Trixie Mattel

Two stars if considered as a book alone, three stars if you're factoring in the photos (which are great). Split the difference and call it two and a half. I was hoping for something a little sharper and, frankly, weirder than this. At its best, Trixie and Katya's partnership can produce some wickedly funny free association comedic nonsense, particularly through their webseries, UNHhhh.

But I don't think they could decide what they wanted Trixie And Katya’s Guide To Modern show more Womanhood—ostensibly a parody on mid-century etiquette books for women—to be. Tonally it's inconsistent. Sometimes they seem to be in earnest, sometimes they're clearly trying to be subversive, but the whole seems to have been written with an eye to broad marketability. There's nothing in here that hasn't been said or observed many times before, and the more corrosive aspects of their wit has been fairly neutralised.

Now, you may think I'm being tough on two queens who make a living from looking fabulous while lipsyncing (well, not lipsyncing in your case, Tracy), and who are clearly just trying to turn a quick buck before Drag Race's cultural cachet starts to fade. But at its best, drag is an art form which demands your attention while showing you the world at a 45-degree angle from what is familiar and comfortable.

This isn't drag at its best. show less

Trixie and Katya give me the happy chemicals and this book was such a fun read. Imagine if Unnhhh was a book, except they'd let each other finish their sentences.
Also the photographs? MAMA. I've been searching for a high resolution version of one of Katya's portraits in this since I read it upon release, because I need it above my bed like the actual religious icon it is.

The perfect guide to living as a modern woman; as told by two of the brightest young ingenues in the business today.
My favorite anecdote is about Trixie's college roommate shitting her tights while drunk and the verbiage of the story will stay with me for some time.

3.0

Thoroughly entertaining. Which is purely what these Fandom books are supposed to be. Katya is actually a really good writer. I'd like to read something else by them in the future.