This Terrible True Thing: A Visual Novel

by Jenny Laden

In this heartbreaking multimedia debut--filled with drawings, poems, and journal entries--author Jenny Laden draws on her own experience to create a story of grief and transcendence, perfect for fans of Francesca Zappia and Jennifer Niven.

Danielle Silver is a Philadelphia high school senior at the dawn of the '90s. Ever since her parents split up, she has known her father was gay, but she never expected to be hit with the bombshell that he is HIV positive. As he sickens, and AIDS starts to claim the lives of his friends, Danielle searches for silver linings while trying to balance paralyzing fear, grief, her social life, and schoolwork--capturing all the feelings as adolescence and some hard facts collide.

Genres: Young Adult, LGBT, Coming Of Age, Historical, Audiobook, Grief, Ebooks

426 pages, Paperback

Published June 4, 2024

About the author

Jenny Laden
was born in Philadelphia and began painting at the age of nine. She studied art and art history at Barnard College and received her master’s degree in fine art from New York University. She
has exhibited in New York; Chicago; Washington, DC; McClean; Richmond; Miami; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Berlin, and had work in multiple publications. After her father’s death in 1996, she became a HIV/AIDS educator in New York City and worked with C.O.L.A.G.E. (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere). She lives in Philadelphia with her family.

Reviews

[NicoleR.M.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful, moving coming of age book. It’s about a period in our history that’s had a huge impact on millions of lives, and yet there aren’t enough books left that tell about the subject of AIDS and the fear and harm it caused back then. We all remember the famous people who died from it, like Freddy Mercury for example, but we hardly take time to remember the hundred thousands of anonymous people who suffered and died, and left so many friends and families devastated and scared. With an ignorant government that did literally nothing to acknowledge and fight the crisis where their own people were being killed by a virus that spread widely, it is no wonder there was shame and anger and silence and ignorance.
This book is a very good start if you want to read more, if you want to educate yourself. At some point it reminded me of Like a love story by Abdi Nazemian, one of the most beautiful YA books I read. It speaks of the fear of AIDS, of ACT UP, just like this book does.

I was a young woman, growing from a teenager into adulthood in this period of time, so I remember. There was hardly any information what to do to prevent it and how to get it. I was just as much in the unknown as most people, and it made me unnecessarily scared and afraid, as it did with a lot of people my age back then. And I wasn’t even gay.
This is a book that needs to be read in order to not forget this period in history. It’s a moving account of a teenager who loses her gay dad to AIDS. It’s about grief and about acting up, about not wanting to be ignored and about being taken care of. It’s really beautifully written, it feels very much like the protagonist is a struggling teenager. I loved the found family, I loved how Danielle grew in this story and how she stood up for her father and his friends, how she wanted to break the silence with her art and stop the world from being ignorant and her father’s people from being ignored.
Just read it, it’s such a relevant story.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

12 stars, a ton of tears but also lots of fuzzy feelings in my heart, thank you so much Jenny Laden.

[Richard Jefferys · Rating 5 out of 5]

May be primarily intended for a young audience, but at 57 I found this book to be extraordinary. Deeply moving, at times very funny, with certain sentences that capture familiar feelings so well that they stay with you. Like the author, I also worry about the era and experiences the book describes getting forgotten. The time between ineffective and effective HIV treatments was like an unraveling rope bridge where some people were able to make it across and others did not, while a huge swathe of the rest of society carried on like nobody was up there struggling. I don't mean to make the book sound depressing, because it isn't. It's a timely, exceptional reminder that behind every statistic about HIV, there's a story rippling outward that typically remains unknown to us. I'm very grateful to have been able to read this story.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely stunning novel depicting a young woman who, while finishing her senior year of high school, is forced to confront her father's mortality as he battles AIDS during the night of the epidemic.

I'd recommend this book to anyone and hope it continues to gain popularity!

[Ilana Banana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ebook.

