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Forever
SADNESS ALWAYS FINDS PEOPLE
“I'm writing this instead of killing myself" states the narrator of Forever, Thomas Moore's most compelling novel yet. A young man travels alone to Paris, to see out his days in painful reflection and sexual abandon until the money inevitably runs out.
By turns hauntingly elegiac and viscerally brutal, Moore charts with forensic precision the topographies of violence and self-harm that flourish within the dehumanised environment of predatory global capitalism.
Unflinchingly crafted in exquisite prose, Forever is a vividly political and intensely personal vision of life and language pushed to the very limits.
‘We are always told that things should be more, everything should be bigger, better, owned, ownable. Things should be forever even though nothing is.'
"Thomas Moore is one of the best writers the world has in stock." - Dennis Cooper.
Thomas Moore's previous works include In Their Arms, When People Die, Small Talk at the Clinic (with Steven Purtill), and most recently the novel Alone, also published by Amphetamine Sulphate.
“I'm writing this instead of killing myself" states the narrator of Forever, Thomas Moore's most compelling novel yet. A young man travels alone to Paris, to see out his days in painful reflection and sexual abandon until the money inevitably runs out.
By turns hauntingly elegiac and viscerally brutal, Moore charts with forensic precision the topographies of violence and self-harm that flourish within the dehumanised environment of predatory global capitalism.
Unflinchingly crafted in exquisite prose, Forever is a vividly political and intensely personal vision of life and language pushed to the very limits.
‘We are always told that things should be more, everything should be bigger, better, owned, ownable. Things should be forever even though nothing is.'
"Thomas Moore is one of the best writers the world has in stock." - Dennis Cooper.
Thomas Moore's previous works include In Their Arms, When People Die, Small Talk at the Clinic (with Steven Purtill), and most recently the novel Alone, also published by Amphetamine Sulphate.
140 pages, Paperback
First published August 9, 2021
2 people are currently reading
2732 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Moore
16 books258 followersThomas Moore's writing has appeared in various publications in Europe and America. His novella, GRAVES (2011), and his book of poems, The Night Is An Empire(2013), were both published by Kiddiepunk. His first novel, A Certain Kind of Light(2013), was published by Rebel Satori Press. His book of poems, Skeleton Costumes, was published by Kiddiepunk in 2014 and again as an expanded second edition in 2015. His second novel, In Their Arms, was published by Rebel Satori in October 2016. A collection of poems, When People Die, was published in 2018 by Kiddiepunk. Also in 2018, Moore collaborated with visual artist Steven Purtill on their book Small Talk at the Clinic, published by Amphetamine Sulphate. Thomas Moore's third novel,Alone, was released in June 2020. His fourth novel, Forever, was published by Amphetamine Sulphate in October 2021. His new novel, Your Dreams, was published in 2023 by Amphetamine Sulphate.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
September 1, 2022
Alone without definition, feeling for the pulse of a random encounter that will never match the one that matters. Lights, violence, mutual excitement. Now afloat, a memory, a ghost. Words fade into a labyrinth of confusion and ...
August 29, 2021
“I’ve never been needed in the way I’ve needed to be.” Simple words. Devastating emotions. Overflow. It pours through but won’t let you go.
February 19, 2022
one of the most relatable pieces i’ve read. it explores the meaning of forever, of thought, of lies, of truth, of sex, of obsession; all within its short span. it’s heartbreaking and beautiful. it’s filthy and delicate.
July 20, 2024
“ i’m writing this instead of killing myself, perhaps more on a whim than anything else. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to kill myself, it just means not yet.”
September 3, 2021
Full Review
Like his prior work, Thomas Moore’s Forever is a beautiful and poetic contemplation on sex, loneliness, and relationships. In addition, he explores a more explicitly political dimension of how modern life has left many atomized and severed from meaningful interactions. This novel certainly enforces my belief that Thomas Moore is one of the best authors working today.
Like his prior work, Thomas Moore’s Forever is a beautiful and poetic contemplation on sex, loneliness, and relationships. In addition, he explores a more explicitly political dimension of how modern life has left many atomized and severed from meaningful interactions. This novel certainly enforces my belief that Thomas Moore is one of the best authors working today.
