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Waiting on a Friend
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Expected 26 May 26East Village, summer of 1984. Renata is a young dyke-about-town who has the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS.
So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again. There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear.
Renata has other problems, too. A mysterious, police-like force has begun ridding their East Village neighbourhood of anything abnormal or inexplicable. At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts. With her band of lovably eccentric pals and lovers, Renata is determined to fight back against the erasure of her friends' memories and the sanitizing of her beloved New York.
Both heartbreaking and healing, tragic and triumphant, Waiting on a Friend is a magical retelling of queer history and a celebration of youth and camaraderie. With pathos and humour, empathy and an edge, Natalie Adler freshly reimagines the past for a new generation, reclaiming the spirit of resistance and determination that would become one of the era's defining legacies.
So, when her best friend Mark dies, she assumes she'll see him again. There's no way Mark wouldn't give her a chance to say goodbye, would he? But to her disappointment - and increasingly, her concern - Mark doesn't appear.
Renata has other problems, too. A mysterious, police-like force has begun ridding their East Village neighbourhood of anything abnormal or inexplicable. At first, she's sure they're scam artists, but it becomes clear they're actually trapping ghosts. With her band of lovably eccentric pals and lovers, Renata is determined to fight back against the erasure of her friends' memories and the sanitizing of her beloved New York.
Both heartbreaking and healing, tragic and triumphant, Waiting on a Friend is a magical retelling of queer history and a celebration of youth and camaraderie. With pathos and humour, empathy and an edge, Natalie Adler freshly reimagines the past for a new generation, reclaiming the spirit of resistance and determination that would become one of the era's defining legacies.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication May 26, 2026
8215 people want to read
About the author
Natalie Adler
3 books32 followersI am a writer, teacher, and editor. I have an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College, a PhD in Comparative Literature from Brown University, and was a Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow at the Center for Fiction. Currently, I am an editor at Lux, a feminist magazine. I am from New Jersey and live in New York City with my wife and our Pomeranian.
Waiting on a Friend is my first novel. Check out the bookshelf "waiting-on-a-friend-research" for everything I read to write it!
Waiting on a Friend is my first novel. Check out the bookshelf "waiting-on-a-friend-research" for everything I read to write it!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
"I see dead people"... you might have heard that before, and our lesbian protagonist Renata (Renata / Adler, see what the author did there?) is also afflicted by this condition: She encounters the ghosts of the deceased, and as this is New York in the 1980's and she is moving in queer circles, many of them have succumbed to AIDS, like a former neighbor who died a particularly horrendous death and appears to her screaming in terror. The ghost Renata is waiting and longing for though is Mark, her gay former roommate, friend and lover (sexuality is fluid, people), who for some reason doesn't seem to contact her from the bardo. Will the two meet again before the ghost busters, ähem, a spirit-hunting company named Manhattan Remediation captures him?
The ghost angle is of course very magical realism, very George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo, Vigil), very A Christmas Carol, and I'd like to point readers potentially lashing out that a young woman who hasn't lived through the 80's AIDS crisis and isn't well: a gay man should not tell a story like this to Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, which is a damn masterpiece. The thing is though: We are blessed with many excellent first-hand accounts of the AIDS crisis, written by the likes of Hervé Guibert, David Wojnarowicz, Colm Tóibín, Larry Kramer, Edmund White, Tony Kushner and other literary icons, which means that a young person now writing about AIDS in the 80's really has to add something to this high-quality first-hand canon, aesthetically or content-wise (which is possible, see Makkai).
And I liked the ghost idea, which propels the story forward as readers and Renata are pondering who appears as a ghost and who doesn't and why, but in the long run, the concept lacks stringency - which is true for the text as a whole: There is Renata's drug-addicted mother, pointing to the heroin crisis. There is violence against gender non-conforming people. There is relationship drama aplenty (partly unrelated to the extreme circumstances, partly illuminating how people deal with the mayhem around them). And then there is the question whether the ghostbuster company isn't a political ploy to drive the poor, the sick, the outcasts out of their flats to push an agenda for gentrification (which echoes the initial governmental and societal refusal to fight AIDS and support victims and their families). And what are these hunters doing with the captured ghosts anyway? All of these ideas make sense individually, it's clear what the author aims to do, but the bits do not come together to form a cohesive whole, and that impression is heightened by the stumbling pacing in the second half, which includes lengthy detours and hence loses steam.
Last week, I finished an almost 400 page Icelandic book about addiction in a day, but I struggled with this much shorter novel for over a week, because I couldn't maintain a sufficient level of interest for the slightly convoluted plot. Still, I'm very curious to read the thoughts of others who get more out of the text than me.
The ghost angle is of course very magical realism, very George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo, Vigil), very A Christmas Carol, and I'd like to point readers potentially lashing out that a young woman who hasn't lived through the 80's AIDS crisis and isn't well: a gay man should not tell a story like this to Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers, which is a damn masterpiece. The thing is though: We are blessed with many excellent first-hand accounts of the AIDS crisis, written by the likes of Hervé Guibert, David Wojnarowicz, Colm Tóibín, Larry Kramer, Edmund White, Tony Kushner and other literary icons, which means that a young person now writing about AIDS in the 80's really has to add something to this high-quality first-hand canon, aesthetically or content-wise (which is possible, see Makkai).
