Don't Be a Drag

 Don't Be A Drag by Skye Quinlan, 368 pages.

After Briar Vincent's mental health takes a dangerously bad turn, her beloved older brother flies her out to spend the summer with him in New York, where he moved after graduation to escape their small Texas hometown and pursue his dreams of being a drag queen. New York is initially almost too much for Briar's anxiety to bear, especially after clashing with a drag king who is irritatingly full of herself (and also frustratingly hot). Which is how Briar ends up in a drag king of the year competition despite never having done drag in her life. 

This is, overall, a sort of fun book about community building. There were some aspects I found frustrating (some inconsistent characterization, a pretty slow plot, a few other minor quibbles), but there were also some interesting portions, putting it at a pretty solid 3 out of 5 for me. This is definitely a young adult novel, so mileage may vary with enjoyment of the genre. Overall a fine book with good representation. 

Razzmatazz

 

Razzmatazz by Christopher Moore  390 pp.

This is kind of a sequel to Moore's Noir, revisiting the characters Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin and his girlfriend Stilton (aka The Cheese). The story is a convoluted tale of Chinese immigrants, prostitutes, Lesbians, drag queens, an overambitious anti-gay head of the vice squad, an alien (space type), and dragons of the mythological type all inhabiting post-WWII San Francisco. I can't really explain the connections between all the different elements but Moore makes it work. I admit to some confusion during the story but it all works out in the end. This is far from Moore's best work and doesn't come close to his Shakespeare satires but I enjoyed it. The theory of what caused the 1906 earthquake makes it worth reading.