August 22, 2024
incredibly chilling and sparse novel on the failure of language and how writing remains antithetical to disappearing despite the aforementioned failure and i don't really have anything brilliant to say about this + probably need to reread suicide by edouard leve but this was excellent. ALSO before i forget not to be this guy but it really reminded me of tarkovsky's mirror (<- extremely positive) anyway. get your hands on this if you can bc i know im going home to the other 2 of moore's novels that i bought thank god
— "I think about all the things that make me feel good. It's all the stuff that makes me feel lost and gone. It's everything and nothing to do with the body. It's this all consuming feeling - when everything feels so linked up that it's all just the same thing. I can't explain it. That's an obvious thing to say though, right? I can't really explain anything. There's an impulsive need to disappear. That sentence doesn't even do it. It doesn't even come close."
— "I think about all the things that make me feel good. It's all the stuff that makes me feel lost and gone. It's everything and nothing to do with the body. It's this all consuming feeling - when everything feels so linked up that it's all just the same thing. I can't explain it. That's an obvious thing to say though, right? I can't really explain anything. There's an impulsive need to disappear. That sentence doesn't even do it. It doesn't even come close."
November 4, 2021
thomas moore can do more with three words than other writers could do with three million
September 25, 2021
Forever is one of the most emotionally honest and accurate literary portrayals of abject loneliness and resignation I’ve ever read. A man’s slow sliding into the abyss is depicted in a series of (occasionally VERY) brief vignettes, sad scenes and somber ruminations, concluding with a single paragraph spanning 5 pages that really shook me and won’t soon leave my mind. Reading it was a haunting experience, and I happen to love feeling haunted by books. Each time I read it I would take it all in a single sitting (3 times now, for the record), and the result was always the same: I’d close the book and stare off into space for a while, feeling hollowed out and raw and deeply impressed with Moore’s ability to do so much with so few words. (Such is the power of precision, I suppose.)
I’m a huge fan of huge novels, I can’t deny it. I love a good lush, sprawling doorstop. But there’s definitely something to be said for precision and concision and Moore does it beautifully. Everything I’ve read from him to date has been wonderful, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting whatever comes next for him.
Needless to say, highly recommended.
I’m a huge fan of huge novels, I can’t deny it. I love a good lush, sprawling doorstop. But there’s definitely something to be said for precision and concision and Moore does it beautifully. Everything I’ve read from him to date has been wonderful, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting whatever comes next for him.
Needless to say, highly recommended.
March 6, 2023
An incredible portrayal of someone trying to fill the void of suicidal depression with flesh and excess. I could feel the narrator slowly slipping away into a silent and bottomless pit with every page.
For fans of / Further recommendations for;
If you enjoyed this book, I strongly recommend Scar City by Joel Lane, for those wanting a collection of effortlessly disturbing short stories with quite a similar tone of utter despair and horror (though not as sexually explicit).
Based on the second act of this book I can also recommend The Sluts by Dennis Cooper (HOT TAKE I know) if you enjoyed the uncertainty of many people discussing a brutal mystery spanning across various seedy online forums.
For fans of / Further recommendations for;
If you enjoyed this book, I strongly recommend Scar City by Joel Lane, for those wanting a collection of effortlessly disturbing short stories with quite a similar tone of utter despair and horror (though not as sexually explicit).
Based on the second act of this book I can also recommend The Sluts by Dennis Cooper (HOT TAKE I know) if you enjoyed the uncertainty of many people discussing a brutal mystery spanning across various seedy online forums.
February 22, 2024
There is something incredibly propulsive about Forever that I haven't found in Moore's previous (or subsequent) offerings - an urgency to the prose and an underlying sense of dread that synergies with the themes of loneliness and despair. As a reader, I found myself almost rushing to reach the end, and when I finally got there, I was greeted with one of the most heartbreaking conclusions I've read in a long time - the kind of ending where, after finishing, you stare blankly at the final sentences, unsure of what to do next.
While some have argued (including myself) that Moore is essentially a poor man's Dennis Cooper, this novel seems to refute this hypothesis. With Forever, Moore's craft feels more refined (there are too many emotionally devastating sentences to list), and the amateurish qualities of Alone and Your Dreams have been stripped away, leaving nothing but a disturbing and melancholic narrative chronicling a young man's reflections on a past relationship and his attempts at finding connection in casual sex during the months leading up to a planned suicide. All the emotions are acutely rendered, and the Cooper-esque qualities (e.g. the incapability of language and brutally murdered teenage sex workers), within this context, read as influence rather than imitation.