4.75* This book was very hard in many ways. Danielle was an incredibly compelling main character and the way she told the story was great. We see her going through normal, average situations and having to make decisions about her future while she deals with the emotional impact of her dad's health. I loved the way the story was so intertwined with art, not only in the media of Danielle's diary that we were able to see but also in the way it was prevalent in the story itself, the way it was discussed as a form of protest and its importance in culture and social change. Yes, it is a heavy story, but so very full of love, between Danielle and her dad, but also between her friends and her father's friends and their family. The main character is growing and learning about a lot of hard and difficult things, and we learn along with her. The discussions we see about grief and disruption as part of protests and community, friendship, family and so many other things is something I will carry with me for a long time. Please be aware of the content warnings, but this is one I would absolutely recommend.

CW: death of a parent, grief, homophobia, medical content, outing, terminal illness, death.

[Margi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone for the ARC.

Fans of John Green, Jennifer Niven, and Bill Konigsberg will appreciate this story about friendship, family, and heartache.

Set in the 90’s in Philadelphia and at a boarding school, this YA novel tells the story of Danielle, a high school senior, who learns that her gay father is HIV positive. Dani expected to spend the fall of her senior year prepping her portfolio for her application to art school. Now she must navigate typical teen challenges (crushes, roommates, her school’s unfair focus on sports instead of arts) as well as a consuming worry for her father and his health. At a time when having a gay dad wasn’t easily discussed, let alone a dad with HIV, Dani must keep her worries to herself, expressing them through her art or poetry. The novel is interspersed with Dani’s drawings and poetry.

[Anjali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up and could not put it down, even as I wept a lot (I did need to weep, but also this one will tear your heart out a bit). I also disappeared wholly into Danielle’s world, and it was a beautiful, heartfull, teenage-y escape I needed after a week of terrible, heartbreaking news.

[Dayna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is somehow heavy, devastating, and heartwarming all in one. It’s a beautiful look into the family we’re born into and the family we create for ourselves. Heart wrenching and painfully beautiful.

[Ainslee Card · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. There was a small cute romance aspect with quite the twist that I enjoyed. The rest was super sad and heart wrenching. It was well written beautifully said.

[Laura de Bazelaire · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I didn’t know I needed to read. ❤️❤️

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense, thought-provoking, and sobering!

This Terrible True Thing is a perceptive, compelling tale that takes us back to the early 1990s and into the life of Danielle Silver, a teenager struggling with all the usual adolescent challenges as well as the knowledge that her gay father has recently been diagnosed with the deadly disease that nobody really understands, AIDS.

The prose is sombre and raw. The characters are genuine, scared, and compassionate. And the plot uses a sensitive, visual, reflective style to unravel all the personalities and relationships within it.

Overall, This Terrible True Thing is ultimately a novel about life, loss, family, secrets, grief, guilt, fear, denial, homophobia, adolescent drama, and social stigmas. It’s a well-written, captivating, emotional tale by Laden, based on real-life familial events, that interweaves exceptional character development and hard truths with a bittersweet, immersive, heart-wrenching story.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea what I was in for when I started this book. I truly could not have been more naive about the contents of this story.
What I thought would be a fun collection of mixed media pieces turned out to be a moving story about coming-of-age, finding your voice, navigating life changing decisions, fighting injustice, and the love between a child and their parent.
I found Jenny Laden's writing to be perfectly aligned with the headspace of a teenage girl who is struggling, and learning, and making mistakes, and opening her eyes to the world around her. Laden makes you not just feel for our main character, Danielle, but she makes the reader feel like Danielle. The poetry interspersed throughout this book allows the reader to dive even deeper into Danielle's thoughts and feelings.
All of this takes place with the backdrop of an ongoing and horrifying health crisis. We see Danielle have her eyes open to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we see her start to learn about it, we see her begin to realize that she wants to use her voice and her art to spread information about HIV/AIDS, and we see as this disease directly impacts her life and her future.
Overall, I feel Laden has put together a wonderful story with great use of art and poetry throughout.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow, when reading this, i was also listening to a period piece book about queerness and boarding schools and considering the future through the lens of homophobia and AIDS. it was very confusing to balance the two! That's just a fun fact about me.

