reviewed by Grace Davies
Rating: 5/5 stars
‘Barbara was right — something was coming. This cretin virus wasn’t going to win. He’d not be beaten. It would not kill him. Who of these jiggling knights would ride with him on this quest for the holy grail of survival? What did he have to do to win this fucking war?
G.S. Johnston, in his novel For a Moment More (2026), explores the ephemeral nature not only of life, but also of what it means to truly live.
Set in Sydney in 1993 during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Johnston’s powerful novel brims with wit and emotional impact. For a Moment More (2026) tells a raw, unfiltered and vital story of the Australian queer experience.
The story follows Chris, who works in Oxford Street while his health begins to decline. The story gives the reader insight into Chris’s internal struggle as hope battles his sadness over his own suffering and that of his community. Johnston takes the seemingly mundane- going to work, chatting with a friend, having breakfast and fills these moments with heart and soul. Despite the third-person perspective, I felt a deep connection to Chris, a character brilliantly built by Johnston as genuine, strong, and kind. I particularly loved the friendship between Chris and Jeanie, who Chris met working at the HIV/AIDS hotline and bonded with through their experiences of grief. Chris and Jeanie’s friendship feels like the epitome of what friendship should be. The two argue at moments in the novel, but this never detracts from their bond of shared understanding and support. Conversations with Jeanie offer respite for both Chris and the reader from the moments of tragedy and struggle with those of tender friendship and care.
From the very first paragraph, the reader is introduced to Johnston’s expressive and vivid imagery. The descriptions of Saturday ‘night’s thump and roar’ and ‘soupy humidity clinging to skin’ draw the reader into Sydney’s Oxford Street of the early nineties. Moreover, his gift for alliteration, as in ‘blooms of pastel peonies and closely coiled ranunculus’, infuses prosaic events with heart. The pacing remains tight throughout, mirroring Chris’s desire to remain resolute in the face of death and darkness surrounding him and all those affected by HIV/AIDS. Chris’s reflections that the fight against HIV/AIDS ‘wasn’t just a fight for life; it was a fight for rights’ encapsulate the defiant sentiment that remains pertinent throughout the novel.
I normally gravitate towards fantastical fiction, seeking an escape from the world, but For a Moment More’s (2026) realistic fiction had me gripped from the first few lines. Johnston demonstrates the undeniable truth of the importance that the LGBTQIA+ community has and continues to have in Australian society. I was left feeling grateful to Johnston for writing this story.