And I liked the ghost idea, which propels the story forward as readers and Renata are pondering who appears as a ghost and who doesn't and why, but in the long run, the concept lacks stringency - which is true for the text as a whole: There is Renata's drug-addicted mother, pointing to the heroin crisis. There is violence against gender non-conforming people. There is relationship drama aplenty (partly unrelated to the extreme circumstances, partly illuminating how people deal with the mayhem around them). And then there is the question whether the ghostbuster company isn't a political ploy to drive the poor, the sick, the outcasts out of their flats to push an agenda for gentrification (which echoes the initial governmental and societal refusal to fight AIDS and support victims and their families). And what are these hunters doing with the captured ghosts anyway? All of these ideas make sense individually, it's clear what the author aims to do, but the bits do not come together to form a cohesive whole, and that impression is heightened by the stumbling pacing in the second half, which includes lengthy detours and hence loses steam.
Last week, I finished an almost 400 page Icelandic book about addiction in a day, but I struggled with this much shorter novel for over a week, because I couldn't maintain a sufficient level of interest for the slightly convoluted plot. Still, I'm very curious to read the thoughts of others who get more out of the text than me.
November 16, 2025
I wrote this book and I think it's great.
January 5, 2026
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy! This novel releases in May.
Easy 5 stars and will likely end up on my list of favorite books of 2026: Waiting on a Friend is a look at queer life in NYC in 1984–the early years of the AIDS crisis, the fear and agony of dying so young from a new, unfamiliar disease. The stigma of having it. The grief of losing friends and lovers to it. This is a story of punks and outcasts in the night clubs and back alleys and shitty apartments of the Lower East Side. It’s a story of the spiritual residue we leave behind when we die, and the privilege of giving and receiving love while we are alive. This one made me feel all the things.
Easy 5 stars and will likely end up on my list of favorite books of 2026: Waiting on a Friend is a look at queer life in NYC in 1984–the early years of the AIDS crisis, the fear and agony of dying so young from a new, unfamiliar disease. The stigma of having it. The grief of losing friends and lovers to it. This is a story of punks and outcasts in the night clubs and back alleys and shitty apartments of the Lower East Side. It’s a story of the spiritual residue we leave behind when we die, and the privilege of giving and receiving love while we are alive. This one made me feel all the things.
January 13, 2026
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 26, 2026.
“And I felt profoundly sad for both of them in that moment, these people who refused to be near anyone else's feelings but also wanted to shut down their own, to make it all clean. […]You can deny the reality of other people only if you refuse to know what it means to be a person, to close your eyes to sickness and death and difference only to end up denying your own.”
This book was a poignant tale about grief, and what it means to be there for the people you love. How to not look away when they need you most.
We follow Renata as she navigates loss, rage, and emptiness surrounding the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. While there are obviously large parts of this story that will bring you to tears, there are also parts that will warm your heart and make you laugh, and parts that will make you think.
This book was unlike the books I typically read, but it drew me in almost instantly, and I finished it in one evening. A book that’s hard to put down, paced well, teaches me something and is gripping enough to bring me to tears deserves 5 stars.
“And I felt profoundly sad for both of them in that moment, these people who refused to be near anyone else's feelings but also wanted to shut down their own, to make it all clean. […]You can deny the reality of other people only if you refuse to know what it means to be a person, to close your eyes to sickness and death and difference only to end up denying your own.”
This book was a poignant tale about grief, and what it means to be there for the people you love. How to not look away when they need you most.
We follow Renata as she navigates loss, rage, and emptiness surrounding the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. While there are obviously large parts of this story that will bring you to tears, there are also parts that will warm your heart and make you laugh, and parts that will make you think.
This book was unlike the books I typically read, but it drew me in almost instantly, and I finished it in one evening. A book that’s hard to put down, paced well, teaches me something and is gripping enough to bring me to tears deserves 5 stars.
December 4, 2025
Earlier this year I was in Provincetown thrifting for books, and I found my white whale: a beautiful edition of Macho Sluts for all of ten dollars. Pat Califia's leatherd*ke er0tica (apparently you can't say this on Goodreads?) is some of the greatest ever written as far as I'm concerned, but I also wanted it because reading it is like time travel. I was born in the 90s, and I don't personally know anyone who died from AIDS. I have friends who are positive, but they have no detectable viral load--and just like that, it's like they don't have HIV at all. It's easy to take PrEP for granted when I can get it at the clinic and take it as a precaution. The year that I'm writing this review is the first time the US hasn't commemorated World AIDS Day since 1988.
So. Waiting on a Friend. This hit me right where I think it meant to. Since I too am a d*ke about town, I see and recognize so much of myself and my loved ones in Renata and her friends. The novel follows Renata through a long summer in 1984, interspersed with flashbacks and recollections throughout. Renata's best friend is dead, and she's waiting to see his ghost--she can, after all, see other ghosts, other dead people she knows. But Mark is elusive.
Simultaneously, a shady company called Manhattan Remediation is offering the "service" of removing presences--the kind of things that Renata can see outright, and that are causing discomfort for the comfortable (i.e. the yuppie types moving into East Village apartments vacated due to death and poverty and uninhabitable conditions). It's sinister, and it's putting a generation of the already-dead at risk of being entrapped in their afterlife.
Waiting on a Friend follows Renata and her crew of friends, lovers, and beloveds as they grapple with grief, gentrification, illness, drugs, and violence under the long specter of AIDS. It's a story about queer resilience, about how annoying it is to work in a vintage clothing shop, about how to hold your friends when they need it, and about how to learn to care about the living when all you can think about are the dead.
This is one of my favorite things I've read this year. Once it comes out, I suspect that a lot of my fellow leatherd*kes are going to read it and love it, and I will be very proudly bragging that I actually read it last December.
