Somebody to Love: The Life, Death, and Legacy of Freddie Mercury

I think this is the longest review I’ve left on a book yet but man this book reached deep down into my soul and touched it. I came into this biography with a passing knowledge about Freddie Mercury, Queen and even the AIDS epidemic. I grew up listening to Queen as my parents were big fans. They had every one of their pre-90s albums on vinyl and I can still remember the very first one I listened to - News of The World, I picked that one because it had the "weird robot" on the front - I was instantly hooked. But growing up listening to their music and knowing their history are two different things. It wasn't until I was in my late teens coming to terms with my own sexuality that I learned who exactly Freddie Mercury was and how he died. I did some research on him, what limited stuff there was on the internet at that time, but it took until I was an adult to really take up an interest in him and his legacy. I watched the recent movie biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and it completely reignited the fire of how much I have always loved Queens music. And instead of trolling through Wiki pages trying to learn all I could about the history of Queen, and more specifically Freddie, that I stumbled onto this book. And out of the seemingly 100s of Freddie biographies I could have chosen to read - I am so glad I picked this one. Not only does this book seem to give a brash look at Freddies life, choices, and consequences but as it goes through his timeline it chronicles HIV/AIDS and its development and spread in history. Having these two story lines going on simultaneously made Freddies life and death all that more poignant. Not to mention, I was born in the late 80s. I was never around to see what our world was like at that time for LGBTQA people and the struggles they had to face with the AIDS epidemic. “We view the past from a different present” page 390. It is not something that is taught in school or anything so my knowledge of it was limited to hearsay, movie plots and what little information I had come across in my lifetime (ie I knew that our US Government at the time hindered a lot but I had no idea how badly they messed up our people until reading this). While reading this book, any of the singles they mentioned, performances, articles, places, events etc I looked up (unless I had them already). So I listened to and watched things while reading this so I could really get in it. That so helped. There were only a couple songs mentioned that I couldn't remember hearing, I looked up people who I didn't know - basically immersed myself in this as much as I could. And by the end of reading this, I had cried several times. This was an intense, incredibly emotional, powerful biography. Freddie may have made some questionable choices in his life but he deserves all the accolades and the legacy that came from his immense talents.

I am not sure about this one honestly. I gave it four stars as it is very well written. But my issues stem with many unsubstantiated statements, conjecture and maybe some made up stuff. The bibliography is well ordered, but it still seems thin. What follows has many SPOILERS, you have been warned. Some issues with the book: 1. How could anybody know when Freddie Mercury caught HIV? There is a chapter in the book which tries to pin it down to 1982, and maybe sometime in July or August. Aside from that being a very morbid thing to do, it is IMPOSSIBLE to know when the guy caught that awful disease. Maybe just the fact he caught the disease and died should be enough! No sources to back up this claim. 2. About sex....that is most of what the book concentrates on. Freddie did this or did that. It also makes claims that Freddie was starting to get really promiscuous by 1975. However, other books about Queen have not stated this as fact, it was always the late 1970s.. Is this just conjecture and if not, where are the SOLID sources on this? This book just seems to care all about Freddie Mercury and his sexual practices......it is obsessed with that aspect of Freddie. 3. Album sales. Queen was a very big band, with estimates putting sales anywhere from 150-300 million albums worldwide. That is all good and well, but the book states that A Night At The Opera sold 12 million units worldwide. The sources I found claim only 6 million, but who really knows. The point being, where is this information being pulled from? Were the authors making this up as they went? Just look at the bibliography in the back and you will not find answers to most of this stuff. You will find the authors pulling from other books written about Queen, from earlier works that were published before this one. But it just feels like stuff was written, without proper citation or research. 4. It is about the music isn't it? Why is it all books about Queen always concentrate on Freddie Mercury and his sexuality? This gets old and is not very interesting. I don't care what sexual preference the man had, I care about the music Queen put out, and some of Freddie's solo work, that is it! John, Brian and Roger are always mostly ignored in these books and that is a shame. Brian May has so many memorable solos and riffs. The same for the massively underrated John Deacon and his famous bass parts. Roger Taylor is a good and competent drummer who also sang some awesome backup vocals or even sang whole songs. Who doesn't love "I'm In Love With My Car," or "39"? Each of the four members contributed much to the band, not just Freddie. They were truly a "supergroup" before the term was invented. So out with the bad and in with the good: 1. The parts about the beginnings of HIV and AIDS, in Africa, in the early 1900s, are very well researched and interesting. This is one of the best histories I have read about the HIV epidemic, and is done well. To clarify, I mean about the earliest known history of the disease in humans. 2. The book is written in a very unique narrative style. It writes about events with Queen and at the same time writes about events in the HIV/AIDS crisis; events that take place either in the same year or within a couple years of each other. This part works very well in the book. 3. It is really thick on the HIV/AIDS information, but in simplified terms. To me, the book really feels like a companion piece to the excellent, and now 30 years old, And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts. It feels similar to that book, though not as thick. Almost like part II with Queen and Freddie Mercury as the sideshow. 4. STL spends a lot of time talking about all the great 1970s Queen music, which is really cool. My issue is though is they only seem to spend time on the famous tracks, not the less famous ones unfortunately. Seriously, it is about the music and anybody that claims fandom, outside of the Greatest Hits, would know that the first 4 albums are just amazing. Queen II is solid all the way through, so is Sheer Heart Attack, and the first album is one of the most varied and interesting debuts from a famous band I have ever heard. By the time the book comes around to The Game, it is full speed ahead and gives very little background on the albums after The Game. Not tons on Flash, or the uneven Hot Space (I actually like this album and feel Freddie turns in an amazing vocal performance on it). Many books on famous bands always do this. They spend lengthy chapters on the early albums of a band, then rush to the finish line while compressing information about the later works. There were stories to be told about the later albums, but most of this was shelved in favor of the HIV/AIDS talk about Freddie, which is disappointing. The last 3 albums Queen did in the 80s have some excellent tracks, despite being uneven albums. Think such tracks as Gimme The Prize, It's A Hard Life, Princes of The Universe, I Want It All, Breakthru, Was It All Worth It etc. 5. About Live Aid....how many more good things can be said about Queen and Live Aid? The book does a good job of describing the lead up to the concert, and the performance itself. In summary: I give this a barely recommend, despite the 4 star rating. It is well written, but makes many assertions that are not based on hard facts and sources. You won't learn a lot more than what is in other books on Queen. You will learn some new and interesting things about HIV/AIDS (The theories about where the disease began are quite good), so that is a plus. It does go way too far on the sexuality issue with Freddie. This is so disrespectful to Freddie Mercury and his memory. Yet......the books on Queen cannot seem to get away from FOCUSING about it. Freddie Mercury is possibly the greatest singer of all time, regardless of genre. Talk about his greatness and don't give us conjecture about what is going on in his head....whatever. I liked "Is This The Real Life" quite a bit more than this. This is worth a read for hardcore Queen fans, and maybe rock fans in general. And while it has some emotional gut punching, it doesn't carry the force that And The Band Played On does (I highly recommend this book). It is all about the music for me, and Queen has that in spades.....great music and songs and albums! Last update: Get the book. After rewatching the dog-s**t that is Bohemian Rhapsody, my review just doesn't seem correct. That movie completely downplays the history of Mercury and Queen and the sexuality going on here. What I now realize is how much Freddie and his sexuality, was part of the music. I know, this was hiding in plain sight, but I get it now. Yes, the music matters, but so does the truth. This book, while the bibliography could be much better, at least attempts the truth while the movie bends the truth at every opportunity (except for Live Aid and the making of the Bohemian Rhapsody song). The book isn't a character assassination of Mr. Bad Guy like the movie......argh! If you read this far, buy it! Thanks for reading and stay safe.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. I've seen Freddie in concert and have all of their albums and have followed the band for years. This book delved into the history of HIV/AIDS. I learned quite a bit about the disease. In this respect it helped me better understand what a homosexual went through back in the 70' and 80's, and why they were not open about their sexuality. I also learned of the ignorance of many (myself included) about the disease itself. Overall I rated this book high because I've always been fascinated with Freddie. If you feel the same, this book will interest you. I read it in one week, after work, in the evenings. I enjoyed reading about the stories, the people, and the lifestyle. It was very entertaining. Those who know quite a bit about Freddie may not like the book as much as I did!!! Great Read!! I wish the man was still alive because he truly was special. One of those rare entertainers that doesn't come along often: Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley. Etc.

I remembered when I heard the sad news of Freddie Mercury's death. I was listening to WNEW in NY and at around midnight they played Spread Your Wings, one of my personal favorites from News Of The World. I found it unusual because the song is one of those great sleeper deep track songs that was never a big hit. And it certainly wasn't a song that would be played on a classic rock station in heavy rotation like Killer Queen or Bohemian Rhapsody. Then the DJ on WNEW in New York had announced Freddie's tragic passing from complications resulting from AIDS. It was a stunning announcement to me because although there had been rumors going around for a few years that he was suffering from AIDS, it was hard to believe that it was all true. But then again, you could hear that things were somewhat somber with their last two studio albums The Miracle and Innuendo. Songs like Was It All Worth It, Don't Try So Hard and of course The Show Must Go On were all urgently poignant and are some of Queen's best final moments. It is hard to describe the book without being cliched like writing it is a "must read" or "highly recommended" or "hard to put down" but it is all true. No stone is left unturned and everything discussed in the book is fair game but done with a skillful narrative and I think with a lot of dignity. I won't give out any spoiler alerts but I will say it is one of the best rock biographies I have read. Having said that, go buy it! Also go buy a copy of News of The World! Everyone and their grandmother has heard We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, so skip over to Spread Your Wings and listen to one of Freddie's best vocal performances!