I was incredibly moved by this, and based on what I've read, it may be Moore's most accomplished work. This isn't just a story about loneliness; it's a story about love.
While some have argued (including myself) that Moore is essentially a poor man's Dennis Cooper, this novel seems to refute this hypothesis. With Forever, Moore's craft feels more refined (there are too many emotionally devastating sentences to list), and the amateurish qualities of Alone and Your Dreams have been stripped away, leaving nothing but a disturbing and melancholic narrative chronicling a young man's reflections on a past relationship and his attempts at finding connection in casual sex during the months leading up to a planned suicide. All the emotions are acutely rendered, and the Cooper-esque qualities (e.g. the incapability of language and brutally murdered teenage sex workers), within this context, read as influence rather than imitation.
I was incredibly moved by this, and based on what I've read, it may be Moore's most accomplished work. This isn't just a story about loneliness; it's a story about love.
December 31, 2021
Dissolving inside the Père Lachaise Cemetery, sucking the cock of a blatant shadow. Drifting towards Montmartre statue with your voice on AirPods. A grid of men like catacombs beneath the city. Ashes scattered across the Seine. The sky is white. I wait for nothing in endless boulevards. Maybe heaven feels like an escalator. In dreams, you're mine all of the time.
September 5, 2021
Moore continues his meditation on the shortcomings of language to really get at the heart of emotion or existence, here. I couldn't help but think that if this narrator could only connect with some of the other narrators Moore has constructed in his novels, they could help each other out.
The starkness, here, is the power of the narrative. Moore's economy with words is fantastic.
The only complaint I might level with the book is that the Paris section with its murder mystery and the ways that mystery parallels what the narrator is feeling is so fantastic that I would have loved if that was the whole book.
The starkness, here, is the power of the narrative. Moore's economy with words is fantastic.
The only complaint I might level with the book is that the Paris section with its murder mystery and the ways that mystery parallels what the narrator is feeling is so fantastic that I would have loved if that was the whole book.
December 12, 2021
Forever might be just a short novella but like TM's other works it is acutely tender, touching and very much emotionally overwhelming.
September 15, 2021
This is a great book. It's not for everyone. It's graphic and it deals with taboo subject matter. However, I appreciated the skillful writing, and the concision of the writing. It helped me understand myself more as a gay individual who has also struggled with suicidal ideation. I think overall, the writing is crisp and visceral, with brutal imagery, which is what I enjoy in books and writing, and the character is sympathetic even if you might sometimes see him as a little reckless too. It's a shorter book, and I was able to read it in a couple days. Reading books like this reminds me of the power in leaving a lot to imagination and writing sparsely as a special effect. The words have so much more weight because of that technique, almost like poetry. You find yourself lingering on the words and images.
It is taboo subject matter. The book depicts sex graphically. However, this did not detract from the book for me, but rather, contributed to the overall feeling that the writer was going for. Stories like this make me feel like I wish people were more compassionate to each other. You could say the hookups of the protagonist were not just done to understand himself, but also to be empathetic to other people. When life goes in these directions, as described in this book, it's often a double-edged sword. You find some depth and meaning and connection, but you also end up in tough situations, physically and psychologically, especially when writing is the only reason why you'd live in the first place. I guess in that way, it's a statement on liberation itself. We never know what choices we make come at a cost, but it's better to go in completely, all in, rather than half-ass it and have regrets later on. It's a fine line, but themes like that I admire. I recommend this book if you can keep these things in mind.
It is taboo subject matter. The book depicts sex graphically. However, this did not detract from the book for me, but rather, contributed to the overall feeling that the writer was going for. Stories like this make me feel like I wish people were more compassionate to each other. You could say the hookups of the protagonist were not just done to understand himself, but also to be empathetic to other people. When life goes in these directions, as described in this book, it's often a double-edged sword. You find some depth and meaning and connection, but you also end up in tough situations, physically and psychologically, especially when writing is the only reason why you'd live in the first place. I guess in that way, it's a statement on liberation itself. We never know what choices we make come at a cost, but it's better to go in completely, all in, rather than half-ass it and have regrets later on. It's a fine line, but themes like that I admire. I recommend this book if you can keep these things in mind.
January 14, 2022
I beautiful fever dream like journal in the mind . Erotic,raw,sad,obsession with one love overcoming lose with gritty nameless sex in the art of cruising .