Recommended for: queers of all stripes, everyone who goes to my local cruising spot, anyone craving recent-ish historical novels with a magical realism twist, anyone who's ever been priced out of their lovely apartment.
So. Waiting on a Friend. This hit me right where I think it meant to. Since I too am a d*ke about town, I see and recognize so much of myself and my loved ones in Renata and her friends. The novel follows Renata through a long summer in 1984, interspersed with flashbacks and recollections throughout. Renata's best friend is dead, and she's waiting to see his ghost--she can, after all, see other ghosts, other dead people she knows. But Mark is elusive.
Simultaneously, a shady company called Manhattan Remediation is offering the "service" of removing presences--the kind of things that Renata can see outright, and that are causing discomfort for the comfortable (i.e. the yuppie types moving into East Village apartments vacated due to death and poverty and uninhabitable conditions). It's sinister, and it's putting a generation of the already-dead at risk of being entrapped in their afterlife.
Waiting on a Friend follows Renata and her crew of friends, lovers, and beloveds as they grapple with grief, gentrification, illness, drugs, and violence under the long specter of AIDS. It's a story about queer resilience, about how annoying it is to work in a vintage clothing shop, about how to hold your friends when they need it, and about how to learn to care about the living when all you can think about are the dead.
This is one of my favorite things I've read this year. Once it comes out, I suspect that a lot of my fellow leatherd*kes are going to read it and love it, and I will be very proudly bragging that I actually read it last December.
Recommended for: queers of all stripes, everyone who goes to my local cruising spot, anyone craving recent-ish historical novels with a magical realism twist, anyone who's ever been priced out of their lovely apartment.
Read
September 19, 2025*Read for work* It’s a Sin meets Ghostbusters in an alternative queer history set in New York during the AIDS crisis. A poignant look at grief, friendship and queerness.
January 6, 2026
Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. Honestly not sure how to feel about this book. I loved the concept and it was honestly pretty heartbreaking but something was just missing for me. This book was definitely more character driven than plot drive but to me the characters weren’t interesting enough to carry a story like this on their own. I liked all the parts about the ghosts and I do think this was a good portrayal of the many facets of grief but i just wanted a little bit more.
Review of advance copy
Editorial Copy received through local book shop.
Waiting on a Friend is a book I have been recommending to everyone around me since I have picked it up, and one I have been continuing to think about whenever I had to put it down.
Striking a balance between humor, deep introspection on friendship and loss, and deeply grounded supernatural/sci-fi elements, Natalie Adler constructs a story alive through its characters, a world that feels authentic through the experiences of those who live in it, and I personally really engaged with her writing style.
Tackling some truly heavy topics with a level of care, levity, and attention to detail that feels very genuine, Waiting on a Friend has left me with questions around the very fine line between Haunting and Grief, and highlights the importance of friendship and connections even in your darker days.
Waiting on a Friend is a book I have been recommending to everyone around me since I have picked it up, and one I have been continuing to think about whenever I had to put it down.
Striking a balance between humor, deep introspection on friendship and loss, and deeply grounded supernatural/sci-fi elements, Natalie Adler constructs a story alive through its characters, a world that feels authentic through the experiences of those who live in it, and I personally really engaged with her writing style.
Tackling some truly heavy topics with a level of care, levity, and attention to detail that feels very genuine, Waiting on a Friend has left me with questions around the very fine line between Haunting and Grief, and highlights the importance of friendship and connections even in your darker days.
November 10, 2025
New York City, 1984. Renata’s best friend Mark has just died due to complications from AIDS. Also, Renata can see ghosts. She can talk to them, hear their stories, and sometimes help them. But the thing is, she hasn’t been able to find or see Mark.
When I read the blurb about this book I thought, “1980s? NYC? Ghosts? Yes, please!” Renata is a complex character… I found her very likable and well developed, and she is also very matter-of-fact in how she describes all the horror and grief happening around her. I was 11 years old in 1984, so I didn’t understand what it was like to be in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, back when we didn’t understand it. People had all their friends dying terrible deaths all around them. Renata is much more sensible through it all than I would expect. Mark is the closest thing she has ever had to family, and her grief continues as others in her circle also become sick. The author writes Renata as somewhat emotionally detached from the situation around her at times, and maybe that’s how she copes. Even the sexual encounters she has (which are pretty kinky BTW) are described in this way. The ghosts are interesting characters who add to the richness of the story.
I wasn’t able to predict where the story was going, and I appreciated the complexity of a young woman and her friends experiencing the injustice, grief, joy, and pain all around them. I recommend this book as a realistic fictional account of being young and trying to live and love during a crisis this country refused to face.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this advance reader copy.
When I read the blurb about this book I thought, “1980s? NYC? Ghosts? Yes, please!” Renata is a complex character… I found her very likable and well developed, and she is also very matter-of-fact in how she describes all the horror and grief happening around her. I was 11 years old in 1984, so I didn’t understand what it was like to be in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, back when we didn’t understand it. People had all their friends dying terrible deaths all around them. Renata is much more sensible through it all than I would expect. Mark is the closest thing she has ever had to family, and her grief continues as others in her circle also become sick. The author writes Renata as somewhat emotionally detached from the situation around her at times, and maybe that’s how she copes. Even the sexual encounters she has (which are pretty kinky BTW) are described in this way. The ghosts are interesting characters who add to the richness of the story.
I wasn’t able to predict where the story was going, and I appreciated the complexity of a young woman and her friends experiencing the injustice, grief, joy, and pain all around them. I recommend this book as a realistic fictional account of being young and trying to live and love during a crisis this country refused to face.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this advance reader copy.