This book is one of the best I’ve read. Rarely do I have the opportunity or sustained interest in reading a big book non stop cover to cover, but that is exactly what has happened. It’s certainly the best biography I’ve ever read. It also gives a fairly comprehensive history of AIDS, some of the hysteria of which I remember from childhood in the 80s when no one knew how it was transmitted, and thus, were extremely paranoid. More importantly, though, it is a really deep look into the life of Freddie Mercury from birth to death. The man was a marvel and so much of who he was resonates very deeply with me. SOOOO driven...such a perfectionist. Unique in every way. The time he lived in really prevented him from openly being who he was and it caused him to be one of the loneliest people on the planet (GaGa talks about this in her documentary. The more famous you become, the more people who surround you...but at the end of the day, they all disappear and you’re totally alone ). So many of his lyrics tell the story of his loneliness or need for true relationship(s), yet he was also one of the most fun-loving, generous and over the top humans I’ve ever heard of. He was always stunning, youthful and beautiful (even as he was dying and declining)—maybe not in anyone’s traditional sense of those things, but he was indeed those things to the nth degree. After having read it, I don’t understand why everyone in the world isn’t in love with him 😊. This Queen/Freddie thing is strange. I’ve had deep inspirations before in my life, but always they were from my own time (apart from F. Scott Fitzgerald). I mean, I loved a few Queen tunes in my younger childhood, but that was about it. I kind of forgot about them until the movie came along. And that movie (Bohemian Rhapsody)awakened a beast with a new ear for the music and new eyes for everything else about Queen. It’s been well over a month now since I saw the movie the first time (and of course countless times afterward) and EVERYDAY it’s been Queen music whenever possible. After everyone’s in bed? interviews, concert footage, videos. Literally, every night. At this point, I may know just about as much as fans who have loved Queen for decades. It doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I know if it’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right. Haha! Needless to say, as a long time reader of amazing books, this one comes highly recommended. Excellent writing, thorough coverage and great accompanying photos.

The title "Somebody to Love: The Life, Death, and Legacy of Freddie Mercury" portrays accurately what the authors Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne accomplished. The end notes shows a careful researched informations. I've read previous frivolous Freddie Mercury biographies by other authors such as Rick Sky and they fail to capture the essence of Freddie. The first two chapters captivates you about a hunter killing a chimpanzee in 1908 in the deep Belgian Congo. I'm so enthralled into the origins of the AIDS story that I forget that I am reading about Freddie. Then the story switches in the third chapter about Freddie's father Bomi Bulsara being born in north of Bombay in 1908. As you can already surmise the author marriages two stories of different continents together as the book goes on. This is essential to understand Freddie. Although this book does not interview the members of Queen, they reach out other artists and friends that knew him. Let me also tell you on a side note that the writer Mark Langthorne met with Freddie in 1983 in a infamous gay club called Heaven in London. I thought that the AIDS story merging into Freddie's life was essential, because now deducing that Freddie was infected with HIV around the summer of 1982 means a lot to the reader. How does a man go forward knowing he has a dead sentence. The famous Live Aid, July 13 1985 we all know was performed by a man that already had an inkling of this mysterious disease. When a man gets a disease like this it plagues his mind. Whether he is performing on stage or washing the dishes. It's fascinating how Freddie pulled up his boot straps and continues to live a life of hope and joy. Freddie in his mind knowing he had this disease is truly getting to know his life. The book also goes into how homosexuals were heavily discriminated in the 80's. How hate crime rose through the decade. How a gay man in the 80's had to be strong. Were today everybody to the average Joe has a "coming out the closet" party. That party wasn't happening in the 80's. Gay men at that time had to go into strange underground clubs like New York's Mineshaft to be themselves. This is who Freddie was. A extraordinary musician and vocalist. An incredible writer. A electrifying performer. A benevolent wealthy man. A lover of life. Freddie also was a gay man. A man that understood racism and his Indian past. A broken hearted man. Understood the witch hunting press. A man that had a disease which he fought in the end. He is truly somebody you can love.

I found the history of AIDS was informative, however, I feel the authors over did it. True, you can't read a book about Freddie Mercury without reading about the disease that took his life, but bringing in the development of AIDS made much of the book long winded , and after a while I was wondering how much of of this book was padded with different excerpts from other books and not researched as well as they lead the reader to believe. One giant clue is at the end of the book, they give a long list of people who had died of AIDS and one of the first people they list was Andy Warhol. This is totally incorrect! Andy Warhol died of Arrhythmia after a very complicated gall bladder surgery. If you are going to write a book, do some fact checking, it's not hard to do.

As a 70 year old, I have a lot of favorite bands and their songs on my phone. Queen is one of those favorites. When the recent movie came out, I read the many mixed reviews. As a gay man it dawned on me that I really never knew the real Freddie Mercury. I wanted to read a detailed biography before seeing a film. This book proved to be worth every penny. I found myself reading and then stopping to listen to a song by Queen I was reading about. Freddie's full life beginning from childhood is brought into clear focus by the authors. Like all of us, he was a very complex person living in a time when gays were oblivious to a plague about to invade us all. Read the book, then see the movie.

This book was interestingly formatted, taking the time to explore the origins of HIV and AIDS and place those origins in perspective to lives with which we identify. Unfortunately, this book is in sore need of a qualified editor. It is badly overwritten and repetitive. Freddie Mercury's death took up half the book in excruciating detail; much of it is none of our business, as Mercury worked hard to maintain his privacy. Factual errors and omissions abound. For example, the authors talk about Liza Minnelli a number of times, without noting that six months after Mercury died, her own ex-husband and close friend Peter Allen died of AIDS. They extoll Mercury as a "one off," a flamboyant performer and prolific songwriter, never mentioning that Peter Allen was the same, but a man who left behind a catalogue of songs including "I Honestly Love You," "Fly Away," "The Theme from 'Arthur'" (for which he won an Oscar), "I Go To Rio," and hundreds more. Anyone who saw him leap on top of the piano for "Rio," or dance with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes could never forget the amazing Peter Allen. But to validate their thesis that Freddie Mercury was "one of a kind," they simply forgot him. Inexcusable in a book such as this. Near the end of the book, they list those who suffer from HIV and AIDS without mentioning Peter Allen, and mixing many still alive with those who have passed. For authors who did such deep research into the epidemiological history of the disease that has taken so many lives, this is sloppy and insulting in the extreme. A good deal of Freddy Mercury's life as set out here is pure speculation, something the extremely private Mercury would have despised. I finished the book because I had invested so much time in it, but much of that time was wasted. Mercury deserves better.

Cue the instrumental version of the Gospel song, Guide Me Home. --An appropriate tune to accompany the arresting prose with which Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne describe the final fortnight in the life of the frontman of one of the most popular bands on Earth. Amid the news events of November 10,1991, a private jet flies home from Switzerland to London with a terminally ill passenger who may well have been oblivious to world events, but whom, by month's end, would be the focus of world attention once again. As a car takes the patient, now with failing eyesight home, and the electronic gate of his Garden Lodge, Kensington estate mansion closes behind him for the last time in his life, we are given a sense of a life that is permanently (and prematurely) shutting down, amid trappings of splendor, including Japanese objets d'art, collected from the country that loved and warmly embraced him and his three colleagues so well for 16 years, and perhaps, more relevantly, a grand piano with a closed fallboard its owner will never play again. Upstairs in a master bedroom with faded yellow walls, he receives his medication intravenously.A favorite film--1959's Imitation of Life plays on a VCR.But he is too Ill to weep at the ending any longer. He could hear the press and paparazzi--speculative about his condition for years--chattering outside his Japanese garden. The terminally ill male, aged 45, suffered from AIDS, and had loaned himself out for the testing of experimental drugs for three years.In previous times, his strong constitution withstood copious amounts of booze, unprotected sex, and cocaine.But the experimental drugs have proven futile. As a cold, grey wet Autumn day shrouded London, and the master of the Garden Lodge Estate has decided to go off his medication, taking only painkillers, the Zanzibar born master pianist, and rock showman extraordinaire with the given name of Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, is holed up with his nearest and dearest, resigned to his fate. The intriguing aspect of this 2016 biography--released in time for the 25th anniversary of the singer's death, is that in addition, it chronicles the history of AIDS from its origin and journey around the world as it finds its way towards Freddie Mercury through, unfortunately, every hedonistic fault of his own. We review the life of the gifted singer/songwriter through his birth in Zanzibar, time in boarding school in his parents' native India where he formed his first band, the Hectics, had his first sexual encounter, and the likely impact of being sent away from home at such an early age had on his later behavior. After his return home, an uprising drove the Bulsaras--including father, Bomi, a government accountant, wife, Jer, 12-year-old daughter,Kashmira, as well as 17-year-old Farrokh--out of Zanzibar, they settled in London, near Heathrow Airport, where Farrokh later worked. Studying at Isleworth Polytechnic College, then at Ealing Art College--a pre-cursor to a music career for many rock stars, Freddie Bulsara(as he was known before a final name change)meets his future lifelong colleagues, including Brian May, who lived not far from the Bulsaras, Roger Taylor, who became his roommate, and with whom he ran an antique clothing stall in their salad days,and later bassist, John Deacon. Beforehand, he is involved with a band called Ibex, who name changed to Wreckage, and another short-lived band called Sour Milk Sea. Mercury had a brief romance with one Rosemary Pearson, who grew disenchanted with his attraction to men.A later romantic interest who became his lifelong friend and confidante, Mary Austin, would be a bit more tolerant. His status as a hanger-on of May and Taylor's band, Smile changes, as will the band's name from Smile to Queen. As the legends-to-be come together, beginning their epic but tempestuous 20-year odyssey, the virus that would impact the band's history, which was traced from a slain monkey that bit and infected the Bantu hunter that killed it in the Congo in 1908,and which the hunter may have transmitted to one or more prostitutes, whose clients may have spread it to wives and/or girlfriends back home in Europe, had by that point, been spread by re-used, but badly washed hypodermic needles used to combat African Sleeping Sickness, but which still carried traces of HIV, had by the 1970s, been spread to Haiti by teachers, and social workers who were exposed during time in the former Belgian Congo , where they filled in jobs formerly occupied by Belgian officials who returned home--the backfiring of UNESCO Goodwill program. A blood plasma center in Port-au-Prince was open for two years.Impoverished Haitians donated blood for money to sustain the US blood bank because well-to-do Americans were less likely to.But since supplies of donated blood were not checked for a virus no one thought to look for at the time, many may have received HIV that way as well. The plight of Missouri teenager, Robert Rayford, who died of what is now recognized as HIV in 1969, and who case was publicized in 1986 is duly noted.But how he contracted it remains a mystery. A Canadian flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, who would be misidentified as Patient Zero, contacted the virus in the 1970s, as did actor, Rock Hudson. Mercury was acquainted with both men, and the partner he and Dugas had in common was John Murphy. In 1976,three members of the Roed Family of Bored, Norway would become the first known cluster case of the disease all three died within a year. The hedonistic atmosphere of New York during the US Bicentennial celebration provided more opportunities for the disease to spread.A West Greenwich Village club for gays called The Mineshaft opened in the meat packing district that year.Mercury would join its list of notable clients around 1980, and the book suggests this is where he may have been infected around 1982, although other sources claim that may have happened between 1976 and 1978. While the world enjoyed Queen's musical catalog, including Killer Queen, You're My Best Friend, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Somebody to Love, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Radio Ga Ga,A Kind of Magic, Under Pressure, and of course, Bohemian Rhapsody, among others, the self-destructive behaviors will alter the band's fate. The book notes an observation by one Dr. Thomas Schmidt about the almost compulsive promiscuity among homosexuals, but also of how unfulfilling many of them find their own behavior. The most popular band in the world by 1980, Queen would continue to have its ups and downs.By mid-decade, they faced penalties for violating a UN ban on artists performing in South Africa in protest of Apartheid by playing at the resort in Sun City. But a high point of drama is the story of the band's redemption at Live Aid the following year when at 6:44PM on Saturday, July 13,1985 Queen's African-born frontman and colleagues took the stage to perform to help starving children in Africa before 72,000 at Wembley Stadium, 100,000 at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, and a worldwide television audience of 1.9 billion .With the best amplified performance, they were truly the Champions of the moment, and that is known as The Day Queen Ruled the World! But signs of Mercury's impending downward spiral were visible even then, in the hoarseness of his voice (he had a cough that day and ignored the advice of a doctor at Wembley against his performing),and a purple mark on his right arm which may have been one of his first sarcomas. Later that year the death of Rock Hudson from AIDS further fueled his anxiety. In counterpoint to the main narrative are the perspectives of his mother,his sister, his band mates,Mary Austin, his friend, actor/singer, Peter Straker, journalist, Lesley-Ann Jones, rock critic, Paul Gambaccini, who claims to have unsuccessfully tried to warn Mercury about modifying his behavior, singer Marc Almond, Jim Hutton, Peter Freestone, Montserrat Caballe,et.al. that round out the story.We also read about the destructive influence of Mercury's lover and personal assistant, Paul Prenter, who succumbed to AIDS three months before the singer did. It begins with a famous quote by Socrates:The unexamined life is not worth living. But this cautionary tale of a gifted, but self-destructive life, like so many before and since, also recounts how a tragic loss further galvanized the fight against AIDS, especially via the memorial concert at Wembley the following spring, and the foundation of the anti-AIDS organization, The Mercury Phoenix Trust, and how the musical stylings of Freddie Mercury continue to delight and inspire, with wisdom and much relevant insight on offer. The star may have fallen, but the legacy continues to rise.

