When You Call My Name

By: Tucker Shaw

Narrated by: Max Meyers

In the spirit of the author’s massively popular Twitter thread, Tucker Shaw’s When You Call My Name is a heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York City in 1990 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H. K. Choi.

Film fanatic Adam is 17 and being asked out on his first date—and the guy is cute. Heart racing, Adam accepts, quickly falling in love with Callum like the movies always promised.

Fashion-obsessed Ben is 18 and has just left his home upstate after his mother discovers his hidden stash of gay magazines. When he comes to New York City, Ben’s sexuality begins to feel less like a secret and more like a badge of honor.

Then Callum disappears, leaving Adam heartbroken, and Ben finds out his new world is more closed-minded than he thought. When Adam finally tracks Callum down, he learns the guy he loves is very ill. And in a chance meeting near the hospital where Callum is being treated, Ben and Adam meet, forever changing each other’s lives. As both begin to open their eyes to the possibilities of queer love and life, they realize sometimes the only people who can help you are the people who can really see you—in all your messy glory.

A love letter to New York and the liberating power of queer friendship, When You Call My Name is a hopeful novel about the pivotal moments of our youth that break our hearts and the people who help us put them back together.

©2022 Tucker Shaw (P)2022 Listening Library

Full impact of a heavy topic while keeping it within the genre.

The nostalgia hit so hard in the first part that it grabbed your attention and really gave the book a Netflix special feel.

I went into this book expecting thick angst and very heavy topics.
This book delivered heavy topics in a way that made it easy to understand and relate to making this is a great book to recommend to those who want to read about a coming of age story of two gay men and how their lives are so different but parallel at the same time, without heavy angst, too far into details but not skirting the topic or minimizing it in the least.
The book had a documentary special on Netflix type feel for me with a splash of lifetime movie.


The author did such a great job of balancing such a serious topic and keeping it to the New Adult Genre.

I did listen to this book in audio and Max Meyers did such an amazing job at portraying the emotions. The “empty” was heartbreaking and left me feeling as though my heart was left on that yellow chair.

Best Book of the Year

Brilliant and thoughtful. Even outside of NYC we were all going through a lot in 1990. This book captures the fear we all had and the education we were starting to get. All three of the central characters were so well drawn that you felt them to their core. The subplots were smart, thoughtful and endearing. I think we need a sequel from 1994 or even 1999-2000. I am going to listen again right now.

Such a great book

Wow! This book was just wat I needed and wanted and more!!! Truly amazing and heart touching

Kudos to the performer

Compelling story. The performer though… so much grace. One of the best performances I’ve listened to 👏👏👏

Nostalgia can be healing

This book brought 1990 Manhattan back to me so vividly, and so poignantly that it took my breath away. I cried several times but the tears were healing & the memories bittersweet. Max Meyers simply astounds with the extraordinary range of characters they bring to life, and imbues them and their stories with sweetness and love.

I'll Take Manhattan

When You Call My Name is a strong recommend. It is not perfect and I'm not sure if it's near perfect, but it's an intriguing story that is crafted just good enough to be compelling and, for me, emotionally intriguing.

As you know by now, it follows two young men as their 18th year unfolds against the backdrop of Manhattan before it became Disneyfied.

...And Manhattan is the third main character in the story. As I experienced the story, I felt it was told in a very cinematic way. I wouldn't be surprised if someone options the book.

There is a fourth character in the book who is a bit of a mystery. Every so often, a first person narrator gives us a few moments of reflections on things they have experienced in their life.

These are thematically relatable to the story. I guess we are led to believe this is the author using his personal voice. It doesn't detract from the story, but I'm not sure what it adds except maybe as a parallel set of experiences that help cement our feelings about what the main characters are going through.

I ratedp it down because it is a Young Adult category novel that was written to be a Young Adult category novel. It's the story about two young men on journeys, in part, to discover their emotional and their sexual selves. There's quite a bit of the former and extraordinarily little of the latter

By this I mean, it is written in such a way, it seems, as to not give offense to those people who might be adding this book to Young Adult reading lists and selections in libraries. There are times in the story when I think a certain naturalness was edited out in order to eliminate any potential rough edges

Additionally, I do think the secondary characters were a bit too underdeveloped. Their actions seeming to be more governed by the transactional needs of the narrative rather than by any keen observation of the human condition.

Fortunately, I think the impact of the story is greater than the sum of its parts. That's why I found it very compelling and can highly recommend it.