JT lives in Florida. His parents aren't really bothered by the fact that he's gay and has a boyfriend, but then again, they don't seem to be bothered with much that has to do with him at all. He feels trapped in a small town where he sees himself pumping gas for the rest of his life, unless he can get a scholarship to college to so he can get out of town and follow his dreams. His boyfriend finds a scholarship that JT an apply for, which involves going to New York and participating in a teen drag competition. Thus the two, with their faithful female companion, set off on an adventure to the big city.
This book is fairly cliche as far as the road trip part of the story is concerned as well as they "I'll go to New York and all my dreams will come true" storyline, but these Disney-esque bits aside, this was a good read and a decent representation of the LGBTQ+ community within a road trip story. I appreciated the RuPaul references and found the book overall to be interesting an inoffensive, which was a relief considering the myriad ways the topic could have been mishandled and wasn't.
Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: one of the teens in the competition uses drugs; another teen spends the night out and JT thinks she's having sex, but it turns out she did something completely innocent
Overall Rating: 3/5 stars mainly because there wasn't enough info about drag overall and the Disney-esque ending makes this book more like a kids' book than a teen book
Read-Alikes: Beauty Queens, Better Nate Than Ever, Freak Show
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