June 19, 2025
"I'm writing this instead of killing myself, perhaps more on a whim than anything else. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to kill myself, it just means not yet. Not until these words have done what I want them to do, not until I've made sense of something, although I know that would be placing too much expectation upon language. The words I write won't do what I want them to do. Let me prove it to you. I want these words to come to nothing. I want these sentences to wrap themselves up like a snake and lose every breath in their lungs. I want these pages to fall apart in your hands."
4.5
When I received this book, the first thing I noticed is that it came with a signed book-plate that instructed me, very simply, to "enjoy the sadness." And at first, I wasn't sure what to make of that. But, I get it now. I didn't just enjoy the sadness, I basked in it. Reading Forever was a distinctly humbling experience, it was as if my own thoughts and feelings had been plucked from my mind and laid bare across these pages for the world to see, it was fucking magical. Forever is not the sort of book you just read on a whim, it's a world ending event, it's something otherworldly, something that feels like the beginning of the rapture, it's like watching everything you know and love evaporate before your eyes.
If a book is blurbed by Dennis Cooper, then you can rest assured that you're about to experience something amazing. Thomas Moore is the real deal, the sooner all authors become this daring, this willing to bleed out over their pages for their audiences, we'll finally be able to move away from slumming it with mediocre, sanitized, watered-down books, we'll finally get back to real literature. Forever is a book that's properly haunted, this is some real devastating shit, it utterly ruined me. Erotic, deeply sad, obsessive and so very bleak, this book is like experiencing a fever-dream you'll never want to wake from. Moore writes in this very toned down sort of way, he abandons everything he doesn't need, and strips back his words to their purest form.
It's almost hilarious that Moore can be more impactful in one novel than most authors can in their entire careers, he sits amongst the very best authors of today. I like to think that this kind of thing is what reading is all about, because, this is perhaps one of the single most relatable pieces of fiction I've ever encountered. Forever is a deeply lonely, heartbreaking, extremely honest and authentic novel. It's a shame that I have nothing profound to say about how this book affected me or made me feel, how deeply it resonated within my soul. It's simply brilliant, and ironically (given the books subject matter) it made me feel oddly blessed to live in a time where we get this kind of literature. It's the sort of book by which ones reading tastes will be judged. If you obsess over this sort of thing, you belong to a group of people with phenomenal reading taste.
Maybe not everyone will get it, and that's okay. But, if you're here, if you're reading this right now. Pick up this book. Read it.
"A blur of graves mounted on top of each other while we fucked. He moaned and my poor French meant that at points I wasn't able to decipher if the grunts were words. A perfect freedom from sense or rationale. I fucked him bareback against a backdrop of the most glorious death."
4.5
When I received this book, the first thing I noticed is that it came with a signed book-plate that instructed me, very simply, to "enjoy the sadness." And at first, I wasn't sure what to make of that. But, I get it now. I didn't just enjoy the sadness, I basked in it. Reading Forever was a distinctly humbling experience, it was as if my own thoughts and feelings had been plucked from my mind and laid bare across these pages for the world to see, it was fucking magical. Forever is not the sort of book you just read on a whim, it's a world ending event, it's something otherworldly, something that feels like the beginning of the rapture, it's like watching everything you know and love evaporate before your eyes.
If a book is blurbed by Dennis Cooper, then you can rest assured that you're about to experience something amazing. Thomas Moore is the real deal, the sooner all authors become this daring, this willing to bleed out over their pages for their audiences, we'll finally be able to move away from slumming it with mediocre, sanitized, watered-down books, we'll finally get back to real literature. Forever is a book that's properly haunted, this is some real devastating shit, it utterly ruined me. Erotic, deeply sad, obsessive and so very bleak, this book is like experiencing a fever-dream you'll never want to wake from. Moore writes in this very toned down sort of way, he abandons everything he doesn't need, and strips back his words to their purest form.
"You were the first person I told I was going to kill myself. We were high on MDMA, sat in the corner of the room at a friend's house party. You didn't try to talk me out of it. You understood. Life can be exhausting. You could see how it made both of us feel. You got it. Maybe we were just high. It's too late to ask now. I suppose you'll hear about it eventually. Sadness always finds people."
