Summary: Billy Bloom is going into his senior year in high school. He is a self-appointed “Gender Obscurist” living happily in Connecticut until his mother banishes him, for reasons we don’t find out about. He has to move to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where his father lives. In Florida things don’t work out so well with his sense of style and voice. Billy is not your everyday, run of the mill high school kid, he is gay and a fabulous drag queen who doesn’t hide it and even flaunts it. This is a problem in his new elitist, conservative school. He is everyone’s target, even the other outcasts target him. In a final attempt to put an end to the homophobia, Billy decides to go to school in the most outrageous drag you could imagine. This doesn’t work out so well for him, he is beaten into a coma and spends the next month recovering at home. Flip Kelly comes into the picture and to his rescue. He is a star football player who saved Billy from near death and agrees to tutor him while he’s recuperating. He, Flip and Blah Blah Blah, a girl who doesn’t necessarily do what’s expected either, all become friends, which gives Billy hope for the future. He decides to run for Homecoming Queen with the strong declaration that “Gender is a choice, not a life sentence.”
Commentary: Billy's first person recount of this story will have you laughing out loud and crying the very next moment. After listening to his interviews, this story is somewhat autobiographical. In the beginning Billy is self-centered but grows throughout the book into a kind and more self-aware teenager, which is really hard to do as a teenager.
Connections: I would consider this book Realistic Fiction, even though the author admitted it is somewhat autobiographical. It was difficult to find book trailers because there is so much stuff on the movie. I also never found the author's actually webpage.
Video interview with the author about the book being turned into a movie.
Author reads from his book Freak Show.
Book Trailer
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