November 26, 2025
*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.*
Waiting on a Friend takes place during 1984 in the East Village. Renata is a young queer woman who can see ghosts and she is seeing ghosts constantly as her friends are dying due to AIDS. Her best friend Mark dies of AIDS so she assumes she’ll see his ghost. Renata wants a chance to say goodbye to Mark but his ghost never appears. In the East Village, a police-like-force has been ridding the village of ghosts. At first Renata thinks they are scam artists but soon realises they are really trapping ghosts. She decides to get her friends together to stop these people and release the ghosts and her friends’ memories.
I really liked this book and I found it to be very impactful. I wasn’t born when the AIDS pandemic happened but this book really brought home to me the personal impact the pandemic had. This book shows how much pain this disease caused and the impact it had on queer people. I loved reading about Renata and Mark’s friendship and it broke my heart knowing he died. I feel as if these characters are real people. I found it easy to understand Renata and I just love queer novels like this. I don’t want to label this historical because it’s set in the 80s but it is a queer historical novel and it’s a very good one. I will be recommending this book as I had a great time reading it. 4.5 stars rounded up to a 5.
Waiting on a Friend takes place during 1984 in the East Village. Renata is a young queer woman who can see ghosts and she is seeing ghosts constantly as her friends are dying due to AIDS. Her best friend Mark dies of AIDS so she assumes she’ll see his ghost. Renata wants a chance to say goodbye to Mark but his ghost never appears. In the East Village, a police-like-force has been ridding the village of ghosts. At first Renata thinks they are scam artists but soon realises they are really trapping ghosts. She decides to get her friends together to stop these people and release the ghosts and her friends’ memories.
I really liked this book and I found it to be very impactful. I wasn’t born when the AIDS pandemic happened but this book really brought home to me the personal impact the pandemic had. This book shows how much pain this disease caused and the impact it had on queer people. I loved reading about Renata and Mark’s friendship and it broke my heart knowing he died. I feel as if these characters are real people. I found it easy to understand Renata and I just love queer novels like this. I don’t want to label this historical because it’s set in the 80s but it is a queer historical novel and it’s a very good one. I will be recommending this book as I had a great time reading it. 4.5 stars rounded up to a 5.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to NetGalley for an e-arc of this book!
This is one of the best books I've read in a while. I have only good things to say about it, from the narration to the characters to the themes to the humour to the feels. It's one of those rare novels that feels like a true literary work that could become a classic and be taught in universities while also feeling so modern and accessible.
First of all, Renata is an excellent narrator. She's queer, she's more or less an orphan, she can see ghosts, and her best friend has just died of AIDS. He's one of the only ones who hasn't come back to haunt her, and she has understandably complicated feelings about it. She's full of trauma and humour. She's got complicated, fluxuating feelings about friends and relationships and sexuality and sex. She's also far from perfect and heavily driven by her own feelings, and it makes her all the more relatable. She's so human and it's felt the whole way through the book.
It's set in the States in the thick of the AIDS crisis, and both the time and place feel very vivid and truthful. That feeling of the real American, 80s/90s queer scene is a constant, and it's really enjoyable. It's not pushed, just visible in all the minor details. It really feels like you're living in it (or at least walking alongside Renata while she does).
At the same time, this story feels very timeless. The themes the novel deals with are completely reflective of both then and today. It hits extra hard because none of it feels exaggerated. The erasure and the fear and the loneliness and the grief were all true aspects of those early years of the AIDS epidemic and they're painted in such an honest, deeply emotional way.
It feels like a biography. I think the largely reminiscent, reflective storytelling lends to this, but I think it is mostly down to the fact you fully believe Renata's story was one that happened. It gives voice to what it must have been like for so many during those years, specifically queer women who were frequently the most deeply involved when the rest of the world wanted to make distance and pretend it wasn't happening.
But it also gives voice to these themes in the much broader, general way. Big concepts like grief and death are explored so thoughtfully and intimately. The seeing-ghosts element should take away from the raw, literary feel of this novel and make it all seem a bit fantastical, but it doesn't. If you're not too close-minded or maybe if you're religious, you can imagine it's probably true and that a lot of souls or essences can linger after death. If not, you can appreciate all the questions and metaphors it presents as. It's really a way to think about what it's like if someone dies before their time, what it means for someone to be ready to die, and whether or not souls need to have 'unfinished business' or if it's enough to just want more time, especially when you always expected to have it. It's about death being unfair both to the people who die and the people who are left behind. It's about how much worse it can be when that death is painful or violent or just too early. And then it's about learning how to deal with all of that without any real answers.
It's a really, really special book. I think everyone should read it. Whether it's to feel a bit of history and maybe learn something, or to gain more empathy, or to find comfort for your own grief or other hurts. It definitely punches you in the gut, but it also carefully cradles you until you can stand back up again. It's an absolutely masterful debut and I can't wait to see where Adler might go from here.
This is one of the best books I've read in a while. I have only good things to say about it, from the narration to the characters to the themes to the humour to the feels. It's one of those rare novels that feels like a true literary work that could become a classic and be taught in universities while also feeling so modern and accessible.
First of all, Renata is an excellent narrator. She's queer, she's more or less an orphan, she can see ghosts, and her best friend has just died of AIDS. He's one of the only ones who hasn't come back to haunt her, and she has understandably complicated feelings about it. She's full of trauma and humour. She's got complicated, fluxuating feelings about friends and relationships and sexuality and sex. She's also far from perfect and heavily driven by her own feelings, and it makes her all the more relatable. She's so human and it's felt the whole way through the book.
