Blackouts by Justin Torres was a dizzying novel of tales-within-tales, poems, photographs, and much more. Although challenging to follow, I enjoy the way Justin Torres weaves beauty into the loneliness, pain, and joy of the queer experience—the bulk of the novel centers on a conversation between two male gay characters of differing ages. Juan Gay is the senior to our unnamed narrator, affectionately named Nene, by Juan.

Torres transports readers to different eras through these conversations, evoking a sense of timelessness. From the early 1930s to mid 90’s, Torres threads layers of forgotten queer culture, laying the cloth for us to interact and explore our lost histories. I found myself constantly returning to my search bar and being astounded how much of these individuals are real, and then quickly saddened.

For a complete immersion into this multifaceted narrative, experiencing the audiobook alongside the text is highly recommended. The book is an artifact of this conversation, so not having this key piece would leave you at a loss. That being said, the production between the three narrators (Ozzie Rodriguez, Torian Brackett, and Justin Torres) provided the emotional resonance of the words that might be lost in the text. It helped to navigate the conversation on the page.

"Blackouts" emerges as a novel for me at a time of yearning for stories that expand my notions of what a book can be. It's the kind of book that delves so profoundly that you sense a second reading would unveil even more insights.