Danica Roem made history as the first openly Transgender woman to be elected and serve in the Virginia General Assembly and the first to serve in any state legislature. She has a new memoir out detailing her meteoric rise. In Burn the Page, Dannica Roen demonstrates how you can rewrite your own story and how one's passion can make you unstoppable.

Danica's story begins as an underpaid journalist making food deliveries to make ends meet. She tells her backstory, her love as the lead vocalist for Cab Ride Home, a heavy metal band. The heavy metal culture allowed her to explore her sexuality (traditional metal long hair and different clothing can help with that) Danica is also a hard-hitting journalist who covers the political beat for a Virginian paper. This assignment, and a transphobic Assemblyman, create the perfect candidate for Canica to run for office, win, and later be re-elected.

Danica's story is inspiring. When she runs for office, she makes for an easy target for transphobic political operatives, but it ultimately backfires. Her drive, passion, and the fact that she has so many people rooting for her make it for an easy win against a long-standing incumbent Assemblyman. This is a must-read story for all kinds of reasons.

Favorite Passages
“But it’s become clear to me that the stories we tell ourselves and the stories other people tell about us have tremendous political power. True power never comes from trying to fit yourself into someone else’s story. When people tell you to look and act a certain way to be powerful, they’re telling you this to keep you out of their power, not to share it. To have power, you have to generate it for yourself.”

“What I learned from debating politics with my ma though was that some issues just rev you up and others may be interesting to you but you’re more dispassionate about them. Through her example, she taught me how to read the room and identify when someone really cared about something and were intractable; when they cared but were persuadable; and when they were just generally indifferent—though, for a Sicilian-Italian Bronxite extrovert, trust me: the latter hasn’t exactly been my ma’s forte (or, well, mine).*”

A memoir that will have you looking at your own life and feeling ready to flip your own script. Danica is a force and I'm so excited to see what she does next.

This took me much longer to read than a book normally would but I think that is because for the first half of the book, I had to stop and think about what the author was telling us. The story that she told made me think but I also learned a lot about what being trans meant and then I learned about about life in politics.

I did remember when Danica won her seat in Virginia the first time and I was happy about it, but now after reading her book I have a whole new level of appreciation for what she went through during all of her campaigns.

I'm a big admirer of Danica Roem, and the work she does in Richmond, VA. I was a little underwhelmed by this book, maybe because my expectations were so high.

There are a lot of subgenres of memoirs out there-- political memoirs, music memoirs, lgbtq memoirs, and more-- and this book mashes up so many of those subgenres incredibly successfully. The very difficulty of categorizing the book speaks, I think, to its most powerful message: that the journey between Points A and B doesn't have to be the most direct route. Life presents both challenges and opportunities that encourage us to take the less beaten path, and perhaps a more circuitous route, towards our goals. And that's okay! Danica Roem's memoir is thoughtful, honest, perceptive, brave, touching, and often hilarious-- in short, as impressive as all her other achievements in journalism, music, and politics alike. It was an honor and a pleasure to go on this journey with Danica.

What I Liked: I enjoyed the conversational style way this book was written. Roem’s voice is unique, and it seems like the publisher let her just go for it and write what she wanted to write and tell any story she wanted to tell. She doesn’t hold anything back and I appreciated that. I particularly liked her insight into campaigning and how hers was successful, despite her opponent finding everything he could to use against her. She is very open about her past and her family without being intrusive and her advice to younger LGBTQ folks was touching. I think where the book excels is her openness about being Transgender and the difficulties she faced with coming out. These are the moments I wish bigoted people would read and learn from so they can know what it is like to not feel like you are being your true self.

What I Didn’t Like: I found myself skimming over a lot of the sections in this book about Roem’s love of heavy metal and her exploits with her band because most of it felt repetitive. I wouldn’t have minded this so much if I felt there was a point to some of the stories, but they didn’t connect well to what Roem was trying to say.
Who Should Read It: Anyone interested in running for public office can learn from Roem’s story and would benefit from reading this book. Anyone struggling with their gender identity would also find Roem’s words heartening and inspiring.

Review Wrap Up: This is an important book because everyone should know Danica Roem’s story and how important it is to elect LGBTQ representatives. I enjoyed the insight into what it’s like to be a freshman legislator and how we can work together in this country for the better good. I liked that Roem was given free rein to write her story how she wanted to but I wish some of the stories had been tighter and fit more into the overall narrative.

Favorite Quote: “That is something we seem to have forgotten about as a population: it’s possible to be several things at the same time. You can think different thoughts and hold different identities and be fascinated by different things all at once. It doesn’t make you weak or distracted; it makes you human.”

What a voice! I knew very little about Danica's story other than her being trans and being one of the first trans people elected to office. By the end of the first page of BURN THE PAGE, I was hooked. I loved taking this story ride with Danica and am so grateful she shared her experiences.

When I first requested the e-galley, I thought I would share it with my queer students as an example of an LGBTQIAP+ person telling their story. I will do that--however, I'll be using Danica's book as an example of excellent writing, of truly getting your voice on the page, with all of my writing students.

This was fine, but definitely more for politics nerds than regular folks. I think Roem seems like a cool and interesting person, I just got bogged down in the campaigning details a bit.