I think this is the longest review I’ve left on a book yet but man this book reached deep down into my soul and touched it. I came into this biography with a passing knowledge about Freddie Mercury, Queen and even the AIDS epidemic. I grew up listening to Queen as my parents were big fans. They had every one of their pre-90s albums on vinyl and I can still remember the very first one I listened to - News of The World, I picked that one because it had the "weird robot" on the front - I was instantly hooked. But growing up listening to their music and knowing their history are two different things. It wasn't until I was in my late teens coming to terms with my own sexuality that I learned who exactly Freddie Mercury was and how he died. I did some research on him, what limited stuff there was on the internet at that time, but it took until I was an adult to really take up an interest in him and his legacy. I watched the recent movie biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and it completely reignited the fire of how much I have always loved Queens music. And instead of trolling through Wiki pages trying to learn all I could about the history of Queen, and more specifically Freddie, that I stumbled onto this book. And out of the seemingly 100s of Freddie biographies I could have chosen to read - I am so glad I picked this one. Not only does this book seem to give a brash look at Freddies life, choices, and consequences but as it goes through his timeline it chronicles HIV/AIDS and its development and spread in history. Having these two story lines going on simultaneously made Freddies life and death all that more poignant. Not to mention, I was born in the late 80s. I was never around to see what our world was like at that time for LGBTQA people and the struggles they had to face with the AIDS epidemic. “We view the past from a different present” page 390. It is not something that is taught in school or anything so my knowledge of it was limited to hearsay, movie plots and what little information I had come across in my lifetime (ie I knew that our US Government at the time hindered a lot but I had no idea how badly they messed up our people until reading this). While reading this book, any of the singles they mentioned, performances, articles, places, events etc I looked up (unless I had them already). So I listened to and watched things while reading this so I could really get in it. That so helped. There were only a couple songs mentioned that I couldn't remember hearing, I looked up people who I didn't know - basically immersed myself in this as much as I could. And by the end of reading this, I had cried several times. This was an intense, incredibly emotional, powerful biography. Freddie may have made some questionable choices in his life but he deserves all the accolades and the legacy that came from his immense talents.

I am not sure about this one honestly. I gave it four stars as it is very well written. But my issues stem with many unsubstantiated statements, conjecture and maybe some made up stuff. The bibliography is well ordered, but it still seems thin. What follows has many SPOILERS, you have been warned. Some issues with the book: 1. How could anybody know when Freddie Mercury caught HIV? There is a chapter in the book which tries to pin it down to 1982, and maybe sometime in July or August. Aside from that being a very morbid thing to do, it is IMPOSSIBLE to know when the guy caught that awful disease. Maybe just the fact he caught the disease and died should be enough! No sources to back up this claim. 2. About sex....that is most of what the book concentrates on. Freddie did this or did that. It also makes claims that Freddie was starting to get really promiscuous by 1975. However, other books about Queen have not stated this as fact, it was always the late 1970s.. Is this just conjecture and if not, where are the SOLID sources on this? This book just seems to care all about Freddie Mercury and his sexual practices......it is obsessed with that aspect of Freddie. 3. Album sales. Queen was a very big band, with estimates putting sales anywhere from 150-300 million albums worldwide. That is all good and well, but the book states that A Night At The Opera sold 12 million units worldwide. The sources I found claim only 6 million, but who really knows. The point being, where is this information being pulled from? Were the authors making this up as they went? Just look at the bibliography in the back and you will not find answers to most of this stuff. You will find the authors pulling from other books written about Queen, from earlier works that were published before this one. But it just feels like stuff was written, without proper citation or research. 4. It is about the music isn't it? Why is it all books about Queen always concentrate on Freddie Mercury and his sexuality? This gets old and is not very interesting. I don't care what sexual preference the man had, I care about the music Queen put out, and some of Freddie's solo work, that is it! John, Brian and Roger are always mostly ignored in these books and that is a shame. Brian May has so many memorable solos and riffs. The same for the massively underrated John Deacon and his famous bass parts. Roger Taylor is a good and competent drummer who also sang some awesome backup vocals or even sang whole songs. Who doesn't love "I'm In Love With My Car," or "39"? Each of the four members contributed much to the band, not just Freddie. They were truly a "supergroup" before the term was invented. So out with the bad and in with the good: 1. The parts about the beginnings of HIV and AIDS, in Africa, in the early 1900s, are very well researched and interesting. This is one of the best histories I have read about the HIV epidemic, and is done well. To clarify, I mean about the earliest known history of the disease in humans. 2. The book is written in a very unique narrative style. It writes about events with Queen and at the same time writes about events in the HIV/AIDS crisis; events that take place either in the same year or within a couple years of each other. This part works very well in the book. 3. It is really thick on the HIV/AIDS information, but in simplified terms. To me, the book really feels like a companion piece to the excellent, and now 30 years old, And The Band Played On by Randy Shilts. It feels similar to that book, though not as thick. Almost like part II with Queen and Freddie Mercury as the sideshow. 4. STL spends a lot of time talking about all the great 1970s Queen music, which is really cool. My issue is though is they only seem to spend time on the famous tracks, not the less famous ones unfortunately. Seriously, it is about the music and anybody that claims fandom, outside of the Greatest Hits, would know that the first 4 albums are just amazing. Queen II is solid all the way through, so is Sheer Heart Attack, and the first album is one of the most varied and interesting debuts from a famous band I have ever heard. By the time the book comes around to The Game, it is full speed ahead and gives very little background on the albums after The Game. Not tons on Flash, or the uneven Hot Space (I actually like this album and feel Freddie turns in an amazing vocal performance on it). Many books on famous bands always do this. They spend lengthy chapters on the early albums of a band, then rush to the finish line while compressing information about the later works. There were stories to be told about the later albums, but most of this was shelved in favor of the HIV/AIDS talk about Freddie, which is disappointing. The last 3 albums Queen did in the 80s have some excellent tracks, despite being uneven albums. Think such tracks as Gimme The Prize, It's A Hard Life, Princes of The Universe, I Want It All, Breakthru, Was It All Worth It etc. 5. About Live Aid....how many more good things can be said about Queen and Live Aid? The book does a good job of describing the lead up to the concert, and the performance itself. In summary: I give this a barely recommend, despite the 4 star rating. It is well written, but makes many assertions that are not based on hard facts and sources. You won't learn a lot more than what is in other books on Queen. You will learn some new and interesting things about HIV/AIDS (The theories about where the disease began are quite good), so that is a plus. It does go way too far on the sexuality issue with Freddie. This is so disrespectful to Freddie Mercury and his memory. Yet......the books on Queen cannot seem to get away from FOCUSING about it. Freddie Mercury is possibly the greatest singer of all time, regardless of genre. Talk about his greatness and don't give us conjecture about what is going on in his head....whatever. I liked "Is This The Real Life" quite a bit more than this. This is worth a read for hardcore Queen fans, and maybe rock fans in general. And while it has some emotional gut punching, it doesn't carry the force that And The Band Played On does (I highly recommend this book). It is all about the music for me, and Queen has that in spades.....great music and songs and albums! Last update: Get the book. After rewatching the dog-s**t that is Bohemian Rhapsody, my review just doesn't seem correct. That movie completely downplays the history of Mercury and Queen and the sexuality going on here. What I now realize is how much Freddie and his sexuality, was part of the music. I know, this was hiding in plain sight, but I get it now. Yes, the music matters, but so does the truth. This book, while the bibliography could be much better, at least attempts the truth while the movie bends the truth at every opportunity (except for Live Aid and the making of the Bohemian Rhapsody song). The book isn't a character assassination of Mr. Bad Guy like the movie......argh! If you read this far, buy it! Thanks for reading and stay safe.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. I've seen Freddie in concert and have all of their albums and have followed the band for years. This book delved into the history of HIV/AIDS. I learned quite a bit about the disease. In this respect it helped me better understand what a homosexual went through back in the 70' and 80's, and why they were not open about their sexuality. I also learned of the ignorance of many (myself included) about the disease itself. Overall I rated this book high because I've always been fascinated with Freddie. If you feel the same, this book will interest you. I read it in one week, after work, in the evenings. I enjoyed reading about the stories, the people, and the lifestyle. It was very entertaining. Those who know quite a bit about Freddie may not like the book as much as I did!!! Great Read!! I wish the man was still alive because he truly was special. One of those rare entertainers that doesn't come along often: Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley. Etc.

