Freak Show

Elizabeth Ward

Gutsy, funny, over-the-top Billy Bloom is a profile in courage.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

As big a splash as St. James (Disco Bloodbath) made on the Club Kid circuit in the 1980s and '90s, his entree into the YA world may prove to be equally fraught with controversy—and over-the-top fabulousness. Billy Bloom, a scrawny, pale redhead, plays the novel's underdog and champion—a 17-year-old for whom the phrase "drag queen" is scarcely sufficient. Frenetically narrating with a tongue seemingly dipped in both acid and silver, Billy recounts his abrupt transplant from life with his mother in Darien, Conn., to Fort Lauderdale, where he now lives with his wealthy and distant father. Billy finds himself a high school senior enrolled at the Eisenhower Academy, populated with "Stepford teens in full preen. In your choice of blond or blonder." St. James pulls no punches in describing the escalating verbal and physical abuse Billy suffers at the hands of his classmates. On a day when he comes to school outfitted as a primeval swamp queen ("This is not a dress, it's an ecosystem"), Billy's peers so brutally attack him that he goes into a coma. Yet he finds an unlikely ally in the gorgeous and universally adored football player Flip Kelly. Rather than leave the academy, Billy takes a stand for outcasts everywhere by running for homecoming queen, and attracts statewide media attention. In Billy Bloom, St. James has created an archetypal hero for outsiders and freaks. Though the subject matter and language will likely prove controversial, it's nearly impossible to remain untouched after walking a mile in the stilettos of someone so unfailingly true to himself and so blisteringly funny. Ages 14-up. (May) Agency: World of Wonder.

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

VOYA - Kimberly Paone

Billy Bloom has just moved from liberal Connecticut, where he lived with his unstable but usually fun mother. He now lives with his very serious and not fun at all father in a conservative Florida town. Billy is a teenage drag queen. Needless to say, his new classmates, the Barbies and Kens at Dwight D. Eisenhower Academy, are shocked to see Billy on the first day of school-sashaying in a ruffly pirate ensemble. They also do not appreciate his goddess of the swamp gown or his pink-and-green country club clam-diggers and matching sweater set. This introduction begins a painful new year for Billy-starting with spit balls and rude whispered taunts and ending with a beating that puts him in the hospital. Billy's physical wounds heal, he gains a new friend along the way-hunky quarterback, Flip-and he decides to run for homecoming queen. One can imagine the chaos that ensues. St. James knows of what he writes; he is the author of Disco Bloodbath (Simon & Schuster, 1999), which was made into the 2002 movie Party Monster. Although this first effort for teens is noble and Billy is a loveable but sometimes clueless character, the book is more A than YA, a tad too drawn out and containing many references to '80s pop culture that today's teens just will not get. But because readers have not seen anything like this book in YA lit and if a collection's other GLTBQ books circulate, this one probably should be added.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up
Teenage drag queen Billy Bloom explodes onto the conservative scene at Eisenhower Academy, where he finds love and a band of blond sadists. St. James tells the oldest story in the book, the one where an outcast seeks the homecoming crown, only this time a queen wants to be Queen. Billy's bold, bawdy narration makes Freak Show not only cohesive but also immensely entertaining. Readers will relish his conversational voice, naughty humor, celebrity put-downs, unabashed exuberance, and ALL CAPS expletives. Beneath the sequins, feathers, and foundation, Billy nurses an ardent desire for acceptance. Teens will quickly identify with his worries and needs, even as he dons lip gloss and a beehive wig. Billy shirks labels (he calls himself a "Gender Obscurist"), and this book also refuses to be defined by sexuality. Yes, Billy falls for another boy, and yes, they do kiss. Teens will find this romance fresh and fun, but they will also enjoy exploring complicated issues of empowerment, bigotry, self-esteem, and fear. Freak Show visits these difficult regions of adolescence with gracious candor and humor. More buoyant than weighty, this book flows as a fast-paced, snarky story of high school horrors. Mature readers will love St. James's playful rendition of a conventional American tale.
—Shelley HuntingtonCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

On the first day of school, Billy Bloom arrives on the scene decked out in full Vivienne Westwood pirate regalia, complete with tights, pearls, a sword, gold teeth and a Cap'n Crunch hat. He's an artist, a rebel, a metamorph and self-described gender-obscurist-the first and, to date, the most lovably entertaining and fully realized of his kind to grace the first-person protagonist role of a YA novel. To say that he's out of his element at his new high school-in a Stepford-ish, swampy, podunk Florida town-would be an understatement, and he's met with the to-be-expected slew of verbal torments from his classmates. Soon the homophobia escalates to violence, and, after recovering, he devises a plan to barge his way straight through the close-minded hearts of his community to Prom Queen notoriety. His platform? "Tease hair, not homos," and "Gender is a choice, not a life sentence." Only St. James, an artist not unlike Billy, could compose such an accessible, deliciously outrageous, machine-gun barrage of bitchy, button-pushing drag queen humor packed with snarky innuendos and tongue-in-cheek one-liners. The results? A groundbreaking, eye-opening, romantic, bittersweet story of one boy's determination to seek acceptance for who he is and right the wrongs of his world, one dress at a time. (Fiction. YA)