Beautifully written and powerful

I did read this but I no longer feel comfortable recommending anything by this author. 

This was a quick, mostly fun read. She discusses so much about her experience with drag and within the drag community (including her time on RuPaul's Drag Race and interactions with queens who had been on the show after leaving). There is so much messiness that she is open about (not just talking about others, but a lot about herself). There are some of tough experiences that she discusses, including hate crimes, abuse, and alcoholism/addiction - but she manages to give some details without it being a super heavy book. 

This is very much written in Alaska's voice, which I really enjoyed but if you aren't already a fan (or if you come in expecting more traditional writing style), it could be off-putting. I'm not sure I would have been as into it if I wasn't already interested in her to begin with. There are definitely technical critiques I could give or details I could say that I wanted, but at the end of it, I did read most of it in a sitting and had a fun time doing it, which is why it ended up with a higher rating. I would mainly recommend this to folks who are already interested in Alaska or popular drag queens more broadly. 

Other notable CWs are for slurs including the f-slur used in full and a couple that are mentioned but not typed in full as well as racism. In particular, she talks about Sharon Needles' racist depictions in drag and use of the n-word. 

I really loved a lot of things that this book did! There was so much cool stuff going on with theme and character development, as well as discussion of gender and even nonmonogomy. It's such a unique and effective way to discuss breaking up but also different kinds of love in a way that is more nuanced and mature than most YA or adult romance books. The discussion of queer community and queer spaces was also really neat. 

While some of the plot didn't feel as high stakes to me (or I wasn't as invested in it as I was in these other elements), it was still a really good read and I think one that would be really important for a lot of people to pick up.

This was such an incredible book! Written by an autistic trans social psychologist, this focused on high masking autistic experiences. He begins by talking about who is more likely to mask/less likely to be diagnosed as a child, what traits get overlooked, issues with how autism is "treated". Then, he goes into what masking can look like, how we might decide to unmask, and ending with what we need to do as a society to make it a safe place for people to live unmasked. I really loved that he talks so much about the social - not just ableism and stigma, but also aspects of racism, impact of poverty, and transphobia, among other things. 

This can be useful for anyone looking to understand the autistic experience, but it's written more specifically for neurodivergent people (especially for autistics, but but he talks about the fact that other ND folks can experience masking as well). I've looked a lot into autism over the years - especially the experiences of those diagnosed as an adult. Even still, there were so many things that he described and connected that made so much more sense. It's another book that I wish I'd had years ago, but am very grateful to have have it now.

 This speaks beautifully about trans love and the importance of being able to see yourself in history.

Told through poems, this YA romance focuses on two teens, Aaron and Oliver, who are long time best friends and secretly dating. Both are coming to understand their trans identities and by digging further into Revolutionary War history, may have found trans soldiers who had fallen in love. They are thrown for another loop when Aaron moves away, and they decide to exchange letters instead of texts in honor of their revolutionary namesakes.

This is about first love, growing up, and contending with identity and history. I was a little concerned that this might dip into the ahistorical patriotic fevor that so often surrounds the founding of this country, but I was pleasantly suprised that there was some nuance and discussion about some of the issues (particularly through the Puerto Rican MC, Aaron).

There were some small parts that I could, perhaps, critique but over all, I really loved this. The descriptions of the love and tenderness in this story absolutely made me cry in the best way. And there were so many details about transness (some of which were different for each character) that I think were well done and important.