I really needed a story about a kid doing drag who was safe and okay. I needed that. This delivered. The story is heartwarming and compelling. The characters are real and multifaceted, no one is allowed to be a flat stereotype and it is a truly beautiful thing. But we need to all stop for a second and acknowledge the *phenomenal* acting job that Clay is doing in the narration here. It is outstanding! Pick up the audiobook version of this, if you can, because there are so many extraordinary layers in that performance. The words on the page are great, but the voice acting is out of this world.

What just happened? One second I was laughing and getting excited and smiling… and then it was like my insides were ripped open and I’m physically and emotionally spent.

I love Mark! He’s just a boy who wants to be loved and live as himself. Does it matter that he loves dresses and just wants to feel pretty every once in a while? Absolutely not! The fact that anyone sees anything wrong with that is what’s wrong with the world. Heteronormativity is monotonous sometimes. Nothing is black and white and forcing someone to be what they aren’t is a crime.

He goes through a lot from the beginning to the end of Becoming a Queen. I feel so happy for him that he had Eric, Enzo, and his friends through all of it. So when that changes…. I don’t want to start bawling again. I hurt for him.

If you like Dear Evan Hansen, RuPaul’s Drag Race, or any kind of emotionally charged coming of age YA story (or a blend of all of them), then this book is for you!

Book Title: Becoming A Queen
Author: Dan Clay ~ Debut Author
Narrator: By the Author Dan Clay
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: LGBT, YA/Teen
Pub Date: April 25, 2023
My Rating: 3.8 rounded up

Mark recently ended his relationship because his ex-boyfriend didn’t like that he wore a dress. With the help of Mark’s supportive brother Eric he is trying to move on. When he meets Ezra, it appears it might work but Mark is still having a hard time with past hurts.

Story is narrator by the author Dan Clay. I am a big audiobook fan but a narrator snob and typically authors aren’t performers and just read their story however Dan Clay is a writer and a drag queen who goes by the name Carrie Dragshaw. He did an excellent job performing the characters.

The ending is soo emotional; spoke with anger, pain, and most of all love
Additionally the “Acknowledgements’ are heartwarming.
I highly recommend this audiobook.

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 25, 2023

3.5

Thank you to NetGalley for providing early access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid debut, one that took me by surprise! The cover and title are underwhelming, a poor representation of both the story’s quality and its emphasis on grief. The book wobbled in a few places, but I really enjoyed it!

Pros:
The dialogue was often funny and always felt genuine. The characters felt well-rounded and likeable, even when they were making bad choices, even the side characters! I especially liked that Mark’s growth wasn’t limited to his queerness or his relationship—he gets to be a full person with a range of interests and social bonds. The relationship also stood out to me for its realistic messiness. Mark and Ezra fight and say things they don’t mean, learn, and grow. Neither of them feels too good to be true with Mark’s tendency to lie by omission and Ezra’s pretention. I loved this this story acknowledged that teens drink and explored what that looks like while also being very clear about how dangerous it can be.

For the audiobook in particular: it was read by the author, and he went HARD! A great performance overall, though in places his voice dropped very low and was hard to heard clearly.

Cons:
The handling of grief and grieving felt more melodramatic than genuine to me at times. Some of it was a pacing problem: the first half of the book is tonally very different than the first. Some of it just felt self-indulgent.

Overall, I think this book is worth reading, and I look forward to seeing what the author tries next!

3.5 stars

I have such mixed feelings about this book because in many ways it feels like two different books. This noted, I enjoyed the read overall and will recommend it to students for specific purposes.

Mark, the m.c., starts off a relatively typical teen: somewhat self-absorbed. Like his peers, Mark is trying to figure out who he is, what kind of acceptance he can expect from others, and how to manage his romantic life. When a catastrophic event occurs, the trajectory of the book changes because Mark is so deeply impacted.

I enjoyed but did not exactly connect with Mark pre-major event, but after the event occurs, there's a lot more substance to him. While the shift feels so abrupt, this rupture also reflects the shocking nature of the incident. This is a long way of saying that I understand WHY there's such a shift but that it still feels a bit jarring as a reader.

There's more - and a different kind of - depth than readers might expect based on the cover and title of the book. Audiences who can relate to those deeper themes and motifs will get the most out of this.

The narration of the audio version may also have impacted my enjoyment of the book a bit. Rather than adding to the character, at times, I experienced the style of narration (think "Leave Britney ALONE!") as somewhat distracting. For me, the best audio narrators bring the character to life rather than become a character themselves, and unfortunately, I really felt that latter part here. This feels especially awful to note because the author is the one to narrate the audio, but frankly, I got so distracted by it that I almost stopped listening at two or three different points. Listeners who have a similar encounter should know that it's worth continuing for the plot and character development, but if accessible, a visual version may be a better option for some readers this time.