It's set in the States in the thick of the AIDS crisis, and both the time and place feel very vivid and truthful. That feeling of the real American, 80s/90s queer scene is a constant, and it's really enjoyable. It's not pushed, just visible in all the minor details. It really feels like you're living in it (or at least walking alongside Renata while she does).
At the same time, this story feels very timeless. The themes the novel deals with are completely reflective of both then and today. It hits extra hard because none of it feels exaggerated. The erasure and the fear and the loneliness and the grief were all true aspects of those early years of the AIDS epidemic and they're painted in such an honest, deeply emotional way.
It feels like a biography. I think the largely reminiscent, reflective storytelling lends to this, but I think it is mostly down to the fact you fully believe Renata's story was one that happened. It gives voice to what it must have been like for so many during those years, specifically queer women who were frequently the most deeply involved when the rest of the world wanted to make distance and pretend it wasn't happening.
But it also gives voice to these themes in the much broader, general way. Big concepts like grief and death are explored so thoughtfully and intimately. The seeing-ghosts element should take away from the raw, literary feel of this novel and make it all seem a bit fantastical, but it doesn't. If you're not too close-minded or maybe if you're religious, you can imagine it's probably true and that a lot of souls or essences can linger after death. If not, you can appreciate all the questions and metaphors it presents as. It's really a way to think about what it's like if someone dies before their time, what it means for someone to be ready to die, and whether or not souls need to have 'unfinished business' or if it's enough to just want more time, especially when you always expected to have it. It's about death being unfair both to the people who die and the people who are left behind. It's about how much worse it can be when that death is painful or violent or just too early. And then it's about learning how to deal with all of that without any real answers.
It's a really, really special book. I think everyone should read it. Whether it's to feel a bit of history and maybe learn something, or to gain more empathy, or to find comfort for your own grief or other hurts. It definitely punches you in the gut, but it also carefully cradles you until you can stand back up again. It's an absolutely masterful debut and I can't wait to see where Adler might go from here.
January 29, 2026
I can’t fault the writing style or the raw, unflinching depictions of grief and loneliness, but ultimately Waiting on a Friend had an intriguing concept that was let down by a half-baked plot. The introduction of the Ghostbusters-esque Manhattan Remediation was jarring (and unnecessary) and didn’t do the introspective prose any favours. 2.5 ⭐️
November 21, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley for the arc! I really loved this book. A beautiful story about love and friendship and mourning and ghosts. I couldn’t put this book down and thought about it often when I wasn’t reading.
December 6, 2025
I found this book very immersive. The writing is raw and honest. There were times when I was unsure how the story would develop, and the pacing flagged slightly, but I think that is appropriate for a book about grief. Highly recommend for those interested in complicated friendship and grief, as well as anyone curious about fiction set in the 1980's NYC AIDS epidemic.
December 7, 2025
2.5/5 ⭐
Review to come on publish date!
Review to come on publish date!
November 18, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the advanced readers copy.
Waiting on a Friend is a ghost story and a mystery, blending speculative elements with emotional realism. A tribute to friendship and chosen family, exploring how grief and love shape us. A portrait of a community under siege, capturing the fear, resilience, and defiance of queer life during the AIDS epidemic.
I grew up in the Midwest in the 80s and remember clearly the AIDS crisis and being terrified. Looking back, we were so far removed from the tragedy occurring in places like New York City where people were losing friends and chosen family members one after another to AIDS. This is the first time I've read a book about what it may have been like. I appreciate the story and will likely seek out more books around this topic.
The main charterer, Renata, is not all that likable; she's gritty and hard. But she is loyal and determined to seek acceptance with those that surround her. While I did enjoy that Renata could see ghosts, I mostly connected with her personal relationships and her loyalty. Friends are the family you chose yourself and the people in Renata's life needed each other during a very challenging period of time.
I give very few 5-star reviews and reading is subjective. This book will land as a 5-star for many people. It is well written, and the author has taken us to a place that has been overlooked (in my opinion).
Thanks again to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this copy!
Waiting on a Friend is a ghost story and a mystery, blending speculative elements with emotional realism. A tribute to friendship and chosen family, exploring how grief and love shape us. A portrait of a community under siege, capturing the fear, resilience, and defiance of queer life during the AIDS epidemic.
I grew up in the Midwest in the 80s and remember clearly the AIDS crisis and being terrified. Looking back, we were so far removed from the tragedy occurring in places like New York City where people were losing friends and chosen family members one after another to AIDS. This is the first time I've read a book about what it may have been like. I appreciate the story and will likely seek out more books around this topic.
The main charterer, Renata, is not all that likable; she's gritty and hard. But she is loyal and determined to seek acceptance with those that surround her. While I did enjoy that Renata could see ghosts, I mostly connected with her personal relationships and her loyalty. Friends are the family you chose yourself and the people in Renata's life needed each other during a very challenging period of time.
I give very few 5-star reviews and reading is subjective. This book will land as a 5-star for many people. It is well written, and the author has taken us to a place that has been overlooked (in my opinion).
Thanks again to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this copy!
November 23, 2025
This is an odd but often funny and heartfelt novel about Renata who sees ghosts as her friend, Mark dies. Unsure at first, she's certain she's going crazy but the ghosts don't mean her harm and soon she comes to embrace their presence as they may have answers for the questions she didn't realize she had! It's a sweet and charming book that may have you rethinking your ideas about heaven!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
December 18, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and RandomHouse for the arc! This was tough for me. I really liked the idea but didn’t connect with Renata or really any of the other characters. I had a hard time understanding what this book is trying to say, which made me end up reading it pretty slowly. The plot confused me and some moments felt disjointed. This novel does a good job of exploring grief and loss which was the best part for me. I wanted to love this but it wasn’t for me.