I remembered when I heard the sad news of Freddie Mercury's death. I was listening to WNEW in NY and at around midnight they played Spread Your Wings, one of my personal favorites from News Of The World. I found it unusual because the song is one of those great sleeper deep track songs that was never a big hit. And it certainly wasn't a song that would be played on a classic rock station in heavy rotation like Killer Queen or Bohemian Rhapsody. Then the DJ on WNEW in New York had announced Freddie's tragic passing from complications resulting from AIDS. It was a stunning announcement to me because although there had been rumors going around for a few years that he was suffering from AIDS, it was hard to believe that it was all true. But then again, you could hear that things were somewhat somber with their last two studio albums The Miracle and Innuendo. Songs like Was It All Worth It, Don't Try So Hard and of course The Show Must Go On were all urgently poignant and are some of Queen's best final moments. It is hard to describe the book without being cliched like writing it is a "must read" or "highly recommended" or "hard to put down" but it is all true. No stone is left unturned and everything discussed in the book is fair game but done with a skillful narrative and I think with a lot of dignity. I won't give out any spoiler alerts but I will say it is one of the best rock biographies I have read. Having said that, go buy it! Also go buy a copy of News of The World! Everyone and their grandmother has heard We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, so skip over to Spread Your Wings and listen to one of Freddie's best vocal performances!

This book is one of the best I’ve read. Rarely do I have the opportunity or sustained interest in reading a big book non stop cover to cover, but that is exactly what has happened. It’s certainly the best biography I’ve ever read. It also gives a fairly comprehensive history of AIDS, some of the hysteria of which I remember from childhood in the 80s when no one knew how it was transmitted, and thus, were extremely paranoid. More importantly, though, it is a really deep look into the life of Freddie Mercury from birth to death. The man was a marvel and so much of who he was resonates very deeply with me. SOOOO driven...such a perfectionist. Unique in every way. The time he lived in really prevented him from openly being who he was and it caused him to be one of the loneliest people on the planet (GaGa talks about this in her documentary. The more famous you become, the more people who surround you...but at the end of the day, they all disappear and you’re totally alone ). So many of his lyrics tell the story of his loneliness or need for true relationship(s), yet he was also one of the most fun-loving, generous and over the top humans I’ve ever heard of. He was always stunning, youthful and beautiful (even as he was dying and declining)—maybe not in anyone’s traditional sense of those things, but he was indeed those things to the nth degree. After having read it, I don’t understand why everyone in the world isn’t in love with him 😊. This Queen/Freddie thing is strange. I’ve had deep inspirations before in my life, but always they were from my own time (apart from F. Scott Fitzgerald). I mean, I loved a few Queen tunes in my younger childhood, but that was about it. I kind of forgot about them until the movie came along. And that movie (Bohemian Rhapsody)awakened a beast with a new ear for the music and new eyes for everything else about Queen. It’s been well over a month now since I saw the movie the first time (and of course countless times afterward) and EVERYDAY it’s been Queen music whenever possible. After everyone’s in bed? interviews, concert footage, videos. Literally, every night. At this point, I may know just about as much as fans who have loved Queen for decades. It doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I know if it’s wrong, I don’t wanna be right. Haha! Needless to say, as a long time reader of amazing books, this one comes highly recommended. Excellent writing, thorough coverage and great accompanying photos.

The title "Somebody to Love: The Life, Death, and Legacy of Freddie Mercury" portrays accurately what the authors Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne accomplished. The end notes shows a careful researched informations. I've read previous frivolous Freddie Mercury biographies by other authors such as Rick Sky and they fail to capture the essence of Freddie. The first two chapters captivates you about a hunter killing a chimpanzee in 1908 in the deep Belgian Congo. I'm so enthralled into the origins of the AIDS story that I forget that I am reading about Freddie. Then the story switches in the third chapter about Freddie's father Bomi Bulsara being born in north of Bombay in 1908. As you can already surmise the author marriages two stories of different continents together as the book goes on. This is essential to understand Freddie. Although this book does not interview the members of Queen, they reach out other artists and friends that knew him. Let me also tell you on a side note that the writer Mark Langthorne met with Freddie in 1983 in a infamous gay club called Heaven in London. I thought that the AIDS story merging into Freddie's life was essential, because now deducing that Freddie was infected with HIV around the summer of 1982 means a lot to the reader. How does a man go forward knowing he has a dead sentence. The famous Live Aid, July 13 1985 we all know was performed by a man that already had an inkling of this mysterious disease. When a man gets a disease like this it plagues his mind. Whether he is performing on stage or washing the dishes. It's fascinating how Freddie pulled up his boot straps and continues to live a life of hope and joy. Freddie in his mind knowing he had this disease is truly getting to know his life. The book also goes into how homosexuals were heavily discriminated in the 80's. How hate crime rose through the decade. How a gay man in the 80's had to be strong. Were today everybody to the average Joe has a "coming out the closet" party. That party wasn't happening in the 80's. Gay men at that time had to go into strange underground clubs like New York's Mineshaft to be themselves. This is who Freddie was. A extraordinary musician and vocalist. An incredible writer. A electrifying performer. A benevolent wealthy man. A lover of life. Freddie also was a gay man. A man that understood racism and his Indian past. A broken hearted man. Understood the witch hunting press. A man that had a disease which he fought in the end. He is truly somebody you can love.

I found the history of AIDS was informative, however, I feel the authors over did it. True, you can't read a book about Freddie Mercury without reading about the disease that took his life, but bringing in the development of AIDS made much of the book long winded , and after a while I was wondering how much of of this book was padded with different excerpts from other books and not researched as well as they lead the reader to believe. One giant clue is at the end of the book, they give a long list of people who had died of AIDS and one of the first people they list was Andy Warhol. This is totally incorrect! Andy Warhol died of Arrhythmia after a very complicated gall bladder surgery. If you are going to write a book, do some fact checking, it's not hard to do.

As a 70 year old, I have a lot of favorite bands and their songs on my phone. Queen is one of those favorites. When the recent movie came out, I read the many mixed reviews. As a gay man it dawned on me that I really never knew the real Freddie Mercury. I wanted to read a detailed biography before seeing a film. This book proved to be worth every penny. I found myself reading and then stopping to listen to a song by Queen I was reading about. Freddie's full life beginning from childhood is brought into clear focus by the authors. Like all of us, he was a very complex person living in a time when gays were oblivious to a plague about to invade us all. Read the book, then see the movie.

This book was interestingly formatted, taking the time to explore the origins of HIV and AIDS and place those origins in perspective to lives with which we identify. Unfortunately, this book is in sore need of a qualified editor. It is badly overwritten and repetitive. Freddie Mercury's death took up half the book in excruciating detail; much of it is none of our business, as Mercury worked hard to maintain his privacy. Factual errors and omissions abound. For example, the authors talk about Liza Minnelli a number of times, without noting that six months after Mercury died, her own ex-husband and close friend Peter Allen died of AIDS. They extoll Mercury as a "one off," a flamboyant performer and prolific songwriter, never mentioning that Peter Allen was the same, but a man who left behind a catalogue of songs including "I Honestly Love You," "Fly Away," "The Theme from 'Arthur'" (for which he won an Oscar), "I Go To Rio," and hundreds more. Anyone who saw him leap on top of the piano for "Rio," or dance with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes could never forget the amazing Peter Allen. But to validate their thesis that Freddie Mercury was "one of a kind," they simply forgot him. Inexcusable in a book such as this. Near the end of the book, they list those who suffer from HIV and AIDS without mentioning Peter Allen, and mixing many still alive with those who have passed. For authors who did such deep research into the epidemiological history of the disease that has taken so many lives, this is sloppy and insulting in the extreme. A good deal of Freddy Mercury's life as set out here is pure speculation, something the extremely private Mercury would have despised. I finished the book because I had invested so much time in it, but much of that time was wasted. Mercury deserves better.

