This text reviews the book “Salón de belleza” by Mexican writer Mario Bellatin (1994, 2013). The novel is centred on the outbreak of a deadly, incurable and unknown disease, presumably AIDS, from the point of view of an unnamed cross-dressing narrator who runs a beauty salon, which eventually becomes a deathbed for homosexuals suffering from the illness. The review begins by presenting an overview of AIDS/HIV appearance in the 1980s, then compares AIDS and cancer in terms of metaphor, and goes on to explore how Bellatin’s novel interweaves disease, metaphor and literature.