This book--which i read, not listened to on audio cd but couldn't find the right listing oops!--made everyone in it complicated. It didn't let anyone off the hook and also didn't make anyone wholly terrible (at least not any major characters). The drawings were a nice addition but i didn't feel like they added too much to the book. The handwritten parts made me feel like i was reading a Baby-Sitters Club book, which was fine, but just like in the BSC books i had a hard time not just fully skipping over them. That might be a me-issue, but just some feedback.

I was moved by the experiences of the MC as a teenage girl who had many loved ones that were gay men, in the midst of the AIDS crisis. It looked at the fear, the silence, and also the deep love and connections and organizing that were happening. I think it's worth having as a window into that moment through the lens of a straight teenage girl.

NetGalley ARC.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grab the Kleenex. This is a sensitive, beautiful, coming-of-age story complicated by devastating loss. I grew up at precisely the same time as the protagonist of the novel, and the references to fashion and music were especially fun. But it is the voice of the narrator that carries this story along so successfully. The author convincingly paints the journey to adulthood through the thoughts and actions of a slightly rebellious, mostly dutiful teenager who is forced to confront the realities of the world as far too young of an age. She manages to do so with breathtaking bravery and maturity (and occasional humor). I am getting choked up again writing this brief and simple review. . . I love this book.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Terrible True Thing by Jenny Laden is a story about family, love, loss and grief. It is set in the early 1990s Philadelphia, where the main character, Danielle, in a senior in high school. She is busy preparing a portfolio for her application to art school. She is a typical girl, attempting to navigate roommate struggles, boy crushes and her the fact that her school is taking the creative spaces used by the art students to give more room to the student athletes. Danielle is a normal teenage girl dealing with normal teenage drama. Except...

Danielle's father is HIV positive, and this news is consuming Danielle. It is nearly impossible to balance the fact that her dad is sick with the stressors from her mundane life.

I know that this one is aimed at young adults, but I am so happy to have read it. I am 61, and I remember all of the fears surrounding AIDS in the early 1980s. I remember when everyone thought it was cancer. I remember when we thought we could get sick from a mosquito bite or a handshake. I remember the way gay men were ostracized and left to die alone. I remember the fear. This book gives a beautiful insight into how the disease affected loved ones.

The novel is interspersed with Dani’s drawings and poetry, but I listened to the audiobook. Even though that very well-done, I think I will go back and check out the artwork.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a finished copy. The review reflects my honest opinion.

[Erika Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Danielle is in her senior year of high school with dreams of being an artist and attending the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. As if school and college plans aren’t stressful enough, Danielle has to deal with her uncle’s death and her father’s HIV diagnosis. Set in the early 90s in the height of the AIDS epidemic, this book follows Danielle as she navigates life and loss.

This is a really beautiful story. I found Danielle frustrating at times, but she learned and grew a lot over the course of the book. I loved the supporting characters, from Danielle’s friends Amy and Marco to her father’s friends Robert and Susie. They all supported Danielle in different ways and helped her deal with her grief, anger, and anxiety. While this story focuses on the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 80s/90s, it provides valuable lessons on finding your voice and fighting against injustice that can be applied to any issue, as seen on a smaller scale with Danielle standing up to bullies and her school’s administration. This is a heavy book, and I cried a few times, but it ends on a hopeful note.Thanks to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing, and Jenny Laden for this free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was very good but took me several months to get through because it caused the world's worst reading slump about halfway through. I think it was a mixture of life getting more chaotic and the book getting more stomach achey, moreso than any lack of quality. I think the prose is beautiful and that this book tackles an exceedingly tough topic and coming of age with beauty, if not sometimes grace. Other parts are clumsy, but I think that's good-- maybe intentional, because the main character is a struggling teen girl! Of course it's gonna be messy, she's going through a lot. Her whole family is.