Cue the instrumental version of the Gospel song, Guide Me Home. --An appropriate tune to accompany the arresting prose with which Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne describe the final fortnight in the life of the frontman of one of the most popular bands on Earth. Amid the news events of November 10,1991, a private jet flies home from Switzerland to London with a terminally ill passenger who may well have been oblivious to world events, but whom, by month's end, would be the focus of world attention once again. As a car takes the patient, now with failing eyesight home, and the electronic gate of his Garden Lodge, Kensington estate mansion closes behind him for the last time in his life, we are given a sense of a life that is permanently (and prematurely) shutting down, amid trappings of splendor, including Japanese objets d'art, collected from the country that loved and warmly embraced him and his three colleagues so well for 16 years, and perhaps, more relevantly, a grand piano with a closed fallboard its owner will never play again. Upstairs in a master bedroom with faded yellow walls, he receives his medication intravenously.A favorite film--1959's Imitation of Life plays on a VCR.But he is too Ill to weep at the ending any longer. He could hear the press and paparazzi--speculative about his condition for years--chattering outside his Japanese garden. The terminally ill male, aged 45, suffered from AIDS, and had loaned himself out for the testing of experimental drugs for three years.In previous times, his strong constitution withstood copious amounts of booze, unprotected sex, and cocaine.But the experimental drugs have proven futile. As a cold, grey wet Autumn day shrouded London, and the master of the Garden Lodge Estate has decided to go off his medication, taking only painkillers, the Zanzibar born master pianist, and rock showman extraordinaire with the given name of Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, is holed up with his nearest and dearest, resigned to his fate. The intriguing aspect of this 2016 biography--released in time for the 25th anniversary of the singer's death, is that in addition, it chronicles the history of AIDS from its origin and journey around the world as it finds its way towards Freddie Mercury through, unfortunately, every hedonistic fault of his own. We review the life of the gifted singer/songwriter through his birth in Zanzibar, time in boarding school in his parents' native India where he formed his first band, the Hectics, had his first sexual encounter, and the likely impact of being sent away from home at such an early age had on his later behavior. After his return home, an uprising drove the Bulsaras--including father, Bomi, a government accountant, wife, Jer, 12-year-old daughter,Kashmira, as well as 17-year-old Farrokh--out of Zanzibar, they settled in London, near Heathrow Airport, where Farrokh later worked. Studying at Isleworth Polytechnic College, then at Ealing Art College--a pre-cursor to a music career for many rock stars, Freddie Bulsara(as he was known before a final name change)meets his future lifelong colleagues, including Brian May, who lived not far from the Bulsaras, Roger Taylor, who became his roommate, and with whom he ran an antique clothing stall in their salad days,and later bassist, John Deacon. Beforehand, he is involved with a band called Ibex, who name changed to Wreckage, and another short-lived band called Sour Milk Sea. Mercury had a brief romance with one Rosemary Pearson, who grew disenchanted with his attraction to men.A later romantic interest who became his lifelong friend and confidante, Mary Austin, would be a bit more tolerant. His status as a hanger-on of May and Taylor's band, Smile changes, as will the band's name from Smile to Queen. As the legends-to-be come together, beginning their epic but tempestuous 20-year odyssey, the virus that would impact the band's history, which was traced from a slain monkey that bit and infected the Bantu hunter that killed it in the Congo in 1908,and which the hunter may have transmitted to one or more prostitutes, whose clients may have spread it to wives and/or girlfriends back home in Europe, had by that point, been spread by re-used, but badly washed hypodermic needles used to combat African Sleeping Sickness, but which still carried traces of HIV, had by the 1970s, been spread to Haiti by teachers, and social workers who were exposed during time in the former Belgian Congo , where they filled in jobs formerly occupied by Belgian officials who returned home--the backfiring of UNESCO Goodwill program. A blood plasma center in Port-au-Prince was open for two years.Impoverished Haitians donated blood for money to sustain the US blood bank because well-to-do Americans were less likely to.But since supplies of donated blood were not checked for a virus no one thought to look for at the time, many may have received HIV that way as well. The plight of Missouri teenager, Robert Rayford, who died of what is now recognized as HIV in 1969, and who case was publicized in 1986 is duly noted.But how he contracted it remains a mystery. A Canadian flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, who would be misidentified as Patient Zero, contacted the virus in the 1970s, as did actor, Rock Hudson. Mercury was acquainted with both men, and the partner he and Dugas had in common was John Murphy. In 1976,three members of the Roed Family of Bored, Norway would become the first known cluster case of the disease all three died within a year. The hedonistic atmosphere of New York during the US Bicentennial celebration provided more opportunities for the disease to spread.A West Greenwich Village club for gays called The Mineshaft opened in the meat packing district that year.Mercury would join its list of notable clients around 1980, and the book suggests this is where he may have been infected around 1982, although other sources claim that may have happened between 1976 and 1978. While the world enjoyed Queen's musical catalog, including Killer Queen, You're My Best Friend, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, Somebody to Love, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Radio Ga Ga,A Kind of Magic, Under Pressure, and of course, Bohemian Rhapsody, among others, the self-destructive behaviors will alter the band's fate. The book notes an observation by one Dr. Thomas Schmidt about the almost compulsive promiscuity among homosexuals, but also of how unfulfilling many of them find their own behavior. The most popular band in the world by 1980, Queen would continue to have its ups and downs.By mid-decade, they faced penalties for violating a UN ban on artists performing in South Africa in protest of Apartheid by playing at the resort in Sun City. But a high point of drama is the story of the band's redemption at Live Aid the following year when at 6:44PM on Saturday, July 13,1985 Queen's African-born frontman and colleagues took the stage to perform to help starving children in Africa before 72,000 at Wembley Stadium, 100,000 at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, and a worldwide television audience of 1.9 billion .With the best amplified performance, they were truly the Champions of the moment, and that is known as The Day Queen Ruled the World! But signs of Mercury's impending downward spiral were visible even then, in the hoarseness of his voice (he had a cough that day and ignored the advice of a doctor at Wembley against his performing),and a purple mark on his right arm which may have been one of his first sarcomas. Later that year the death of Rock Hudson from AIDS further fueled his anxiety. In counterpoint to the main narrative are the perspectives of his mother,his sister, his band mates,Mary Austin, his friend, actor/singer, Peter Straker, journalist, Lesley-Ann Jones, rock critic, Paul Gambaccini, who claims to have unsuccessfully tried to warn Mercury about modifying his behavior, singer Marc Almond, Jim Hutton, Peter Freestone, Montserrat Caballe,et.al. that round out the story.We also read about the destructive influence of Mercury's lover and personal assistant, Paul Prenter, who succumbed to AIDS three months before the singer did. It begins with a famous quote by Socrates:The unexamined life is not worth living. But this cautionary tale of a gifted, but self-destructive life, like so many before and since, also recounts how a tragic loss further galvanized the fight against AIDS, especially via the memorial concert at Wembley the following spring, and the foundation of the anti-AIDS organization, The Mercury Phoenix Trust, and how the musical stylings of Freddie Mercury continue to delight and inspire, with wisdom and much relevant insight on offer. The star may have fallen, but the legacy continues to rise.

This was a very different book from the usual Freddie Mercury books written by those who only want to tell about their personal relationship with Freddie or someone writing about Freddie's years of excesses. In "Somebody To Love" we get the twin chronological timelines of the HIV/AIDS manifestation over the world and Freddie's life at paralleling times. While I did not learn much new about Freddie in the book, I certainly learned a whole lot more about HIV/AIDS than I knew before reading it. The book is worth twice the price to me alone for the very well developed timeline the virus followed. For instance, while I knew the virus began in Africa, I did not know Day 1, so to speak, was likely back around 1908. Nor did I realize the impact Haiti had on the spreading of the virus. The saddest part of the book as a whole is that Freddie became infected at a time when there was little to nothing that could be done for someone who tested positive. Had he even been 10 years later along the timeline, he likely could have lived a longer life. Great thanks to the authors of this book. Although I bought this book because of Freddie's story, I learned so very much more about HIV/AIDS than I knew before reading it. And what I thought I knew prior to reading it turns out to not have been totally true. It was a book of great learning for me and I thank you for it.

I recently lost my son and started thinking about other young creative males who had passed too soon. Freddie Mercury popped into my head and realizing I knew little about him, I wanted to know more. I ordered 5 books including this one. The first two were a waste of my time. I'm certain you may guess which ones if you've read all of them. This book includes all of what they wrote and so much more. Many want to sweep the sex and AIDS piece under the table. How is this possible as this is how and why he passed? Certainly there were underlying causes and factors for those behaviors which are also touched upon here. This is an honest reflective essay on not only the brilliance of the man, it's also a real and human portrayal of the potential pitfalls of talent, fame, fortune, and mass adulation and it's up and down sides. Clearly he admires his subject, Freddie Mercury and weaves us through the tapestry of his life including a relevant and intelligent history of AIDS. There is some speculation as others have mentioned. I see no harm in this as a few different theories are presented. Clearly it's up to the reader to work out. We'll never know everything as Freddie Mercury was a private man in some ways and those in the know are not spilling the beans, thankfully. The ones who have spoken out only appear to have snippets. Some things are better left private. I found this an interesting worth while read.

I read this book straight through as I couldn't stop, it was so interesting. I've come to absolutely love Freddie Mercury and his musical genius. He seems to have been such a complex personality in some ways, but a superficial, devil-may-care chance-taker in other ways. I can (sort of) remember when he died, but I wasn't really into Queen/Freddie at that time. I vaguely recall hearing the news of his death on the radio; thinking "they just announced yesterday he had AIDS"; wondered how he died so soon; and quickly dismissed it. At the time, I was a young nurse totally focused on my career. I'll remember until the day I die the very first AIDS patient I took care of. It was in the early 80's; we didn't even know for sure what AIDS was. We knew it was contagious, but not how it was spread. This was a very young man who had been living in San Francisco who returned to his parents' home in Missouri to die. We had to gown-up; put on gloves; and mask to even enter his room. I remember scrubbing my hands till they almost bled after taking care of him. It was very sad for this young man to have to die. So I read with much interest this book and the history of the disease and how it came to be--ultimately finding its way to FM. So sad; what a waste to lose FM (and all the others) so young. I try not to ask myself, "why"; it's just the way it is. If you love FM and his music as I do, read this book

I wanted to like this book so much. It starts off with a l-o-n-g history of the AIDS epidemic. It is interesting, researched, and tedious in its telling of the band, the songs, and the people who didn't want them to succeed. Unfortunately, it constantly references his sexuality, his struggles with his coming out and his flamboyancy on the stage,. and every other page seems to say, "did I mention he was gay?" He liked one producer not because he was good or an effective promoter but because "he was gay like Freddie". Enough. Tell the man's story...we all know he was gay or bisexual and it's not a big thing. This book reduced all his genius to one part of the total that made him such a visionary in music. I'd give it 5 for the completeness of his story and a 2 for constantly going back to telling us he was gay.

It is a well researched book that provides the truest portrayal of Freddie Mercury. It is an easy read that gives information accurately from credible sources. Freddie sheltered himself with his best friends much like royalty as quoted in the book. I believe the authors came to accurate summaries of how Freddie's childhood affected and molded him for the rest of his life. We will never know. Maybe only Mary Austen knows. Being written 27 years after Freddie 's death, I believe the background information on AIDS, the homophobia of the time, and limited medicines available, was appropriately included in this book. How soon we all forget. Bravo to Live AND and the Phoenix trust for raising more money for AIDS than the UK and USA did in 5 years.

I could swear I had already reviewed this book but I can't find a personal review anywhere. I've bought and read eight books now about either Freddie or the entire band, and this was the book I found most fascinating, and although I had previously read some slightly negative reviews, they were only from people with apparently no interest in reading about AIDS, whereas I was very interested in it since it's so important to Freddie's life and death. I bought my daughter a copy of this book as well, for Christmas, but because they had to cancel their flights here for the holiday I had to wait a while to mail them their gifts. It either arrives tonight or tomorrow and I can't wait for her to read it. She'll no doubt love it as much as I did.

This book is very interesting in that in not only explains the history and aggressive progression of HIV/AIDS in the 1980's but it explains Freddie Mercury's life in a very respectable manner. It also gives the different versions of what other people in his thought happened and it leaves you to make your own conclusion. It's not as biased as Peter Freestone and Jim Hutton's books. It's a good read, with some things to be taken for face value and for you to make your own conclusions about what you've read. It's a good book and worth the read.

