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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This took me a minute to get into and I found myself wanting to quit a few times because this boom felt very high school. I pushed because this has been on my TBR for a very long time, overall I’m glad I did read it! It turned out to be a very cute story about a girl discovering the layers of queer culture and drag performance. Although I could not get over the 2/3 of the kisses in this book taking place with someone 20+ years old with a 17 year old. That just continuously felt icky to me. I do also feel there’s a lot of loose ends I wish were tied up, I don’t know if it was intentional and there is a squeal, I wish a few more things with mom or friends were better closed. But I do wanna be friends with Deedee for sure
This is a story of Nima who is from a small town and tired of her life there, where she feels out of place and unsure of herself, with a crush on a straight girl who will never love her back. By chance she wanders into a tent at a local carnival, and BAM. She is thrown into a wild, colorful world of drag kings and queens. After meeting Dee Dee, a local Queen who introduces her to this new world, and really, changes Nima’s life forever.
I thought this book was wonderful. It has a full cast, with almost every character being either LGBTQ+ or POC. The world building was awesome, and I thought that the main character was relatable and endearing. There was much drama and exaggeration in this book, but it never felt out of place for me. As much as I liked Nima, Dee Dee really stole the show for me. She was kind and brave, and a great role model for Nima and others. I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone!
I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I thought this book was wonderful. It has a full cast, with almost every character being either LGBTQ+ or POC. The world building was awesome, and I thought that the main character was relatable and endearing. There was much drama and exaggeration in this book, but it never felt out of place for me. As much as I liked Nima, Dee Dee really stole the show for me. She was kind and brave, and a great role model for Nima and others. I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to anyone!
I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Trigger warning - homophobic slurs, child abandonment
Actual rating 4.50
This was messy and dramatic and a little unrealistic and absolutely lovely. I was grinning for so much of this book and I am so happy that I finally read this. I loved seeing a pure celebration of identity and drag and friendship and family. I am so glad I picked this up and I am eagerly anticipating more stories by this author.
Actual rating 4.50
This was messy and dramatic and a little unrealistic and absolutely lovely. I was grinning for so much of this book and I am so happy that I finally read this. I loved seeing a pure celebration of identity and drag and friendship and family. I am so glad I picked this up and I am eagerly anticipating more stories by this author.
fun fun fun.
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this book was so different and I LOVED THAT. this book follows a girl named Nima who is in love with her friend. she eventually finds out about drag queens and that allows Nima to truly find herself.
plot. I liked the whole discovery of Nima's self. Nima is in love with her best friend and she almost tells her, but the friend admits she has known the entire time. like how rude is that. knowing someone likes you the entire time and persisting to lead them on. there was the character, gordon, who was really mean to Nima, and she even refers (which is a bit of foreshadowing) by saying "sometimes assholes are just hurt souls.". this book really helped me understand the world of drag. I never really understood that this was more of a way of expression, and that drag queens are confined to a certain sexual identity. there's this part in the book where Nima is invited to hang out with winnow. winnow introduces her to Devi and Boyd. Boyd is a drag queen, but he dates girls which Nima has the discovery that drag queens can date girls because she assumes most people that are drag queens are a certain type of person. anyways, Nima and winnow's relationship was so pure but their entire fight was a tad dumb for me because Nima was just scared to really commit. Nima starts to go through a lot. she has her mom write a letter to meet her after she left her without a trace almost 2 years ago, her best friend she was in love with (ginny) kisses her because she was "curious," she gets closer to gordon (her childhood bully maybe) after he reveals that he doesn't feel right in his body and that was cool to watch. she also has a great adult figure in Deidre who is transgender and is comforting to gordon, but also tells Nima to try to become a drag queen and really try to go outside of her comfort zone. Nima finds out that her mom and Jill were closer than friends, and her mom left because Jill didn't want to start dating her because it would hurt her dad and that was a lot. like I could understand that Jill might have had a crush on her, but the fact she left because she didn't want to comfort what happened was sad. anyways, the book ends with Nima getting with winnow and just really becoming herself.
this review sucks (I'm sorry), but this book was a lot of fun. I encouraged reading it.
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this book was so different and I LOVED THAT. this book follows a girl named Nima who is in love with her friend. she eventually finds out about drag queens and that allows Nima to truly find herself.
plot. I liked the whole discovery of Nima's self. Nima is in love with her best friend and she almost tells her, but the friend admits she has known the entire time. like how rude is that. knowing someone likes you the entire time and persisting to lead them on. there was the character, gordon, who was really mean to Nima, and she even refers (which is a bit of foreshadowing) by saying "sometimes assholes are just hurt souls.". this book really helped me understand the world of drag. I never really understood that this was more of a way of expression, and that drag queens are confined to a certain sexual identity. there's this part in the book where Nima is invited to hang out with winnow. winnow introduces her to Devi and Boyd. Boyd is a drag queen, but he dates girls which Nima has the discovery that drag queens can date girls because she assumes most people that are drag queens are a certain type of person. anyways, Nima and winnow's relationship was so pure but their entire fight was a tad dumb for me because Nima was just scared to really commit. Nima starts to go through a lot. she has her mom write a letter to meet her after she left her without a trace almost 2 years ago, her best friend she was in love with (ginny) kisses her because she was "curious," she gets closer to gordon (her childhood bully maybe) after he reveals that he doesn't feel right in his body and that was cool to watch. she also has a great adult figure in Deidre who is transgender and is comforting to gordon, but also tells Nima to try to become a drag queen and really try to go outside of her comfort zone. Nima finds out that her mom and Jill were closer than friends, and her mom left because Jill didn't want to start dating her because it would hurt her dad and that was a lot. like I could understand that Jill might have had a crush on her, but the fact she left because she didn't want to comfort what happened was sad. anyways, the book ends with Nima getting with winnow and just really becoming herself.
this review sucks (I'm sorry), but this book was a lot of fun. I encouraged reading it.
Firstly I cannot tell you how much I adore Deirdre. She is one of my favourite book characters ever and is such a good figure to Nima.
Admittedly it took me a little while to get into the book, but once I did I was hooked. Even though the ending was a little messy I still felt that many of the important plot point were tied up well.
However, I felt the plot point with Nima's mother was a little unneeded, possibly just there to highlight how Dierdre has become somewhat of a mother/sister figure to Nima.
Overall, such a fun read and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for whatever Boteju writes next!
Admittedly it took me a little while to get into the book, but once I did I was hooked. Even though the ending was a little messy I still felt that many of the important plot point were tied up well.
However, I felt the plot point with Nima's mother was a little unneeded, possibly just there to highlight how Dierdre has become somewhat of a mother/sister figure to Nima.
Overall, such a fun read and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for whatever Boteju writes next!
This is a lovely and very important book. I love to see stories often overlooked be told! This book truly has so much good stuff! Drag shows and queerness!! Growing pains!! Relationship struggles of all kinds, from friends to family to romance!!
Absolutely give this a read for a good time with some truly wonderful characters. ❤️
Absolutely give this a read for a good time with some truly wonderful characters. ❤️