I bawled for the last eighty or so pages. This book ties up way more neatly than I expected and in a way that's a disappointment. Everything shined except for the dialog, which I thought was Hella stilted and refined. Sometimes it hit home, though, and I'm someone who falls into similar issues with writing dialog so iiiiii didn't really care.

Very good. I liked it a lot, and think I chose to read it at a very good time in my life. I'll definitely be thinking about it for a while. I really liked [some parts of] the poems and not so much the drawings. Very important subject matter!!!!

[Michelle Tuite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading 2025
Book 89: This Terrible True Thing: A Visual Novel by Jenny Laden

Not sure where I heard about this book, but have had it on my shelf for a while. It is a YA novel combining journal entries, drawings, and lots of poetry, all based on the author’s experiences.

Synopsis: Danielle Silver is a Philadelphia high school senior at the dawn of the '90s. Ever since her parents split up, she has known her father was gay, but she never expected to be hit with the bombshell that he is HIV positive. As he sickens, and AIDS starts to claim the lives of his friends, Danielle searches for silver linings while trying to balance paralyzing fear, grief, her social life, and schoolwork--capturing all the feelings as adolescence and some hard facts collide.

Review: The main character endures so much in this book, from her parents divorce, to boarding school, to her dad coming out, and HIV diagnosis, and her strained relationship with her brother. She finds solace at school with her bestie and new friend, only to self-destruct and blow up her relationships. This book was so emotional, my rating 4.5⭐️.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this audiobook because it won the Young Adult Audie and it was readily available through Libby. I actually also flipped through the e-book pages as well to see the art (mostly line drawings and sketches) and poetry (italicized passages) throughout the book, but I don’t think too much is missed for those going with an audio-only reading experience. In general, narrator Gail Shalan does a great job exemplified in a gripping, emotional moment when main character Danielle repeats “Don’t let him get sick” over and over and over that speaks to why Shalan win the Audie. However, this book is a tough listen filled with grave content, most notably Danielle’s dad’s HIV diagnosis and health decline in the thick of the early 90s AIDS epidemic. This book tackles the stigma of sexuality, the fear of coming out, coming of age college-bound educational anxiety, sports overshadowing artistic endeavors, tested friendships, familial loss and more. At times I felt like this book was a long distraught plea, fraught with desperation to the point of exhaustion. It wore me down in a way.

[Lisa Montanaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

** BOOK REVIEW **

This book is wonderful. The author, Jenny Laden, and I share the identity of being the adult child of an LGBTQ parent. We are also members of the same fantastic LGBTQ organization, COLAGE. While this book is Young Adult genre and very different from my upcoming debut novel, some of the themes in our books overlap, which made me enjoy it even more. A coming-of-age book, it included all the teenage angst many of us remember and perhaps experienced, but heightens it to a larger degree as the main character, Danielle, has a gay father battling AIDS at the dawn of the 1990s.

The book includes drawings and poems, making it feel like you are even deeper in the head and heart of the protagonist. The characters are well developed, and the plot flows nicely. While it is heartbreaking at times, it also pulls at your heart strings in other beautiful, uplifting ways, with themes of found family, new love, friendship, self discovery, and healing.