The subtitle is "The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury." However I find that about half the book is about how HIV developed. And the other half is about Mercury's sexual appetite. I find it upsetting as Mercury didn't want to be defined by his sexual orientation, nor by his disease. I pressed on in the book, hoping to at least get some nuggets about his life. However, I called it quits after the authors describe a study done on gay men. They quote the author ".. there is an almost compulsive promiscuity associated with homosexual behaviour. 75% of homosexual men have more than 100 sexual partners during their lifetime." I should note the "study" was from 1995, and the book was published in 2016. I think it is appalling to include that, and I question the verosity of that study. It would seem to me that they lay blame on gay men for contracting HIV, because of their promiscuity. And that so few gays can be in any long term relationship (approximately 8% men and 7% women have relationships lasting more than 3 years). If this was going to be the angle the authors were going to spin (since they included this "information") I decided that the rest of the book wasn't worth my time. If you are looking for a biography on what Freddie Mercury was like as a person, I would pass on this one.

* I have now read 5 books about Freddie Mercury. THIS IS BY FAR THE VERY BEST READ* With so many deeply researched details that are seldom available in other books* But, are none the less, important to fully understand the time line and spread of the virus that took so many lives, including our beloved Freddie* This book acknowledges the Freddie only a few Really Knew. Not Just A Musical Genius, But Loyal Friend, Unbelievably Generous & Quite The Lover Boy*

Somebody to Love is a comprehensive and somewhat definitive exposé on Freddie Mercury and Queen as a group. While the focus doesn't go in depth on the other three band members, it does provide a comprehensive timeline of events of the band's progression from college graduates to a global brand. Juxtaposed with this timeline is the history of HIV/AIDS and the timed progression of the disease from the African jungles to nightclubs and bathhouses of western culture. The story remains informative and interesting throughout, though the timeline of events were sometimes hard to follow. There's a lot of phrases and words used too often, such as hedonism (hedonistic) and "last few years"/ "next few years", but as a whole this book prompted me to read even more on the subject of Freddie Mercury and specifically on the AIDS virus. And the Band Played on is quoted and I highly recommend that book.

I downloaded samples of most of the Freddie Mercury books wanting to know more about him following seeing the new movie and learing much of it was untrue. Anyway, I ended up picking this biography over the rest, but I also downloaded the book by Jim Hutton, because his was easy to get into and felt very intimate and personal. Since I didn't know much about Queen or Freddie, I thought I should read this book first to get a broad base of his life and career, before delving into the story of a lover that knew him for a specific period of time, but I couldn't put down Jim's account! When I finished, I read this book, and I was so disappointed! First, there are inaccuracies in material reported from Jim's book and it made me wonder what else in this book is incorrect? I also didn't like that this biographer doesn't personally know Freddie or anyone else he writes about. This author relies on other biographers' material to tell this story--one being Lesley Jones, who's book sample was one I downloaded and rejected because I didn't like her style, but I got the impression she actually knew Freddie at least--along with quotes from Freddie, the other members of Queen, and others. He doesn't usually explain where the quotes come from in the book, but they are NOT from personal interviews. Again, because I know a few things were reprinted wrongly or taken out of context from Jim's book, I am leery of everything else reported. I also did not like that there are photos at the very end of this book, because after you finish the story, there are pages and pages of discography, an index, and references--boring stuff you would normally skip. Had I not paged through all of it, I would've missed some neat photos, and that also would've been disappointing! This book is a decent read, but what is true and what is not? Is there a better biography you should read? Probably--there are many!

Love Freddie Mercury and Queen, and to gear up for the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' movie I decided to read a biography about the man himself. Although I learned a lot about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its early beginnings I wished I had had more about Freddie and Queen than of the disease that ended up claiming his life. The authors were too repetitive on a lot of subjects or even just reiterating the same sentence three or four times in the same chapter. And Queen's albums and tours and songs felt like just boxes checked off on a timeline instead of thoroughly discussed. I wanted more from his life than of his death, despite the subtitle of the book sharing it evenly between the two including his legacy. Still hyped up about seeing the movie!

After reading EVERY book on Freddie I was quite surprised by this one. A very different perspective including alot of AIDS info. I enjoyed it.

Freddie Mercury was the most brilliantly, talented, charismatic, and greatest frontman of all time!!! This book sheds insight into the mind and world of who Freddie was. Regardless of his sexuality and how he choose to live his life, Freddie Mercury was and is a legend! His vocal and musical talents are unmatched. Queen as a band have broken barriers that many can only dream of doing, whether or not Freddie drove them crazy, they were "family, each one different from the other," and with Freddie's desire for perfection they were a force unlike others! I highly recommend this book to anyone needing to go back in time, and to "feel" Freddie's presence again, and to pay tribute to all those who have lost their lives to AIDS and to those still fighting. Regardless of anyone's sexual preference, we should still treat each other with compassion! Freddie Mercury, "Darling," you are dearly missed!

Interesting read... along with Freddie's life it talks about how we lived the 80's with fear and lack of info about a new disease, now known as HIV/AIDS. It felt personal, as I knew people who died of AIDS when we didn't even know how it got spread and there was no treatment to this terrible disease.

This book is more about Aids the disease more than the musician from an author who obviously is not a scientist and whose education in that area is clearly lacking. Or alternatively, he is using the book to publish its own agenda or too lazy to research a topic before putting it in a book for people to read. As an educated lawyer, I stop reading and requested my money back from Amazon right away. This day with Amazon, anyone can put any garbage out there for people to read. Blame countries with lack of resources for your reckless behaviors. (sexual and otherwise).

I loved this book. It was brilliantly written as both a biography of Freddie Mercury and a historical lesson on the emergence and spread of AIDS. It was touching, fascinating and intriguing, all the while telling the story of a rock legend's life without the sense that the author had an angle or ax to grind. Just a beautiful biography with relevant historical references. I missed the story once it was over.

Did not like, focuses too much on Creddie’s “dark side” and on AIDS and death What dark side? He partied, had sex and did a bit of cocaine. He was a rock god! They all did! Only sensational as he did it with men Love is love He was single, everything was with consenting adults , most rock bands had a far greater “dark side”, it was the 70’s & 80’s, a time of excess Maybe ok for younger fans who aren’t aware of AIDS history, I lived through those times & don’t want to revisit Found it depressing

I found this book a fascinating account of Freddie Mercury's life and the subplot on the AIDS epidemic gut wrenching. As a contemporary of Freddie and having lost two close friends to AIDS I relived the whole experience and am now mourning my friends anew. As much as I believed I was a great friend through their ordeal, I realize now that they must have kept much of their pain inside as Freddie did. Most everything else has been covered in other people's comments. I hope to find time to read this book again!

a very interesting look at Aids and the history of Aids. You will be amazed at the inside of the life of Queen. The movie depicts a lot of what is in the book, but this story gives you a more detailed account of his life. Very interesting background on how the songs were made and came to be.

This book is easily 50% (or more) about AIDS and being homosexual in the 80s. So, if this is the angle you want to know more about, or you identify with that demographic, you would enjoy this book. This book is written very well; it stays in the same style and narration throughout, which many biographies botch up. It is written in an easy-to-follow dialog. The book glosses over an entire album in half a page, then talks about gay male culture for six pages. I can understand that this was a part of who he was, and I can appreciate the challenges outlined, however, I would have appreciated more about Mercury. Perhaps if the book was titled something else, such as "Freddy Mercury in the AIDS epidemic" I wouldn't have been disappointed. He was much more then just these two things. There is almost nothing about the other band members, but the book doesn't advertise that it will.

This book is very well written. It starts off explaining where AIDS originated from, how it came into the US and some other countries, and then it goes into Freddie's parents' lives and his life. As a very long time fan of Freddie Mercury, I have read almost every book that has been written about him. This was written with respect and sensitivity towards Freddie, and not as a distasteful piece of gossip. It provides more bits of information about him that the others do not. There are pieces of information that dispute what others have said about Freddie in blogs and in books. There are some bits of information that makes me curious where the author obtained the information from, and there are some events and people left out of the book, but I believe the author has most of it correct. Most fans of Freddie Mercury are interested in every aspect his life. He was fascinating. Most of us have wondered with great sadness as to when he was infected with the HIV virus. Not because we can change anything, but because we care about him. He definitely lived a dangerous and very self destructive life, which makes me so sad for him. The author provides a lot of good information, and even narrows down a date (within a matter of a couple of weeks) of when he suspects that Freddie was infected with the virus. I personally believe it was a couple of years before the author thinks due to the fact that at least two of his lovers died in 1986, but the author makes some good points regarding why he believes his time frame. None of us will ever really know, and the main point is, our beloved Freddie is gone. How I wish that were not true. The author also explains the much discussed topic of insurance for when they were on tour, and how Freddie was most likely able to dodge that issue. Freddie in fact had several HIV tests over a several year period. What I don't understand is why Freddie continued to have unprotected sex when the epidemic was on everybody's minds in the early 80's, (I remember the news coverage in the very early 80's well) and if he did indeed find out that he was most likely HIV positive why he continued to have unprotected sex. The book is very sobering, it made me sad for Freddie. However, I am glad I read the book, and would definitely recommend it to any Freddie fans that are interested in his life and sadly, the downward spiral that took him from us far too soon. Rest in peace, Freddie. We love you.

Deftly weaving Mercury’s life and the cause of his (and millions of others’) death, it’s hard to put down. Mercury’s life simply isn’t the same without the context of HIV/AIDS, the hidden story. Highly recommended.

I recommend this book to anyone who would want to know how the AIDS Epidemic closed in on Freddie Mercury. Not only does this book walk you through the origin of where AIDS came from and how it manifested itself to becoming a global dreaded decease touching audiences at different levels of society including political, but also how it reached the masses so very quickly at a time when there was no such thing as "Safe Sex" prior to or during the early 80's!!! Freddie Mercury was a very brave man on many levels! I actually have more respect for his (in his mind) unknowingly and misunderstood undoing then I had ever read before. Never judge a book by it's cover!

I’m a huge fan of Mr. Mercury, but this book is tough. I read the reviews and was very excited to dive into the book, but I was thoroughly disappointed. I’m a heavy reader but this book was just incredibly hard to get into. The first 70 pages were covering things that had little to do with Freddie. I literally had to force myself to keep reading it..which makes me sad. Be prepared for a lot of filler and unnecessary rambling.

