Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life

RuPaul, Divine, The Werk Room, lip synching drag queens, pop culture, Paris is Burning—if this list makes your eyes grow wide wanting more, then this is your book. Legendary Children by Fitzgerald and Marquez is partly a history, partly a social commentary, partly a book of mini-essays/vignettes. It is the kind of book that you read a few pages of, learn something new, maybe laugh or cry (or emphatically nod) and then put down for a bit. It doesn’t read like a novel, which is not a criticism. It reads like a series of little histories, woven together through RuPaul’s Drag Race and its history. LGBTQ+ history, specifically drag history, is explored through everything from the Stonewall Riots to John Waters to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. It is helpful if the reader has watched at least a couple of episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race before reading it. Otherwise, the reader doesn’t need to have any background knowledge in order to thoroughly enjoy the book.