[Tracy Shouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book. The mix of prose, poetry, and drawings added depth to the main character, Danielle. Your heart breaks as you experience the rawness of her pain as she watched her father die from AIDS. The stigma surrounding the disease and how it rapidly swept through the gay community meant that many died isolated and alone. I couldn't help but relate this to the recent COVID pandemic in which many loved ones passed away alone as their families were kept away. I bawled through the last portion of the book as Danielle, her brother, and her dad's friends surrounded her father with love during his last days. The power of this story is that it teaches empathy, acceptance, and the importance of using your talents to speak out against injustice. It's a must have for YA library collections.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listed to this as an audiobook. I think I would have preferred a print or ebook verison, but this was what was available. I briefly researched this author and found some essays she'd written over the year, and it would seem that while this is a novel, it is very largely autobiographical, as entire passages from the novel are word for word her own essays written over the years (mainly conversations between Danielle and her father over coming out and her times visiting him in the AIDs ward at the hospital). It reminded me a lot of A Normal Heart and And the Band Played On (the movie). The author did an excellent job of making Danielle a believable teen protagonist (mostly mature and reasonable, but given to melodrama and self absorption at times).

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Life is so finite and fragile... It's nearly too much."

"People will surprise you; they are imperfect, and unpredictable, and beautiful."

"You can decide how this will shapw you; you write the story."

"Another moment passes, and then another, but Dad is still gone. And every moment stings."

"Even if you mess up, you can clean up."

When Danielle is ripping up her paintings and realizing that the world keeps turning and no one will care if she applies to RISD or not... That was real and raw.

It's really interesting and I love the music connections. I'm just not sure if the pace is fast enough for a high school classroom. Maybe juniors or seniors?

[Lorraine READ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Portrait in Time

If, like me, ypu grew up in the 80s and 90s, and remember reading headlines in the newspapers about Rock Hudson and Freddie Mercury dying of AIDS, then I think you'll love this book. It is very cleverly told from the perspective of a young person thrust into a HIV situation and her reaction and way of
coping with it unfolds through the book. I really enjoyed it. One star deducted due to the unexplored and therefore inexplicable actions, or rather lack of action of Danielle's mother. Her character did not sit right with me for the most part. Other than that, I found this book moving and informative on a scary period in our recent history.

[Joel Dankoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Terrible True Thing is the perfect gift for a teenager to learn about the AIDS crisis and high school life before cell phones and the internet. Laden's story is engaging without being didactic. The main character, Danielle, navigates high school relationships as well her relationship with her parents. I am a high school teacher and I hope to assign This Terrible True Thing to my students. Laden's characters come to life on the pages - I cried and laughed and I ordered copies for my nieces and nephews.

[Terry Guerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for anyone who lost someone they love. (Everyone). Laden depicts a father/daughter relationship with such compassion and insight. You will relate to how a legacy is built between child and parent. Also, so relatable is an adolescent’s struggle with identity and and separation. Beautiful expression of the importance of a parent’s love and guidance. Appropriate for young adults and teens, as well.

[Fiyin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me way longer than it should have to finish this and I finished it earlier just before 11; anyway, it was definitely worth the read and I would read it a second time when I'm more focused. I loved the poetry and the illustrations, more so the latter because I felt they really enhanced the narrative. To me this was more plot-driven than character-driven, and I usually prefer character-driven stories, but this novel was enjoyable even though it differs from what I typically read.

[Amy Sananman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a 50 something mom, This Terrible True Thing was an evocative trip back to the early 90s NYC through the credible lens of the main character. The book pulsed w music art and the incredible activism of ACT UP. My teen daughter devoured the book in 2 sittings. Wonderful to find a book that is both Entertaining and substantive. Cant wait for the mini series!

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisitely rendered portrait of an artist-teenager-daughter and how she endeavors to understand herself, her friends, and her family. Danielle’s story brings tears and laughs. Set during the early 1990s, the book challenges us to remember the heartbreak of AIDS while we honor and cherish the memory of loved ones, and to experience that moment through the eyes of an inquisitive narrator.

[June Freifelder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this pretty fast alternating between the book and audio, so I missed some of the visual part of the novel. I appreciated all of the queer history through Danny's eyes and of course, the setting of Philadelphia was a big win (even if it was mostly Center City). I'm interested in what the kiddos will think of it for our book event later this month.