by Davey Davis
First published 2025
Adrian has spent his twenties floating through New York City on the power of his extraordinary looks. Strangers shower him with money, vacations, even a mini yacht in exchange for his attention. Their generosity comes with obsession and danger. At twenty nine, he drifts between lovers who provide everything he needs while threatening everything he has. When people remove their masks in spring 2021, Adrian discovers something shocking. His beauty has vanished. Across the country in rural Northern California, his best friend Mark returns to his family home. The world famous painter faces his own crisis. He is dying from the same mysterious disease killing his mother and sister. Neither man tells the other what has happened. Adrian searches desperately among his thousands of former lovers for answers to his transformation. Mark races against his failing body to watch fifty two VHS tapes his sister left behind. Their platonic bond endures even as both men confront what intimacy means when beauty fades and death approaches.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, introspective, melancholic, poignant, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, identity-crisis, parallel-narratives
Setting: New York City, Northern California
Period: Spring 2021, 21st century
304 pages · Paperback · Catapult
Content warnings: death, mental-illness, terminal-illness