Want to read
September 20, 2025"Renata is a young dyke-about-town who happens to have the ability to see ghosts, which has been happening more and more frequently as her friends have started dying of what has recently been named AIDS."
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Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Loved the characters and the growth of Renata, the main character. The story is in the 80s when AIDs was upfront and people were dying. The unique thing about the story is she also sees ghosts. I felt it was a slow start but the story picked up after a few chapters.
Thanks to GoodReads for the giveaway book.
Thanks to GoodReads for the giveaway book.
December 16, 2025
"I think that people who are sensitive to presences have a responsibility to them[...]Not just for them. But because refusing to look at the pain of others is denying the same pain in yourself."
This book isn't about ghosts--not really. It's about grief and what happens when you try to push it down or, in this case, lock it away in storage. The "villains" in the story aren't the bad guys (those would be Reagan and those in power who ignored the AIDS crisis and caused countless deaths); they're just Ghostbusters-like figures who want to eradicate the world of discomfort. But you can't lock grief away. Eventually it'll burst free.
This book isn't about ghosts--not really. It's about grief and what happens when you try to push it down or, in this case, lock it away in storage. The "villains" in the story aren't the bad guys (those would be Reagan and those in power who ignored the AIDS crisis and caused countless deaths); they're just Ghostbusters-like figures who want to eradicate the world of discomfort. But you can't lock grief away. Eventually it'll burst free.
December 2, 2025
Thank you to Random House/Hogarth for the ARC of Waiting on a Friend.
Back in May 2025, I read Jonathan Mahler's The Gods of New York, a great history of New York during 1986-1989 that ended up being a sort of companion to Natalie Adler's Waiting on a Friend. In Gods, Mahler describes the horrible state of New York City during this time, a city plagued by corruption, greed, racial tensions, homelessness, and a government infrastructure incapable of doing much about these issues. In addition to all these "big city" problems, AIDS was a scourge unchecked by the authorities. The initial response to the AIDS epidemic was shamefully callous, and it is in this setting that Waiting on a Friend tells its story of people caught up and dealing with the horrors of AIDS.
The novel is centered on a group of queer friends who begin to lose some of its members to AIDS. The descriptions of the people suffering from the disease are at times brutal, but they serve to distill the horrors of the disease into individuals. We become witnesses to the pain and agony of friends and lovers, not faceless, nameless bodies. Adler succeeds in illustrating the devastation that passed through this community by making you feel the anguish of a few people watching their loved ones die. I couldn't help but think of Angels in America or Philadelphia as I read Adler's novel because it forced you to face the brutality of AIDS without flinching.
The surprising aspect of Waiting on a Friend is the ability of Renata, who tells the story, to see ghosts. I read the book blurb before starting the novel so I knew this going in, but I was interested to see how it would be incorporated into the story. In a way, Renata's ability ends up being the power that blows away the anonymity of those who died from AIDS. Instead of people dying hidden away in anonymous hospital wings, Renata can see them (and show us) as they were when they died, scarred, in agony, almost unrecognizable. Like most super powers, it can be a curse and a blessing.
What pulls the novel back from these horrors are the circle of people, friends and lovers, who are connected to Renata, who are a family by choice. They support one another, help one another, and they are there at the darkest times when no one else steps up. They become stronger together as the worst happens. I can only assume that the novel's title is a reference to the Rolling Stones song of the same name, but I could be wrong. But the song speaks to the value of friendship, a relationship where there is someone "I can cry to" and "someone to protect." Friendship becomes, if not the solution, the source of the energy to fight against the darkness.
Waiting on a Friend is at times tough to read because of its subject matter, but its frankness, honesty, and characters make it a valuable read.
Back in May 2025, I read Jonathan Mahler's The Gods of New York, a great history of New York during 1986-1989 that ended up being a sort of companion to Natalie Adler's Waiting on a Friend. In Gods, Mahler describes the horrible state of New York City during this time, a city plagued by corruption, greed, racial tensions, homelessness, and a government infrastructure incapable of doing much about these issues. In addition to all these "big city" problems, AIDS was a scourge unchecked by the authorities. The initial response to the AIDS epidemic was shamefully callous, and it is in this setting that Waiting on a Friend tells its story of people caught up and dealing with the horrors of AIDS.
The novel is centered on a group of queer friends who begin to lose some of its members to AIDS. The descriptions of the people suffering from the disease are at times brutal, but they serve to distill the horrors of the disease into individuals. We become witnesses to the pain and agony of friends and lovers, not faceless, nameless bodies. Adler succeeds in illustrating the devastation that passed through this community by making you feel the anguish of a few people watching their loved ones die. I couldn't help but think of Angels in America or Philadelphia as I read Adler's novel because it forced you to face the brutality of AIDS without flinching.
The surprising aspect of Waiting on a Friend is the ability of Renata, who tells the story, to see ghosts. I read the book blurb before starting the novel so I knew this going in, but I was interested to see how it would be incorporated into the story. In a way, Renata's ability ends up being the power that blows away the anonymity of those who died from AIDS. Instead of people dying hidden away in anonymous hospital wings, Renata can see them (and show us) as they were when they died, scarred, in agony, almost unrecognizable. Like most super powers, it can be a curse and a blessing.
