This was good, but it was definitely my least favourite of the three Tales books I've read so far. It wasn't nearly as funny as the other two, and even the most lovable of the characters come off as kind of sociopathic.

How on earth can anyone be discussing wedding invites when as a household they've drugged, beaten, and kidnapped a terrified woman, who has no idea what's going on or when or if she'll be free?

It's monstrous.

And the Jonestown massacre stuff, though flat-out hilarious in its absurdity, sometimes felt like a tiny bit too much. A lot of real people and real little children died. It felt almost a bit tacky to use it as a crazy plot device. But maybe that's just me being oversensitive. I will say that if I let my mum take my little little kids away on a cruise and she left them with a random man for days on end simply because he repeatedly asked her to I would never get over it because that is literally insane.

It's Maupin's romantic nature that really carries this one. Especially between Jon and Michael, we get some real gems of just perfectly articulated wisdom, particularly, but not exclusively, about relationships. Maupin isn't afraid to be absolutely as sentimental as you can get and I love it. He doesn't shy away from emotions, he dives straight into them, and - especially between the male characters - that's a really precious and rare thing to see. Michael and Brian's entirely platonic friendship is such a wonderful and touching one. It's the kind of relationship often depicted between women but rarely between men, especially when one is gay and one is straight. I love it.

Still really looking forward to book 4 but this was a relative low point for the series.