Destination Unknown
by Bill Konigsberg
High School     Scholastic    304 pp.         g
9/22     978-1-338-61805-1     $18.99
e-book ed.  978-1-338-61806-8    $11.99

A Manhattan teen comes out as gay, starts to date, and explores his sexual awakening in the 1980s during the AIDS crisis. Narrator Micah, a high school junior, meets CJ, eighteen, at a nightclub, and the attraction is instant. They bond over music, and CJ supports Micah as he comes out to his family. Konigsberg traces CJ and Micah’s close friendship and on-again, off-again romantic relationship through tumultuous HIV/AIDS protests, volunteer work, and a terrifying diagnosis. The novel exuberantly explores NYC counterculture and the music of the period, with scenes involving several iconic gay bars and organizations, including ACT UP, which Micah and CJ join. It also starkly confronts readers with the experience of watching the people of one’s community get sick and die painfully of the AIDS virus; Micah’s intense fear of sex due to the risk of infection inhibits his relationships. However, the story ends on a hopeful note, and Micah and CJ’s love for and loyalty to each other never fail. An author’s note explains Konigsberg’s connections to the era.

From the November/December 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.