It's almost hilarious that Moore can be more impactful in one novel than most authors can in their entire careers, he sits amongst the very best authors of today. I like to think that this kind of thing is what reading is all about, because, this is perhaps one of the single most relatable pieces of fiction I've ever encountered. Forever is a deeply lonely, heartbreaking, extremely honest and authentic novel. It's a shame that I have nothing profound to say about how this book affected me or made me feel, how deeply it resonated within my soul. It's simply brilliant, and ironically (given the books subject matter) it made me feel oddly blessed to live in a time where we get this kind of literature. It's the sort of book by which ones reading tastes will be judged. If you obsess over this sort of thing, you belong to a group of people with phenomenal reading taste.
Maybe not everyone will get it, and that's okay. But, if you're here, if you're reading this right now. Pick up this book. Read it.
"A blur of graves mounted on top of each other while we fucked. He moaned and my poor French meant that at points I wasn't able to decipher if the grunts were words. A perfect freedom from sense or rationale. I fucked him bareback against a backdrop of the most glorious death."
September 6, 2021
What is so intriguing about Thomas Moore's works is their sparseness.
There is a direct objective, whilst most of his narrators are aimlessly struggling to find an anchor.
Most of the eventual anchoring of his protagonists and characters is found in sex; sex as object, as totem, as study, as performance, as astral projection, as flesh fearing necessity. Sex is cold. Sex is warm. Sex is dangerous. But, not as dangerous as human emotion birthed from sex.
Though not too heavy on descriptions, and narrative - there is a loneliness, we all are familiar with, and with it an almost cosmic void pitted at that heart of everything he writes.
Deep. Dense. Sad. Sexy. Seedy.
A warmth akin to having sex. A cavern of many feelings and sensations wrapped around you as a reader.
Emotional, brutally honest, brave, and a true heir to Dennis Cooper, in many and varied ways.
A seminal piece of work.
There is a direct objective, whilst most of his narrators are aimlessly struggling to find an anchor.
Most of the eventual anchoring of his protagonists and characters is found in sex; sex as object, as totem, as study, as performance, as astral projection, as flesh fearing necessity. Sex is cold. Sex is warm. Sex is dangerous. But, not as dangerous as human emotion birthed from sex.
Though not too heavy on descriptions, and narrative - there is a loneliness, we all are familiar with, and with it an almost cosmic void pitted at that heart of everything he writes.
Deep. Dense. Sad. Sexy. Seedy.
A warmth akin to having sex. A cavern of many feelings and sensations wrapped around you as a reader.
Emotional, brutally honest, brave, and a true heir to Dennis Cooper, in many and varied ways.
A seminal piece of work.
September 27, 2021
a devastating single-sitting read that will leave its imprint on me, well, forever. or until i’m dead. I know of few writers that pack such weight into so few words. Cioran’s aphorisms comes to mind. Moore is also my favourite haiku composer, another area where he skillfully packs much weight into few words, as can be found in his book When People Die, and on his instagram @thomasmoronic and he’s one of few writers that have made me sob, not just tear up but literally sit and weep for a while. Very cathartic.
September 17, 2021
quite the pressure-releasing, jouissant experience for a suicide note
January 30, 2022
Wonderfully written with an excellent sense of melancholy and humor. Some lines feel like they are trying too hard to be clever but overall it was a pleasant and quick train read.
January 24, 2025
The self-reflective depressive passages are some of the most exquisite I have read. T. Moore has that rare gift to convey and express so much with just a few words, and it truly stood out to me in that way.
Everything else, especially, the non-rants about capitalism and the gore, felt phony, contrived and out of place. As if the author tried so hard to be edgy and channel Dennis Cooper but ended up reading so cheap.
Altogether, the novel feels unfinished and heavily disingenuous.
Can't decide if it should get 2 or 3 stars so let's say 2.5 in total.
Everything else, especially, the non-rants about capitalism and the gore, felt phony, contrived and out of place. As if the author tried so hard to be edgy and channel Dennis Cooper but ended up reading so cheap.
Altogether, the novel feels unfinished and heavily disingenuous.
Can't decide if it should get 2 or 3 stars so let's say 2.5 in total.
May 1, 2023
“I'm writing this instead of killing myself, perhaps more on a whim than anything else. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to kill myself, it just means not yet.”