Such a great internal struggle inside yet gave the world unique sound this was FM of Queen .I only give this book 4 because I have yet to read it ,i read reviews on many books pertaining to Queen & FM having a coffee table book already ,it surprised me when I learned the value of it after paying only 5$, i wanted to read even more about this unique Mercury character lol ,but not willing to fork out $150+ I decided to purchase this and am excited to read it .I will say so far upon opening the book is in perfect quality ,pictures are well done and packaging was well put together arriving early too .

Exquisitely detailed biography of Freddie Mercury that for the first time gave me a sense of who he really was. I now have a much better understanding of what motivated him, what inspired him, what he missed most throughout his life, and what he sought in life. A musical genius with a flair for showmanship, Mercury was at the same time a shared, lonely little boy. One of the best books I’ve read yet on this complex man.

This is a good history of Queen, with the story of HIV neatly intertwined. I haven't read any other books on the subject, so would suggest this for those in the same situation. Freddie Mercury was truly a fascinating person and this biography does a well-deserved justice to his name.

Ok, I LOVE Freddie, always have and always will. I’ve read a few books that some of the authors appear to be exploiting their relationships with him (won’t mention any names) The people that really knew him his entire life never did. This book, however does not. It seems to have been well researched. I took a long time to read it, brought it on holidays and would savor a few pages before sleep. If you are looking for a comprehensive book into Freddie's life, this is the book to read.

I have read some of the books on AIDS the author quoted so I didn't really need to "read" them again. I reviewed it before I finished it which was a mistake. I found, upon reading it in its entirety, to be well-written and interesting. The one problem was the authors made several presumptions in the book which were not based on fact. Otherwise, well done.

This book not only covers Freddie’s incredible life, but also goes in-depth to explain the progression of the aids virus from 1908 to the present. Fantastic!

In depth look at Freddie Mercury and the story of AIDS. Additional reading recommended is “The Great Pretender : A Psychobiography Of Freddie Mercury” by Dewald Louw thesis written Feb 7, 2017. The only question I have about this book is the date Freddie contracted HIV stated 1982. It is documented he was officially diagnosed with AIDS late April 1987. As an untreated young adult homosexual a man with HIV the latency period is 8 to 10 years which means Freddie contracted HIV in the late 1970s. We also know he had a 2 year relationship in the late 1970s with Tony Bastin and a one night stand with John Murphy who both died of AIDs in 1986. The flu like symptoms and oral hairy leukoplakia in August 1982 may have been the result of reinfection or another exposure to HIV increasing his viral load. Oral leukoplakia occurs with a worsening of HIV infection and foreshadows the development of AIDS. Also more common in immunocompromised smokers and Freddie was a chain smoker at that time.

Took my 83 y old mom to see Bohemian Rhapsody and she loved it. This is a gift which I’m sure she’ll enjoy reading.

A real page turner. Mark Langthorne not only gives us a wonderful review of Freddie Mercury's life and talent; there is the back story of HIV/AIDS. Great information for the uninformed. As a 30 year survivor myself, I not only learned more of the life of a man I admire so much; I also became more in tune with a disease whose stigma is by far the worst symptom to overcome. Freddie Mercury is not a man who died from the opportunistic infections of AIDS, instead he is a huge talent from my generation but for generations to come.

Loved this book! To only did it tell Freddie and Queen’s story but an added bonus is the telling of how the AIDS epidemic started. Checking out the books read by the authors has led me to order 2 books by David Quammen-Spillover and The Chimp and the River. The lack of movement by the federal government was horrifying and a crime against humanity. So many deaths could have been avoided.

I got this book thinking I would learn more about Freddie Mercury but end up learning more about Aids than Freddie Mercury. The Title should have be " The History of Aids and how it relates to Freddie Mercury."

This bio was absolutely fascinating as it not only beautifully followed Freddy’s life but also took time to explore the whys and where fores of AIDS- both development and spread. The epidemiology of AIDS and the detective work of scientists was really interesting! I highly recommend this book!

Love that I was able to become totally immersed in Freddie’s story. Felt like I was there watching it happen. Many a nite, I play his music to fall asleep to. Love reading about him. His music gives me comfort and joy!

If you are a big fan, this is the book you want to read. Starts from Freddie's early beginnings to his death. Very detailed and thorough written book. I highly recommend this book from all the other ones out there. For me this is a keeper.

Great book about Freddie! st book I have read about Freddie! I liked the way it explained how AIDS was started! Good details about Freddie. Some I have not read yet when I read this book.

A good read. However, I learned some things about a great musician & songwriter that I really wished I hadn't! It's sad really...how someone so talented & smart would obviously either in denial or knowingly, put so many in fear & danger with an unimaginable sickness as HIV & AIDS. It's actually disturbing!

Seeing the movie Bohemian Rhapsody sparked an interest in reading more about Freddie Mercury. Not only did it shed light on Freddie's life but also gave a lot of information on how the aids epidemic came about.

I've read multiple biographies on Freddie Mercury & Queen, and the reason I keep reading them is that each author has approached the subject from their own perspective. The amount of research and detail on the development of HIV/AIDS and how the spreading of the disease across the globe paralleled Freddie's life was impressive. No one book has told Freddie's story fully, but between this and Laura Jackson's Freddie Mercury biography I feel like I have a very detailed picture of his life, until the next author takes a stab at it that is.

It’s gives a lot of detail on origins of HIV and spread. Very thought provoking, and good info to have really, and so well written how it ended up with Freddie. Also, psychology of childhood and Freddie as well as his life. Very well written.

Wow! I’ve never read a biography that had me in tears, laughing out loud and feeling so much anger to the press and politicians all at once. This book has not only given me a glimpse into the rock phenomena that was Freddie Mercury, but the devastating disease that people all over the world are fighting. Thank you for a remarkable insight and education! Well done to all who created this masterpiece! I salute you!

This book was not as biographical as I would have liked. It did not delve deep but I learned more about Freddie Mercury than I knew before I read it. If you want a somewhat fun light read about Mercury, this is your book.

I am a Queen fan and have admiration for Freddie Mercury. I have read many books and while this one was good, it spent way too much time on AIDS and the history of the disease. Yes, he died of AIDS. But it spent too many chapters on how he died and not how he lived, all the researchers and doctors. I would only assume many fans would rather read about his life. I donated the book to my library. I typically keep books I like.

Good biography. Learned lots. Like that the author also chronicled the AIDS crisis. Between books like this and you tube videos I know more about someone I have come to love

Really enjoyed reading this book, which was part Freddie Mercury, and part a history on the AIDS epidemic. It became quite obvious to me that Freddie knew he had HIV (although in denial), but still was sleeping with many partners, which made it tough to feel for him in the end, although I did.

I couldn’t put this book down. When I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it. I read this book in record time! I really enjoyed it!

Great book and pictures. Shipped fast.

**** This book is great if you want to know about Queen, the band. It portrays Freddie as the greatest partier on Earth I think. I think there was more to him than that....

Liked how they wrote Freddie Mercury's life & how it paralleled the AIDS Crisis. Recommend reading.

Excellent read! Artist was gone too soon!

I tried another book first and found it lacking. I don’t know much about Freddie and after seeing the movie, which I loved, I wanted to know the real story of his life. This book was very in depth and an interesting read. Loved it!

Wonderful book about Freddie Mercury and Queen. Can't say anything else without giving you spoilers.

This is the third book I have read about Freddie Mercury this book is the best by far very informative and not just one-sided

I like the way this book was written. The way it described how Aids started and made it's way to the U.S. was enlightening. Never knew that plasma was imported from Haiti and the manner in which it was obtained from the Haitians. I liked how the book went back and forth between Freddie's life and the epidemic.

I liked how the authors wove the history of AIDS through Freddie's life. Freddie Mercury was a man who lived by his convictions. Agree or disagree with his choices you got to admit that he lived life on his terms. He lived and died the way he wanted. It waa heart wrenching to read about his last days. I got this due to watching Bohemian Rhapsody. I understand better why Freddie's story and the story of Queen was told the way it was. That movie captured the essence of how he dealt with AIDS witin the band. I think he didn't come out becsuse he didn't want to anything to hurt Queen or their legacy. Just my opinion. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It is that good.

It’s a long book, but very easy to read. I found it a refresher on the story of the beginning of AIDS.

With the recent movie Bohemian Rhapsody out, I wanted to brush up on ,y Queen knowledge before I saw this. There was an earlier biography called,Mercury that I preferred, butmI still enjoyed this one.

I liked this book better than Lesley Ann Jones'. It made Freddy more human and real. I appreciated the info about AIDS.

through researched biography of freddie mercury and well written which is unusual in these kinds of books

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Freddie Mercury was a very talented man. The other three band mates were not only talented but we're true friends to Freddie. I also was impressed with the authors knowledge of HIS and AIDS.

394 page turner! Absolutely love the way the authors wrote the book. Even though I knew the ending, I couldn't put the book down.

This was very well written & told much I didn’t know about Freddie Mercury. There is no trash talking- just the facts.

Well written book. Kept my attention throughout. The life and carrier of Freddy is fascinating as well as tragic. Such a tremendous talent. The inception and commitment of the band is inspiring. I appreciated the history lesson on how Aids came to be and how it become a global epidemic. Good read.

This a ia great book. Great history of the AIDS epidemic and how it caught on around world. I could not put the book down,

Absolutely fact based book with a lot of vital information on Aids and the life of Freddie Mercury. A real page turner, I savored this book and didfint want it to end.

I got this as a Christmas gift for my younger sister who absolutely adores Freddie Mercury and she LOVES it! The book itself is very beautiful in person and there are some great pictures of Freddie included in the book that I've never seen before! I'm very happy with this purchase, and so is my sister!

Very well written! Not a big fan of biographies, but Freddie Mercury!! Love the additional information about what HIV/AIDS is and its history!

Great read on the late great Freddie Mercury . Arguably one of the greatest singers of all times this book gives insight into his early years as well as private life and tragic death . There will never be another one . I read pretty much everything there is to read about him and this is one of the best books

This book was wonderful. It did not just tell the life story of Freddie, but it put his life in context. Looking into his psychology and how his culture and the times influenced his choices. Really amazing!!!!

One of the better books I've read about Freddie Mercury. If you're a Freddie Mercury or Queen fan you'll find the book hard to put down!I 5 Stars!!

Not only does it corroborate and validate the many stories we have heard about the irreplaceable Freddie Mercury, it adds a scholarly dimension in terms of tracing the origins of the AIDSvirus and connecting it with Freddie!s life and the experiences which sadly wrote the script for his end. Well done, much more than a gossipy bio, treats AIDS and the patients who succumbed to it with an oft-withheld respect.

