Hilarious, over-the-top, dripping with spangle and glitter Billy Bloom is a high school drag queen who decides to run for homecoming queen amidst his other homophobic, hyperconservative classmates. Thoroughly enjoyed this! ( )

[review written 2011]

I finished Freak Show by James St. James today and it was a rather intriguing book. It was funny, sometimes sad, but a really enjoyable book nonetheless. The writing style irritated me a little, but for the most point it really fit Billy, and it was in first-person so it made sense. It was funny how Billy was so dramatic. ( )

Having faced teasing that turned into a brutal attack, Christianity expressed as persecution, and the loss of his only real friend when he could no longer keep his crush under wraps, seventeen-year-old Billy Bloom, a drag queen, decides the only way to become fabulous again is to run for Homecoming Queen at his elite, private school near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The GAYEST novel in the GLBT YA genre I've ever read! Over-the-top, exuberant, wa-a-ay-out-there. But sad and optimistic, too. Oh, and the author has appeared on America's Next Top Model. Fabulous!!!!!!!

Billy is a gay drag queen attending a conservative prep school and living with his dad in Florida after being kicked out of his mother’s house in Connecticut (when she caught him wearing her Ungaro dress). Billy is beyond over the top for his classmates. His biology teacher looks the other way when he is teased and abused by classmates. The abuse culminates in a brutal beating in class that lands Billy in the hospital. Miraculously, popular jock Flip Kelly stops the beating and later regularly visits Billy in the hospital and at his house. When a spontaneous, intimate moment between Billy and Flip ends badly, Billy decides to reemerge as a new, stronger person: Superfreak. He campaigns for homecoming queen on the platform that everyone is a freak in his or her own way. Not the book for everyone but the just the right book for someone!
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Billy Bloom is a gay teenager who has recently moved to Florida. It’s bad enough being the new kid at school when you are a senior, but being an emerging drag queen at an ultra-rich, ultra-conservative school is even more challenging. Billy tries to make friends but the teasing, taunting and bullying he has to endure get out of hand quickly. Deciding that he has to be himself and speak up (and out loud) for all those other “shadow kids” trying to get along by not being noticed, Billy makes a momentous decision – he’s going to run for Homecoming Queen!

There is a nugget of a great story here. Billy’s situation is shared by many teens, who struggle with being themselves and also fitting in (or at least not being bullied, harassed, beaten up). His efforts are sometimes hilariously funny, sometimes incredibly touching, and sometimes so very inappropriate that they took me completely aback. I found myself alternately cheering for Billy and cringing at his antics. He was so over-the-top and the other students such caricatures that the important message here was somewhat lost in the glitter and drama.

The writing is, frankly, not very good. I nearly gave up after just a couple of pages because I am way past the teenage years and not very interested in wallowing in teen angst and self-absorption. But it’s a very fast read, and I flew through it. The young adult audience will probably enjoy it more.
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