These are the devastating words that start the novel and immediately hook you into this introspective story. This book should be avoided by anyone who is currently struggling with suicidal ideation. Forever is a story about a young man who travels to Paris alone, to see out his last days in painful reflection and sexual abandon until his money inevitably runs out. I loved how the author explored the hidden-in-plain-sight underworld of cruising, casual gay sex, and hook up culture, and all the small unspoken human moments that exist in those spaces. The secret first times, the aliases, the cheating spouses, the intimacy between strangers. The way these boys and men fade in and out of each other’s lives while sharing some of the most intimate moments with one another resonated with me deeply as a young man exploring my sexuality with other men. You can have the deepest connection with someone and never see them again, not knowing what’s become of them, leaving with only your memories and what you can imagine what their lives became. The writing reminds me of verse poetry and how authors write novels that cut to the heart of a story by using only the most necessary words. I loved how stripped down this was, how raw it made me feel. Simple and devastating. I saw so much of myself in the protagonist and the characters, despite not knowing their names. I loved how this novel explores the power of anonymity and how intoxicating it is to lose yourself in it, how sad and how liberating it is to know that in the grand scheme of things, you’re nobody and you don’t matter. I loved how this story showed how animalistic and primal men become when they become anonymous in cruising culture, how they become something unrecognizable when they start to feel invisible, bold and daring and putting themselves at risk of something dangerous just to feel alive. I loved how this story explores capitalism’s vice grip on us by showing that even when he’s planning to kill himself, the freedom of that choice is still limited in his last days by how much he can afford to do and what he can’t. The Guillaume aspect of the novel reminded me much of The Sluts by Dennis Cooper, and how that book also featured a young boy’s infamous character in the anonymous gay sex scenes, and how those characters tried to piece together the truth of someone with memories, rumours and lies. I liked how this book similarly explored how men will devour you in life and then devour you in death, and how nobody can escape that. As much as it hurt, I loved how the author explored the callousness of human beings and the world that we’ve made for ourselves. I like how certain characters aren’t named so that the reader can easily project themselves onto them. The last few pages were tragic but necessary. I think that formulaic writing is comforting, but sometimes we need something to disrupt that comfort just to feel something real. This novel was that disruption for me.
“I’ve never been needed in the way that I’ve needed to be.”
These are the devastating words that start the novel and immediately hook you into this introspective story. This book should be avoided by anyone who is currently struggling with suicidal ideation. Forever is a story about a young man who travels to Paris alone, to see out his last days in painful reflection and sexual abandon until his money inevitably runs out. I loved how the author explored the hidden-in-plain-sight underworld of cruising, casual gay sex, and hook up culture, and all the small unspoken human moments that exist in those spaces. The secret first times, the aliases, the cheating spouses, the intimacy between strangers. The way these boys and men fade in and out of each other’s lives while sharing some of the most intimate moments with one another resonated with me deeply as a young man exploring my sexuality with other men. You can have the deepest connection with someone and never see them again, not knowing what’s become of them, leaving with only your memories and what you can imagine what their lives became. The writing reminds me of verse poetry and how authors write novels that cut to the heart of a story by using only the most necessary words. I loved how stripped down this was, how raw it made me feel. Simple and devastating. I saw so much of myself in the protagonist and the characters, despite not knowing their names. I loved how this novel explores the power of anonymity and how intoxicating it is to lose yourself in it, how sad and how liberating it is to know that in the grand scheme of things, you’re nobody and you don’t matter. I loved how this story showed how animalistic and primal men become when they become anonymous in cruising culture, how they become something unrecognizable when they start to feel invisible, bold and daring and putting themselves at risk of something dangerous just to feel alive. I loved how this story explores capitalism’s vice grip on us by showing that even when he’s planning to kill himself, the freedom of that choice is still limited in his last days by how much he can afford to do and what he can’t. The Guillaume aspect of the novel reminded me much of The Sluts by Dennis Cooper, and how that book also featured a young boy’s infamous character in the anonymous gay sex scenes, and how those characters tried to piece together the truth of someone with memories, rumours and lies. I liked how this book similarly explored how men will devour you in life and then devour you in death, and how nobody can escape that. As much as it hurt, I loved how the author explored the callousness of human beings and the world that we’ve made for ourselves. I like how certain characters aren’t named so that the reader can easily project themselves onto them. The last few pages were tragic but necessary. I think that formulaic writing is comforting, but sometimes we need something to disrupt that comfort just to feel something real. This novel was that disruption for me.