What pulls the novel back from these horrors are the circle of people, friends and lovers, who are connected to Renata, who are a family by choice. They support one another, help one another, and they are there at the darkest times when no one else steps up. They become stronger together as the worst happens. I can only assume that the novel's title is a reference to the Rolling Stones song of the same name, but I could be wrong. But the song speaks to the value of friendship, a relationship where there is someone "I can cry to" and "someone to protect." Friendship becomes, if not the solution, the source of the energy to fight against the darkness.
Waiting on a Friend is at times tough to read because of its subject matter, but its frankness, honesty, and characters make it a valuable read.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
There are plenty of ghosts in "Waiting for a Friend," by Natalie Adler. It's the midst of the AIDS crisis, the gay plague as many dubbed it. Everyone seems to be dying, and no one seems to be doing much about it.
Renata sees ghosts. She's not the only one. Stories about the AIDS crisis always bring up memories of my friend who contracted AIDS while serving in the Navy and died in the early 1990s. I didn't know he was sick until he was dead; he didn't want anyone to know. Many of the sick were ostracized by their families and friends. Hospital personnel were reluctant to treat them. Those willing to treat them didn't entirely understand what they were dealing with or how to help the patients.
Back in those days, contracting AIDS amounted to a death sentence. People died. Lots and lots of people died.
In "Waiting on a Friend," Renata sees ghosts literally. Of course, anyone who watched their friends suffer and die would feel haunted by the experience. In Adler's novel, the haunting is real. While the politicians and other city officials seem to be doing little to help those afflicted by AIDS, there are people trying to remove any hint of the dead from the city. Get rid of the ghosts, and you don't have to think by anyone who died.
"Waiting on a Friend" is written in a grittier style than the books I typically read. I probably skew a little older and straighter than the book's targeted audience. Still, the story drew me in, reminded me of my friend and left a strong impression on me.
Renata sees ghosts. She's not the only one. Stories about the AIDS crisis always bring up memories of my friend who contracted AIDS while serving in the Navy and died in the early 1990s. I didn't know he was sick until he was dead; he didn't want anyone to know. Many of the sick were ostracized by their families and friends. Hospital personnel were reluctant to treat them. Those willing to treat them didn't entirely understand what they were dealing with or how to help the patients.
Back in those days, contracting AIDS amounted to a death sentence. People died. Lots and lots of people died.
In "Waiting on a Friend," Renata sees ghosts literally. Of course, anyone who watched their friends suffer and die would feel haunted by the experience. In Adler's novel, the haunting is real. While the politicians and other city officials seem to be doing little to help those afflicted by AIDS, there are people trying to remove any hint of the dead from the city. Get rid of the ghosts, and you don't have to think by anyone who died.
"Waiting on a Friend" is written in a grittier style than the books I typically read. I probably skew a little older and straighter than the book's targeted audience. Still, the story drew me in, reminded me of my friend and left a strong impression on me.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to Hogarth Press and Net Galley for offering me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. This is my honest opinion, but I regret to say that this novel was simply not for me. The main problem I had was that I found it to be a mash-up of too many different things. It was a historical novel of the early days of AIDS in 2984. It was an LGBT novel about lesbian and gay life (and quite a graphic one at that). It was a science-fiction-y sort of ghost story, drug use. parent-child relationship and friendship. Let me not forget to mention New York City in the 80's.
Renata lives in a Greenwich Village apartment that she shares with her best friend, a gay man with whom she went to and dropped out of college. with, She is an artist who works in a vintage/thrift shop. She has almost always seen ghosts, although not in any of the ways that have been depicted by others. Into this already chock-full prose comes a group of ghostbusters (for lack of a better description, who are catching and trapping ghosts, most of whom have died of AIDS, though Renata's landlord's mother is in the mix.
It could have been a novel about any one or two of these subjects and themes as Natalie Adler does write well. But for me, it left me uninvolved and scratching my head as fought to finish reading.
Renata lives in a Greenwich Village apartment that she shares with her best friend, a gay man with whom she went to and dropped out of college. with, She is an artist who works in a vintage/thrift shop. She has almost always seen ghosts, although not in any of the ways that have been depicted by others. Into this already chock-full prose comes a group of ghostbusters (for lack of a better description, who are catching and trapping ghosts, most of whom have died of AIDS, though Renata's landlord's mother is in the mix.
It could have been a novel about any one or two of these subjects and themes as Natalie Adler does write well. But for me, it left me uninvolved and scratching my head as fought to finish reading.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Great title, great idea, a fascinating historical period, but this book, what I assumed was a debut novel, left me in another world.
Renata can see dead people. Renata is living in the trauma of the AIDS crisis in New York in 1984. Near the end, she acknowledges that Mayor Koch doesn’t care, that Ronald Reagan will likely win and that the solution isn’t going to magically appear.
The book yields a hip youngster from New York with demons. She’s struggling but tries to find a resolution by trying to see how to navigate through the unfair death of several of her friends. The writing is brisk and biting.
However, this book mixes sex and sadness messily. There was a lot of sex, which, you know, didn’t quite meld with the story. I think this book will, however, inspire people to tap into that time when it did feel that the world was ending and ‘other families’ were navigating survival, which was the heart of the novel.
Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Adler was given to me by Quercus Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Renata can see dead people. Renata is living in the trauma of the AIDS crisis in New York in 1984. Near the end, she acknowledges that Mayor Koch doesn’t care, that Ronald Reagan will likely win and that the solution isn’t going to magically appear.
The book yields a hip youngster from New York with demons. She’s struggling but tries to find a resolution by trying to see how to navigate through the unfair death of several of her friends. The writing is brisk and biting.
