RaveThe Guardian (UK)With kaleidoscopic detail and exhilarating verve, he tells the intertwined, transatlantic story of pop and the struggle for LGBTQ+ emancipation ... The chapter on Bowie is thrilling, demonstrating this book’s ability to cast an entirely new light on subjects that may previously have seemed overfamiliar ... The depths of Savage’s research is one reason why this book feels so definitive.
Brad Gooch
RaveThe Guardian (UK)Gooch vividly evokes New York in the early 1980s, surely one of the most culturally exciting eras of all time, and Haring was right in the thick of it ... Along with numerous great pictures of Haring’s work, and Polaroids of him and his friends, the book includes his final drawing – his ultimate symbol of life, the radiant baby.
Nicole Pasulka
PositiveThe Guardian (UK)Pasulka writes effectively about how drag performances felt like an act of resistance after Trump’s election in the US ... Pasulka has provided a valuable service in noting down for posterity performances that were shambolic, ephemeral and only viewed by a handful of late night barflys in rackety venues like Metropolitan in Brooklyn ... With such vivid visual material, it’s a shame that the images in this book often feel posed or like press shots, rather than capturing the queens in full throttle. The writing sometimes suffers from a lack of imagination: we really need a new metaphor for being delighted by abundance without resorting to kids and candy stores. But nonetheless, like the queens she writes about, Pasulka manages to fashion something original and compelling from a disparate hotchpotch of sources: nightlife history, social media chat and reportage, all stitched together with great respect and love.
