Great Black Hope    by Rob Franklin Order:  USA  Can Simon & Schuster, 2025 (2025) Hardcover, e-Book      Reviewed by Barbara Lingens A young gay man, Smith, who lives in New York among friends, is caught using drugs. As he works on getting his record expunged, he is also actively trying to understand what happened to his well-loved roommate Elle. She has been found murdered after last being seen at a wild nightclub. Through his interactions with friends and family we get a sense of Smith's life and how he feels about it. In his family, though loved, he has not taken to his parents' way of thinking about his future. Like him, many of his friends have come from privilege, yet none are really whole. To Smith it seems like his group has gone from rich to decadent, using drugs not as a relief from pain but to escape intimacy. Smith's musings give us a vivid picture of what happens when drug usage becomes a problem. What it takes to name oneself as an addict and how that works out is wonderfully portrayed in this story. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Contemporary books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews