you can see why. This novel hit my heart and stayed there for more, I lived in its pages and never wanted to leave. It feels almost personal to read, and almost is just a constant stream of consciousness, a love story whilst also focusing on grief and belonging. A true gem that I feel lucky to have read

I enjoyed the writing style of this book; once I got used to it, it was so easy to get lost in the story. The story itself is heartbreaking but there are some real laugh out loud moments, and quite a few 'been there' feelings too! It's great to read about how gay scenes got started... not so great to read about the stigma and judgement we had to go through but it's all part of the story. I would recommend this to anyone - young LGBTQIA+ people who don't want to feel alone, the older generation who want to relive the glory days and allies to shout about where we came from!

This book is written in a way that is hard to get into, but, once you do it works its magic. It is written from Johnny's perspective in a stream of consciousness. It contradicts itself, it switches from the current day to the past but it feels real. Which means its a gut punch when it comes to the hard stuff. It flashes back to the 90s when Aids was a death sentence, before antivirals. Those bits within the crazy sex and parties of his younger days and his current more sedate but still sexy life really hit hard.

Promising and distinctive debut
—
Johnny maintains his long-dead lover’s home and garden when a new highrise development threatens to overshadow the life that Johnny has built as a memorial to Jerry and a survival tactic of his own. As Johnny tries to make sense of what is happening and what he must do next, his memories come to life, of meeting Jerry, the early days of their relationship, the city as it was, the freedom and fear of the early AIDS crisis, and in the end his life without Jerry. Johnny’s stream-of-consciousness voice elides past, present and future, reminding him of what’s truly important and how he can truly honour Jerry’s memory.

I can recognise something great, even if I don’t particularly like it. This is literary fiction of the first water, a witness to history and a lost culture, to those who have already departed and to those who still live with their memories. But it’s a hell of a slog: I suggest not trying to read this in one go but dip in as and when alongside other books, and let Johnny’s hypnotic voice percolate into your consciousness. Otherwise, you might give up before you see how it all comes together from impressions, metaphors and memories to a palimpsest of a city (London, specifically, but the ur-city) as a twin of the body, of an alt-culture, of another country.

Four and a half stars

Thank you to Particular Books and NetGalley for this arc.

It was a very interesting read, but a really hard one. It’s about love and loss, but truly it’s about a lot more than that.

I found the writing style not to my taste at first and even contemplated giving up. But after a while, I realized the rawness of the prose matched the subject matter very well. It was the best way to tell the story of Johnny and Jerry. At the end, I looked at the Interactive AIDS quilt and it was really heartbreaking to look at more than a few names (it’s Pride month now too).

Nova Scotia House is so called because it’s where Johnny, the narrator, currently lives and where his lover, Jerry, lived when he first met him. It’s a novel, but it sets out to memorialise the gay community’s experience of the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and in many ways reads like a historical document, a testimony. That makes it sound dry, but it’s not, its style reflecting the spirit of the age by being jumbled, frenetic, explicit, tender, mournful. It’s taken me a while to work out quite what I think about this book. It feels true to the 80s, to that specific period, and perhaps if you weren’t there you might not care, but on balance its thematic preoccupations, with life, with death and in particular with memory and remembering, give it sufficient universal resonance. Yes, it’s quite contradictory – solemn and sad, but also wild and exuberant – but that’s what makes it distinctive.

BRILLIANT!!
ngl I cried reading this - stream of consciousness style of writing will always be my favourite - I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO EVERYONE

An interesting concept and it really sounds like it should be my bag, but I found the stream-of-consciousness writing style too hard to parse.

Not one for me.

A story of love and loss.

Likeable but somewhat rambling at times which sadly made it difficult reading

Very moving account of a love between two people. Despite the age gap, it's a real love rather than a traditional love.
Enjoyable and moving.

An incredibly moving story of love and loss. This took me a while to get through - the prose is written in a stream-of-consciousness style that took some time to get on board with, but proved very effective in putting the reader in the headspace of grieving Johnny, and the themes are heavy. By the end I was won over entirely by this unique ode to the lives lost by the AIDS crisis; really touching.

Also heavy on the blowjobs and bodily fluids so maybe don’t buy it for your nan x

A book about Love, loss and grief at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
Johnny lives in Nova Scotia House, a place he once shared with his lover Jerry who died of the disease 24 years earlier. He sees himself as a survivor who has lost so many friends to the disease and he is reflecting upon what a cruel period in time this was.
The book seemed to be rather rambling and I could not really get used to it. I can see that it was written this way to reflect the jumble of thoughts and feelings of Johnny who does seem to be stuck with his memories of the era when his lover died. I feel that it this story would have benefitted from being written in a more conventional style which would have detracted less from the story being told. However, the writing style was something that I could not get used to and I am afraid it really wasn’t for me.

A breathlessly written stream of consciousness novel charting the impact of love and HIV in nineties London.

This is one of those books that leaves a lasting and memorable impact.

The story of Johnny and how he is dealing with his continued grief decades after he lost his partner is moving and a testament to the impact people can have on our lives. It’s a truly gripping depiction of the queer community during the AIDS Crisis as well as a celebration of how a community continued to be creative and vibrant in the face of unimaginable loss and adversity.

The only thing that holds this novel back for me is the writing style. The story is delivered as Johnny’s inner monologue which can be effective however at times it almost felt like reading a persons brain dump. The excessive repetition felt like an attempt at poetic prose but ended up feeling grating to me.

It’s a mesmerising story that could have been told a bit better.

Beautiful but devastating. Johnny still lives in Nova Scotia House, 24 years after his lover, Jerry, died from AIDS. A block of flats is being built, that will cast its shadow over Jerry‘s beloved garden, leading Johnny to look back and reflect on their time together.

This is told in a stream of consciousness style, with a lack of punctuation in the printed word. This flow wasn‘t reflected in the audio, which was very staccato, almost list-like, which didn‘t work for me. (Loved the author‘s voice on audio - just not the delivery). I started with audio then switched to digital print halfway through, where the writing style was *much* more impactful and appropriate. Loved the end