However, this book mixes sex and sadness messily. There was a lot of sex, which, you know, didn’t quite meld with the story. I think this book will, however, inspire people to tap into that time when it did feel that the world was ending and ‘other families’ were navigating survival, which was the heart of the novel.
Waiting on a Friend by Natalie Adler was given to me by Quercus Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This was an uneven ride, for me personally. The first quarter felt like it was all over the place and I had trouble connecting with the story. However, once we got past the repetition of the endless cycle of "Mark died. Will he come back as a ghost? If so, where is he?" the book blossomed.
I liked the questions involved in having a spirit "removed" from your space and how it seemed like a metaphor for New York City and the trend in the early 80s to clear out the riff raff and make space for the newly rich.
I liked Renata and enjoyed her relationships with the other characters and her desperate need to help these souls find real closure in death. And of course, I appreciated the reminders of what life was like during the AIDs crisis, which hurt my heart (Star deserved better)
Anyway, it was a bumpy ride overall, but I appreciated the journey. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
I liked the questions involved in having a spirit "removed" from your space and how it seemed like a metaphor for New York City and the trend in the early 80s to clear out the riff raff and make space for the newly rich.
I liked Renata and enjoyed her relationships with the other characters and her desperate need to help these souls find real closure in death. And of course, I appreciated the reminders of what life was like during the AIDs crisis, which hurt my heart (Star deserved better)
Anyway, it was a bumpy ride overall, but I appreciated the journey. Thank you to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
December 13, 2025
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Natalie Adler’s debut novel, “Waiting on a Friend.” However, it did have a few shortcomings.
Initially, I found the sometimes meandering train of consciousness writing style challenging to follow. While it didn’t completely detract from the storyline, I understand that some readers might be turned off by it.
Typically, stories with elements of magical realism or ghosts aren’t my cup of tea, but I managed to overlook these aspects and remain captivated by the narrative of Renata’s storyline as a bystander during the AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s.
If you’re seeking a more contemplative novel that doesn’t rely heavily on plot, I highly recommend checking out this novel when it releases in May 2026.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.
Initially, I found the sometimes meandering train of consciousness writing style challenging to follow. While it didn’t completely detract from the storyline, I understand that some readers might be turned off by it.
Typically, stories with elements of magical realism or ghosts aren’t my cup of tea, but I managed to overlook these aspects and remain captivated by the narrative of Renata’s storyline as a bystander during the AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s.
If you’re seeking a more contemplative novel that doesn’t rely heavily on plot, I highly recommend checking out this novel when it releases in May 2026.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Waiting on a Friend
By Natalie Adler
This is a combination ghost story and queer history. It is set in the East Village in the summer of 1984 – the early days of the AIDS epidemic. The dying had begun and would only continue to ravage the predominantly gay community for years, until medications were finally found to control the disease.
Aids is a horrible disease and the dying is terrible. I worked for an infectious disease doctor who, at the time, had several AIDS patients. Our office worked on the protocols for the drugs that would eventually save lives. But watching people you know "up close and personal" face death with courage and dignity is something you can never forget.
Renata's story rings true. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand this scourge of the queer community.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.
By Natalie Adler
This is a combination ghost story and queer history. It is set in the East Village in the summer of 1984 – the early days of the AIDS epidemic. The dying had begun and would only continue to ravage the predominantly gay community for years, until medications were finally found to control the disease.
Aids is a horrible disease and the dying is terrible. I worked for an infectious disease doctor who, at the time, had several AIDS patients. Our office worked on the protocols for the drugs that would eventually save lives. But watching people you know "up close and personal" face death with courage and dignity is something you can never forget.
Renata's story rings true. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand this scourge of the queer community.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
3.5* Quite compelling despite the stark quality of the tale, and because of the vilified characters who died in the AIDS era, the times and the premise of seeing the dead.
This isn't overly emotional, as I don't think the lead really did emotions. I had expected more with her 'I see dead people' gift, handed down from her late estranged mother (I think), and the era in which the tale took place. It showed that women can be as disconnected from sex and gratification as men. I did feel sad for those who died alone, those left behind, those who'd have loved to see their dead loves again, and for them not really understanding the AIDS crisis and for the way that they were treated.
It's not a tale that stayed with me, due to a lead that I could take or leave, but it was worth a read.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Quercus Books, for my reading pleasure.
This isn't overly emotional, as I don't think the lead really did emotions. I had expected more with her 'I see dead people' gift, handed down from her late estranged mother (I think), and the era in which the tale took place. It showed that women can be as disconnected from sex and gratification as men. I did feel sad for those who died alone, those left behind, those who'd have loved to see their dead loves again, and for them not really understanding the AIDS crisis and for the way that they were treated.
It's not a tale that stayed with me, due to a lead that I could take or leave, but it was worth a read.
ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Quercus Books, for my reading pleasure.
January 19, 2026
Thank you so much yo NetGalley, Random House, and Natalie Alder for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. What a gorgeous story of friendship, loss, love, and… ghosts! An incredibly creative way to illustrate the idea of grief and loss with Renata, our protagonist, seeing every ghost but the one she most wishes to see. I also clearly understand the foil that is our ghost-busting bad guys, and I thought it was a clever way to mirror how people were forced out of their homes in the 80s to accommodate for a richer, often straighter and whiter, clientele. My only gripe is that I lost track of the story a little toward the end (maybe last 15% ish?) as the introspection began to take over the plot. This could be just a personal issue, I just got a tiny bit confused but then it all pulled back together in the end!
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