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A review by renatasnacks
Middle School's a Drag, You Better Werk! by Greg Howard
2.0
OK I mean I think it's cool to have a MG book about drag queens, and I think the way that the narrator learns about drag via RuPaul's drag race and frequent google searches is something that will be really relatable for a selection of tween readers. As the book itself knows, "drag kids" are taking off online and there are definitely some younger readers who will be interested in it for this reason.
Sadly the book's narrator isn't a drag kid, he's a semi-closeted gay boy whose comes from a generation of entrepreneurs, so he's always trying to start businesses and has most recently settled on starting a talent agency, so he books a drag queen 8th grader from his school.
It's a cute premise...for me as an adult reader, Mikey the narrator is supes annoying; his favorite modifier is "crazy-awesome" and that is used on every page. (Sometimes even "super-crazy-awesome.")
Also when we learned that Julian/Coco's dad disapproved of drag I know the dad was going to end up at the drag show and Learn a Valuable Lesson About Accepting his Son, which is nice I guess, but I think it's not cool that MIKEY called Julian's dad and invited him when Julian, Julian's mom, and Julian's grandma all thought it was a bad idea...idk like IRL that doesn't always work out so great.
also like...did you guess that the school bully is actually a gifted artist whose dad puts a lot of pressure on him and in the end can befriend Mikey? did....you guess it. idk I mean it's nice to consider that bullies have problems too but also this befriending-the-bully trope is often like....too much. Also like no surprise that Mikey was literally reading Wonder in this book. Bleh.
Still, it's a cute queer romance and I think there are aspects of this that will appeal to a lot of young readers. My rating is for me, as an adult this was pretty annoying.
Sadly the book's narrator isn't a drag kid, he's a semi-closeted gay boy whose comes from a generation of entrepreneurs, so he's always trying to start businesses and has most recently settled on starting a talent agency, so he books a drag queen 8th grader from his school.
It's a cute premise...for me as an adult reader, Mikey the narrator is supes annoying; his favorite modifier is "crazy-awesome" and that is used on every page. (Sometimes even "super-crazy-awesome.")
Spoiler
Also when we learned that Julian/Coco's dad disapproved of drag I know the dad was going to end up at the drag show and Learn a Valuable Lesson About Accepting his Son, which is nice I guess, but I think it's not cool that MIKEY called Julian's dad and invited him when Julian, Julian's mom, and Julian's grandma all thought it was a bad idea...idk like IRL that doesn't always work out so great.
also like...did you guess that the school bully is actually a gifted artist whose dad puts a lot of pressure on him and in the end can befriend Mikey? did....you guess it. idk I mean it's nice to consider that bullies have problems too but also this befriending-the-bully trope is often like....too much. Also like no surprise that Mikey was literally reading Wonder in this book. Bleh.
Still, it's a cute queer romance and I think there are aspects of this that will appeal to a lot of young readers. My rating is for me, as an adult this was pretty annoying.