Narrator did not appeal

Excellent interwined story of Freddy Mercury and the arrival of Aids. Let down by the Narrator in my view. Could have been shortened without losing its impact

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3 people found this helpful

Good story.

at first I wasn't taken in with the mix of the aids story in it because I was only interested in queen. but after a while it moves to be an interesting piece of information along side with the way it ended up such an integral part of the queen story. the read is s little flat and when he quotes people like deacon I couldn't imaging him speaking in that tone. it sounded as though everyone was always angry. Very enjoyable though and if you're a fan you'll love it.

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2 people found this helpful

Provided all sides of Freddie’s life

Really enjoyed the narrator, the story and the facts surrounding his life.

Would recommend to both Queen’s fans as someone who never heard about them nor Freddie.

Reflective story about his legacy.

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1 person found this helpful

eye opening

greatly in depth story of not only the Great Showman but of the terrible progress of AIDS

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Left me feeling dirty.

If you are looking for a well-rounded biography of Freddie Mercury, than I cannot recommend this book to you. This book is primarily interested in the most sensational aspects of Freddie Mercury's life, specifically, that he was a gay man who contracted AIDS and died. I found this problematic, and at times uncomfortably homophobic, for a text published in 2016.

This book parallels Mercury's story with that of the AIDS virus, and for those interested in the history of AIDS and HIV, there is some interesting material in this book. This does however tend to reduce Freddie Mercury's life, to the fact that he was a promiscuous gay man, who contracted HIV and died of AIDS. Even early accounts of his schooling tend to focus primarily on the question of how gay Freddie was at school. This results in some truly bizarre content, including a pseudo-scientific exploration of whether the trauma of being sent to boarding school turns boys gay. The author appears to be drawing a longbow here, linking Freddie Mercury's eventual death to his early life in boarding school. Frankly, it comes across a bit homophobic in an age when homosexuality is no longer considered a mental illness. In later sections, the book seems to dedicate an uncomfortably long time, trying to pinpoint the exact time, place and even sexual encounter, which likely resulted in Freddie's infection with HIV. I personally found this macabre, sensationalist and exploitative. I also took issue with the author's use of statistics (who knows how accurate or out of date) that seem to reinforce negative stereotypes of gay men and women, as more promiscuous than heterosexual people and less likely to form lasting monogamous relationships.

This is the only biography I have read of Freddie Mercury. He appears to have been a very private person in life and perhaps there isn't a truly comprehensive alternative on the market. This book however, is less about Freddie Mercury's life than his death; at times reading more like a history treatise on the AIDS virus with some fun facts about a famous guy thrown in, to add interest and commercial appeal. For me it didn't really work. It left me feeling dirty.

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6 people found this helpful