Good transaction!! A good read about Freddy!

What a wonderful read. A fantastic biographical account of the greatest frontman that world has or will ever see intertwined with a very well written account of AIDS and it’s early beginnings in the western world.

A great story, I didn't appreciate him while I was growing up, but thankfully I grew to love his music and his story. You live in our hearts Freddie. Thank You

Really liked the book. I have a great love of Mercury & his music. Awful that his life was cut short. He lives on as a legend through his inspired music. RIP now Freddie, we love you.

This was purchased for a granddaughter who LOVES Queen. Hopefully it's age appropriate, as her mom asked for it.

Still reading and enjoying so far.

Looks really interesting!! Nice pictures. Should be a good read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book~

Have read a Number of Books about Freddie Mercury & Queen this is the Best one written

I wanted to find a book that would give me insight into who Freddie Mercury was. This book did just that,plus gave information about how the AIDS virus came to be. Very good read!!

I bought it for my wife, she liked everything about it.

A beautiful book about a legendary human being in all aspects of life , the closest you’ll get to being in his inner circle .

This is an incredibly well written and deeply researched biography. I feel it is the best memoir yet. However, the authors go overboard in expressing their "distain" for "homophobes", almost to the degree of people on Facebook who do so in order to con everyone in to believe they never had a negative thought about homosexuality in their lives.

When it gets to the part where Freddie is very sick it is quite sad but true how it happened. He was a brilliant man and I am glad his songs still live on today.

Just kind bought this book on an impulse and ended up REALLY enjoying it. It was a great chronicle of Queen, Freddy, LGBT issues and aids. I learned a lot. We've come a long way, thank God. I totally recommend this book and I am not even a huge Queen fan. Now I can't wait for the movie!

Insightful and very well written. Not only about the great Freddie Mercury but a very good description of his time, AIDS and the mindset in the UK and América regarding homosexuality. Highly recommended.

Loved this. Very well written and kept my attention. RIP Freddie, you were one of the greatest!

I couldn't wait to read. I'm half way through and love this book. This book grabs you and keeps you there. You can see it through their eys. Condition was good even though it was used.

Son in law loved it.

While this book had insight into Mercury’s life, it was repetitive and too long. There was a lot of hearsay facts that left you questioning the truth. I finished but it was tough.

This book was one of the best I read.

An outstanding read of the life of Freddy Mercury as well as the epidemic of the Aids virus that has changed the way we look at sex.

Just GET this book - it gives an ultimate historical walk thru relating to AIDS, music, Freddie, Queen, homosexuality, the business, rock and rock, everything - this is a complete book that will keep you reading from cover to end.

I thought I knew pretty much everything that was available publicly about Freddie Mercury and Queen, but this book showed me how much I didn't know. Fascinating!

Great book of the life of Freddie Mercury! Also gives insight into AIDS as well. Overall very informative and enjoyed the picture s as well.

I grew up in the 80's so while I heard a lot about AIDS I didn't understand it. This biography takes Freddie Mercury's life and brings it into context with the AIDS epidemic, but maintains its pace and kept me interested.

If you were a Freddie Mercury fan, this is an excellent chronicle of his life. It was incredibly well-researched and documented. Not really a page-turner but it held my attention throughout and I found the personal details pretty fascinating.

Great book and great price! I thought would be a thin book but its a thick book with over 400 pages. Highly recommend.

Freddy Mercury....it's hard to find this book and hardcover also. Now it is in my collection. It was impossible to get anywhere else but from Amazon. thanks.

Best bio I’ve read in relations to how the aids epidemic crept into the gay men’s world wide community , in darkness, catching many unfortunate people by surprise.Lots of good objective info regarding beloved rock star F.M.

Very in depth, Freddy Mercury was a genius

Great book, but lots of details that seemed to be repeated over and over. Could probably loose 150-200 pages with the duplicate information. Otherwise I loved the history and the different perspectives that were included

Book was a disappointment. I had a hard time staying focus because too much narrative all at once.

couldn't put it down. so much i didn't know, and now i wish i had been paying more attention when he was still here. what an incredible performer!

Great book!

Love Freddie. Well written

I tried getting into this book and just couldn't. Very slow moving and did a poor job of keeping my interest.

Best book I have read about Freddie

Great read. Author captured Freddie’s life vividly. I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend for Freddie Mercury and Queen fans!!

Very good book! Many different resources and interviews. Also; huge list of books & interviews to go read as well. A must for a true Freddie and/or Queen fan!

I've read many books about Freddie but the one I enjoyed most was Somebody to Love--it included many facts about the AIDS epidemic in the early 80s but it also seems to have the most balanced look at Freddie's life as a whole! I recommend it 😊

This book placed too much emphasis on when,where,and how Freddie contracted AIDS! I question some of the "facts". Too many differing stories about his sexuality and "promiscuity" It does at times celebrate how stunning and inspiring Freddie truly was!

I was under the impression i ordered a book. No where did i see it was Kindle. I do not have a Kindle & would appreciate a refund.

Great start to my book collection of Freddie Mercury!!

Almost new arrived fast

I love it! It takes about a month to come but it was so worth the wait!:)

This book talks about the life of Freddy Mercury. I found it was very interesting and quite remarkable.

Loved it

Interesting book. Fun to read. Gives you some insight into who he really was.

I am a huge Freddie fan and am truly enjoying this book. I like to learn all I can about him. I feel we would have been great friends f we had crossed paths.

Learned a lot about Freddie Mercury and his life story but also learned a lot about AIDS. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to know Freddie’s story and has a strong stomach.

I did not know who Queen was before the movie Bohemian Rhapsody and to read this book in just one week rounded off what I needed to know about Queen, Mercury and AIDS.

Overall, it surprised me to find that I enjoyed the weaving of the progress of AIDS and the progress of Mercury's career until they finally came together. The storytelling was well done, with me tearing up multiple times in the last 100 pages as we came closer to Mercury's death. It's truly a shame that the editing of the book was the opposite: poor. Not only could this have been better organized at times, but it was often repetitive in a way that really makes one aware of two authors, and the surface-level proofreading was atrocious with often different names or spellings being given to the same person, or different names for the same song ("Exercises in Free Love" is mistakenly also called "...in True Love" in the same paragraph), all the way to small things like a quotation mark instead of a space being used, missing periods, etc. The biggest of all, of course, is the dust jacket which reads that Mercury died in 1992--offensive mistake by the publisher and editor on a book that actually begins with the man's proper death date on (literally) page one. EDIT: I bought a copy for another Freddie enthusiast as a gift and the dust jacket now has the corrected year. Must have been first run that has the error.

I really enjoyed reading this book . I could not put it down and finished it in 2 days. It is well written and gave me some good insights into Freddie’s life and struggles. I like how the author gives a lot of information on AIDS and the big part it played in Freddie’s life. Rest In Peace, Freddie!

great book to read and learn not only about the gratest singer of all times, but also about all the situation and moments he lived

Very interesting book. I learned a lot, both about Freddie and about AIDS. I highly recommend.

Only part way through but absolutely fascinating.

Loved this book. Highly recommend it if you are a Freddie fan. Its detailed and gives a fascinating parallel to HIV and Freddie's life. Detailed information in HIV and everything Mercury.

Didn’t read it yet but I’m looking forward to it

As a huge fan of Queen, it's difficult to find a book that has something in it that I haven't seen or read before. This book had a lot I didn't know. Well written, and great pace to it. Very interesting all the way through. Addictive. A must read.

It is a well written book about the man. If you have any interest in him you will enjoy.

Lots of detail,but I felt the story bounced back & forth a bit too much. Ok read, the ending breaks my heart. Love you, Freddie

Not only a great biography but a very detailed and well researched history of HIV-Aids. Dramatic, enlightening, endearing and educational. A superior read!

i mean its freddy mercury. Buy it.

The best book on Freddie yet [and I've read several]! Very comprehensive from the beginning and easy to read, although sad at the end, which, of course, you know it's coming. Highly recommended.

Fast delivery all as promised.

This seemed to be more of a history of HIV and AIDS than about Freddie. Not one I would recommend.

Written well, I learned a lot. The insights of his "friends" and band members were interesting. I choose to focus on the music of Queen and not so much the personal life of Freddie.

I am just not quite sure what to say about this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the content that related to Freddie Mercury, the band, and the piecing together of events over the time he more than likely knew he was infected and his death. The quotes and interview snippets were interesting as well, not having read some of them before. However, I was not expecting another "And The Band Played On". There seemed to me to be as much of the book devoted to the history of HIV as there is to Freddie Mercury. It would have been very interesting, I'm sure, if I had not already been knowledgeable of the inception of the virus. I suppose I expected more focus on Freddie Mercury.

Super fast shipping! Great addition to our Freddy collection!

Loved it

Great book about the greatest frontman in music history. If you love Freddie Mercury...buy this book.

As a life long Freddie Mercury fan, this book tells a lot about the start and spread of hiv and aids, and of Freddie’s life. The ending is so sad. A great addition to my Queen and Freddie Mercury Library. This book does not disappoint!

Great

Great insight to Freddie's life, and the history of AIDS. Very worth the money.

Excellent in depth biography of A rock and roll icon and amazing person.

A must read for all Queen fans!

A very detailed book. Not only provides much info on Freddie, but it also outlines the origin of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This was a pretty good timeline of the Aids epidemic and how it created the perfect storm for Freddie's fate..but also how Queen fought to come together and stay together.

Love love love this book. A lot of history on his illness from the beginning which is very interesting.

Book is well written but there seemed to be too much info about AIDS. I didn’t get the book to learn about the disease. Most, if not all, information about Freddie was not first hand.

Great!

One of the best book about life of Freddie Mercury.

Gave me a lot of AIDS info. Liked the way the author correlated the words of his songs with Freddie’s life- so sad.

This is an amazing book about the rise, (and inevitable) fall and death of Freddie Mercury. It also delves into the AIDS pandemic; where it came from, how it spread, and the utter pandemonium and devastation it unrelentingly released on such an unsuspecting population. This is an amazing read, and definitely worth five stars.

Loved every minute of this book

It was a very interesting book & it was read fast.

This first half of this book , gives you an education of the complete history of aids. To me, I could have less info about aids, and more about Freddie, but pretty good book.

Great book and fast service