Atherton Lin, as always, writes incredibly about queer culture, politics, and society - this was a great read. However, I think I was expecting it to be a memoir, but it was more a socio-political history of gay marriage, mixed in with his personal life. But of course I was wrong - “the gayest love story ever told” cannot solely be personal; the personal is political. That being said, I really did want to hear more about their relationship - or maybe hear a bit more from Famous’s POV. Maybe I’m really soppy and wanted some more soppy romantic moments, especially towards the end. I think, maybe, I was just more prepared for love than legal history!!!

This book shows a love story set against the backdrop of the fight for marriage equality whilst being deeply personal memoir. Overall their love story unfolds alongside a lineage of queer outsiders who fought for their place in history,

Jeremy Atherton Lin’s Deep House is a sharp, stylish meditation on queer identity, space, and memory. With wit and lyrical precision, Lin weaves personal narrative with cultural critique, mapping gay nightlife not just as escapism but as archive, protest, and performance. He moves seamlessly between the intimate and the analytical—London clubs, San Francisco bars, and fleeting connections become sites of cultural inquiry and emotional depth. Both playful and profound, Deep House offers a fresh, incisive voice that turns subcultural experience into richly layered literature. It lingers, like basslines in the dark.

An truly epic love story and an account of queer history and politics in the US. Such a great read, I will be recommending it to everyone!

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and it was a lot different to what I was expecting. I really enjoyed the parts showing the relationship and lives of Jeremy and his lover and there were some sharp funny moments within the book. I think it may be entirely my fault that I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I was expecting a fiction read (yes I’m an idiot). However, the book is more fact telling and there was a lot of information relating to the history of gay marriage and just the world being terrible when it came to the views on this.

It wasn’t a bad read and as I mentioned I went in expecting something completely different, but I would have liked to see more experiences and views from the author.

I really enjoyed this book. Having not read any of Lin's previous work, I went in with no expectations.

Why the cover and full title hint toward fiction, this is definitely non-fiction. The style of writing linking personal and intimate memoir with cultural and legislative history relevant to his own life was really interesting and I can't say I've read a book like it.

It's also clear that Lin's writing style is best-suited to essays. His short anecdotes are punchy and brief, with very clear conclusions as to why it's relevant and how it relates to the history he then recounts. And when I say punchy, it's sometimes to the point of really trying to shock his audience. It can be very in your face; he is not subtle.

I can see why this book won't be to everyone's taste. But it's worth it. Give it a try, you might be surprised.

This was a decent book, but could have been executed better. I found it hard to follow at times and thought it read more like non-fiction.

I read Gay Bar and enjoyed that but unfortunately this one was a struggle for me. I abandoned the book at 40%.
I found the prose disordered to read and didn't flow well. The descriptions and conclusions reached felt convolutedand. I was having to force myself to read and eventually gave up. I just couldn't connect with the narrative.

Reading this book I soon realised if you live in America you don't need to have originated from outer space to be classed as an alien. In a wraparound love letter extending across more than four hundred pages the author reflects on his personal love life against the bigger picture of the long, hard, frustrating fight for Gay Rights and same sex marriage. It's an horrific chronicle of a great many wrongs inflicted again and again on people seeking only to live their lives in the way they were born to do and with equal rights to their straight counterparts.
I love the honesty of the intimacy between two consenting partners in a long term but non exclusive relationship. It gives relevance to the problems experienced in years gone by in a biased and bigoted country, a biased and bigoted world. It's poignant, disturbing, illuminating and written with genuine honesty and integrity. One can't help fearing that there is worse to come as several countries shift further to the right and tyrants have control.

After loving Jeremy Atherton Lin's first book, Gay Bar, I was really excited for this. Lin writes from a place of knowledge that never seems overbearing, providing keen-insight into both his personal and political life. In Deep House, Atherton Lin turns his attention from queer spaces to gay marriage, covering several key cases, milestones, and arguments from every side to weigh up the personal and political angles. Overall, the book is touching, and informative. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

I'm a borderline militant queer separatist. I dream of an island of our own. Still, picking a book about marriage might seem like an odd choice, since I really think the thing should be abolished (along with the family, the state, and humanity). But pick it I did, and I never regretted it, because Jeremy Atherton Lin manages to find points de capiton to deftly suture the social to his own body. I kept turning the pages in almost noiresque suspense, impatient to find out how it all ends, while knowing full well how it ends - they get married, marriage is normalized, nothing to see at the end. But historically, there is so much to see: a long, long history of abuse, violence, brutality and, at best, neglect. What awaits us, if recent examples in the UK and US are anything to go by, is more of the same after a very brief respite, and then only for some.

I really wanted to love this, but it's a novel that reads more like a non fiction biography, and with tangents into the history and politics that felt shoved in like key notes boxes in nonfiction books. Sorry, but I just couldn't get on with the writing style.