“I’ve never been needed in the way that I’ve needed to be.”
January 13, 2023
“I felt a closeness.”
Hurt.
I think the narrator, during his decided last days, tries to navigate through Nowhere, Paris, and Forever aiming to seek these minimal connections whilst cruising in order to make up for the mighty connection that he has lost and keeps referring back to. Inevitably, regardless of whether the narrator finds this connection he holds dear to his heart, his death was fated.
“Forever” grapples sex, relationships and loneliness is an apparent yet devastating way. We all experience wanting to feel connection, being lonely, and so forth but I don’t think we truly realise what other people are truly going through.
Furthermore, “Forever” also speaks about how people react after death, how selfish and cruel people can truly be and creates ideas surrounding the true nature of man.
I wanted to get into some more lesser well known/obscure books and that’s when I discovered Thomas Moore. This is the first book I’ve read of his and it was totally worth it.
Hurt.
I think the narrator, during his decided last days, tries to navigate through Nowhere, Paris, and Forever aiming to seek these minimal connections whilst cruising in order to make up for the mighty connection that he has lost and keeps referring back to. Inevitably, regardless of whether the narrator finds this connection he holds dear to his heart, his death was fated.
“Forever” grapples sex, relationships and loneliness is an apparent yet devastating way. We all experience wanting to feel connection, being lonely, and so forth but I don’t think we truly realise what other people are truly going through.
Furthermore, “Forever” also speaks about how people react after death, how selfish and cruel people can truly be and creates ideas surrounding the true nature of man.
I wanted to get into some more lesser well known/obscure books and that’s when I discovered Thomas Moore. This is the first book I’ve read of his and it was totally worth it.
June 16, 2023
A man, seperated from the one he loves and would do anything for, seeks random sexual encounters in order to numb himself. Explores the concept of forever as it applies to love, death, ideas, objects and feelings. Moore is able to say so much in just a half page of text. Big sad vibes throughout, very relatable.
"Maybe I should have left in silence. No words up until now had been perfect. I always think that words have so much to do with capitalism in a way that feels so obvious but is hard to explain... We are always told that things should be more, everything should be bigger, better, owned, ownable. Things should be forever even though nothing is. We are constantly deceived, and we constantly deceive. Words help us to play along."
"Maybe I should have left in silence. No words up until now had been perfect. I always think that words have so much to do with capitalism in a way that feels so obvious but is hard to explain... We are always told that things should be more, everything should be bigger, better, owned, ownable. Things should be forever even though nothing is. We are constantly deceived, and we constantly deceive. Words help us to play along."
November 5, 2022
My first impression was negative, but this work quickly blossomed into something quite powerful.
July 8, 2024
“The sense of relief is as heavy as the sadness.”
August 18, 2022
Thomas Moore has a way with words that is so admirable as a young writer myself. This book and the words he has chosen to write absolutely destroyed me. Wow!!!
October 26, 2021
Darkly poetic, at times hilarious but ultimately tragic ruminations on the meaning of forever during the last weeks of the narrator's life. I'll be reading this again soon, I'm sure. Possibly my favorite book this year.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2021
A short, miserable and emotionally draining novella about suicide, anonymous sex and child abuse. Set in stark but thoughtful prose against the backdrop of a dreamlike Paris, the protagonist chronicles his final days of sexual and emotional breakdown. Dennis Cooper is a big fan of Moore's, which makes sense, because he's such an obvious influence on Moore's style - Forever borrows heavily in both prosody and theme from some of Cooper's novels. Not that that's a bad thing - here, it works to build a small and desperate little book.
September 4, 2025
I was lucky enough to be able to get a signed copy from Thomas Moore. The book, while short, was just as devastating as I had expected it to be. It's not easy to pack so much emotion into such a small amount of space, as language is limited, not at all capable of describing the full range of human emotion, but we have to make do with what we have and hope our words resonate with people the same despite this. Moore's writing is very concise and I appreciate the way his style works with the story's themes.
Fav excerpt: "We are always told that things should be more, everything should be bigger, better, owned, ownable. Things should be forever even though nothing is. We are constantly deceived, and we constantly deceive. Words help us to play along."
Fav excerpt: "We are always told that things should be more, everything should be bigger, better, owned, ownable. Things should be forever even though nothing is. We are constantly deceived, and we constantly deceive. Words help us to play along."
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