Travels with Rainie Marie Book

I rarely read a book that I know will make me cry. But because I've read all of Kittle's other books, I thought I'd give her first one a try. The good news is that I didn't cry until the end. The bad news is that I sobbed. :)
But the tears were worth it. I fell in love with the characters (oddly though, the one I felt the least tied to was the narrator...) and the subject matter was intense, but written about in such a way that I was compelled to not put the book down. AIDS is always a tragic subject, but even with the sometimes graphic descriptions of the effects the horrid disease can have on humans, it was beautiful to "watch" how Todd's soul and spirit withstood the ravaging monster.
I would say the only things I felt were a little off were again, the coldness of the narrator herself...she just wasn't as believable with how she put up so many walls around her with the man she loves, but yet was an open book with her brother and his boyfriend.
And the other thing that I think stuck out was the effort to try to make AIDS not associated with gays by revealing the source of Todd's HIV. It just felt too forced, too convenient. I would have been more satisfied if the book had embraced the stereotype, and the honest truth (that nearly half of all AIDs victims obtained the disease from sex with men). Yes, I nkow that means half of the others got it from elsewhere, but in this case, because the characters were gay, it would have been less of an irony that was forced down our throats.
That aside, I was wholly impressed. And the way I think about death has changed...though I'm not sure it's for the better. Just different.