I mean this wasn't bad just not as good as it could have been. Many of the interviews felt repetitive as it was the same and similar questions. I also wished the interviews were allowed to be a bit longer. My only other qualm is that it seemed to really focus on the value of success in a cishet patriarchal world and that didn't also sit just right with me.

Interesting and inspiring. Thank you for this book. So many amazing, powerful, entertaining, strong queer people to help us all believe in ourselves and live in power.

THIS BOOK!! RIGHT HERE!! IS PERFECTION!! I really enjoyed everything about this book, and all of the conversations that were discussing and delved into were really important, and I think everyone should read this, because it uncurtains an experience that many have, and many others should know about.

This is a powerful read, explores a variety of topics on some of the biggest / most influential people of our time. A lot of great essays that will leave you with something to think about.

This was an insightful read about LGBTQIA+ trailblazers, who come from various walks of life, experiences, and career/personal paths. I enjoyed reading about each person's experiences with being queer, both it's external challenges and its advantage within their lives and careers.

I had the privilege of seeing George Takei speak at my university a few years ago and he spoke of his experience with being queer as well as an actor and the times in which being queer was an advantage and enriching, as well as a disadvantage in the eyes of some. It was nice to read about his experiences again.

An excellent account of poplar LGBTQ icons and leaders. Being queer is an advantage, and this book is sure to inspire.

Amazing book for any and all, but especially if you identify as queer! As a queer woman I greatly enjoyed this book and the conversations it sparked as a result. It will get you thinking, and questioning the world around us, and why things are the way they are. Highly recommend this one.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The character development was subtle in a myriad of ways, and the plot moves along quickly enough to keep interest. I could have used a little more expansion around the ending of the book, but on the whole found the experience very enjoyable.

This is a great resource book that I enjoyed very much. I learned about amazing people. Some I had heard of before and some I hadn't. Successful people from a lot of different meanings of the word. A lot of different walks of lifes represented but sadly no Intersex or Asexual people are noted.

I loved getting glimpses into these really special interviews! I appreciated that this didn't focus solely on famous celebrities and pop culture icons. There was representation of politicians, STEM members, and other non-Hollywood adjacent types. I think my favorite interview was with Dan Levy, but that's just because I'm such a huge Schitt's Creek fan. I liked this book, but I think the illustrations could have been pushed a bit more and the paper quality of the book itself increased.

This was a good concept and I did enjoy it, but I wish the interviews had been longer. I feel as if we'd have gotten a lot more out of this book had we stayed with each person a little bit longer.

The Queer Advantage is a compelling collection of interviews with some of the nation's most successful members of the LGBTQ+ community. Each interview attempts to answer "what is the queer advantage? What gives a queer person an advantage?" The stories and interviews presented are inspiring and make me want to examine my life for my own queer advantage. The format is highly readable. Each interview starts with a short biography and then goes into the Q&A portion. It was easy to follow and very enjoyable to read. I would definitely recommend this to my friends in the LGBTQ+ community.

“Being queer has made me more sympathetic to people who are different, all across the board. It’s given me occasion to interrogate my own privilege and consider just how hard other people’s lives are. Because I know how hard my life was and it makes me more able to understand the burdens that other people carry in silence.”
- Jennifer Finney Boylan, The Queer Advantage

Wow... Talk about a feel-good, inspiring book! 🥰 “The Queer Advantage” by Andrew Gelwicks is a powerful celebration of queerness via essays and interviews that focus on the following key themes: channeling anger in a positive way, the power of the Internet as a tool of self discovery, bridging generational gaps, leveraging your difference to beget new ideas and strategies, finding your queer tribe and leaning on one another, and accessing resources to conquer crippling denial/doubt/internalized homophobia.

This book features 50 high-profile individuals and each individual has a chapter in the book that is set up in an interview format between them and Andrew. Before the interview questions, Andrew provides some interesting background information on each of the individuals. I really liked the layout of this book and I learned so much about each of the people he interviewed. The people interviewed vary from celebrities, politicians, athletes, business leaders, tech leaders, and much more. I loved learning about how each of them navigated coming out to their friends/family/workplaces, their hard-won lessons along the way, and the variety of perspectives that these individuals offered on why their queerness has been advantageous to them and how it has propelled them to forge their own paths in their personal lives, their careers, etc.

My favorite take away, and one of the most common pieces of advice offered across all of the interviewees in the book, is the importance of being your most authentic self and bringing that to the table every day. When you are not living your most authentic life, you are only getting in the way of your genuine happiness, success, creativity and more.

Needless to say, I loved this book and can’t wait for the public to get their hands on it! This book is truly for everyone and anyone and I highly recommend checking it out. “The Queer Advantage” hits shelves on 10/13. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Hachette Books for gifting me this wonderful eARC in exchange for my honest review 💛

This book left me feeling so empowered and proud. I'm a college student and I've been planning to fully transition during my school years and go into the professional world being stealth and hiding who I am. I'm so scared of my identity putting my professional life at risk. But this book is really making me question that decision and if I need to worry as much as I have been over how my identity will effect my life. This book is so important. It also introduced me to so many new successful queer people who I will definitely be looking more into.

This was a really interesting collection of interviews. I was unfamiliar with several of the people interviewed, so I’m thankful that the book brought some new faces to my attention. The truth is, queer people are in every industry all around the world. The purpose of the book is to investigate how being queer can be an advantage rather than an impediment.

We talk a lot about marginalization and discrimination, and those are very real. As a human race, we have a lot of work to do to give people equal opportunity regardless of race, gender, ability, or sexual orientation. While The Queer Advantage doesn’t shy away from the traumas that many queer people face, the focus of the book is on the flip side of that. The interviewer, Gelwicks, asks his subjects how being queer has been an advantage to them in their life and career, and everyone has an interesting answer.

For some, it’s about the strength they had to build to overcome childhood traumas. For some, it’s the motivation that comes from knowing their talent might be invalidated as a result of their identity. For some, it’s the self-examination from uncovering their queer identity. That answer was expressed by multiple people in the book and rang true for me.

The human race seems to have a “default” sexuality and gender identity: cis and straight. That’s the majority. Or at least how a majority of people self-identify. But around puberty, and often before it, queer people usually start to realize something is different about them. So there’s a period of questioning and self-examination, while they figure it all out. And all that exploration results in an enhanced self-knowledge that not everyone has. And that’s the queer advantage.

I definitely recommend the book! It’s an interesting read for anyone, as these industry leaders provide some interesting insight into their experience. Of course, I’d especially recommend it for queer individuals who might be inspired by the way these leaders refuse to let their identity hold them back.