Just look at that cover, doesn’t it just jump off the shelf at you! It may look like the perfect coffee table display book, but it’s so much more than that. Whilst we never judge a book by its cover, once we saw it advertised on social media, we immediately had to have it, especially as it’s written by Felix Le Freak.
Felix Le Freak a well know UK drag artist who made it to the semi-finals of Drag Idol UK, has had an exciting career and we were lucky enough to interview them in 2018, so was only a matter of time before the wisdom was captured in book form!
But what can we expect from this intriguing book? Well……
As advertised on the cover, we have a foreword from Divina De Campo (finalist Rupauls Drag Race UK) who, as we know, has quite the way with words. Her foreword is beautifully worded and sets the tone for the book, explaining how drag is not defined as one description but an outlet of creativity.
We get an introduction to our author- the immensely talented Felix Le Freak. They talk about their drag journey and what they define drag to be. They also give us a bit of the history of drag and how it has evolved over time. It’s informative and whets the appetite to find out more. Should you need it, there’s also a helpful glossary. The premise is set that Ruapuls Drag Race introduced people to the art form of drag, it’s had its pros and cons for the industry but the most frustrating aspect of all is by excluding Kings, women, and trans people from competing. This book aims to show how diverse drag can be and the number of talented individuals from around the world.
The book is divided into a selection of interviews from twenty artists about their drag experiences and a bit of background into them, this is what we found the most interesting. Whilst there’s a lot of well-known high-profile artists ie Coco Peru, Peaches Christ, Chiyo, and Crystal of DRUK. Not only did we get an insight into their perspective of the art form, but how they discovered drag and why people need to expand their horizons outside the TV show. Besides that the book has a glossary of four well know categories similar to the ballroom scene, each section highlights the variety of drag out there:
The book is split into 4 sections
Camp
Fierce
Glam
Punk
Whilst, of course, drag is varied and there are plenty of subcategories this gives a broad selection of interviews with artists linked to that particular part of the book. Laid out in magazine feature format, with a few pages of the artist’s journey, drag editorial photos, and rounding off with a fun little ‘5 minutes with…’ interview to finish off their part.
What was particularly interesting is the different perspectives of what is drag by the varying artists across the world, and getting introduced to people we hadn’t seen before. We now have more knowledge, after all, knowledge is power, with more people to follow, support, and feature on Dragadventures in the future!
We loved this book and devoured it within a week. Felix Le Freak chose a fantastic selection of artists to interview and asked questions that were informative and entertaining. We recommend this book to everyone, those new to Rupauls Drag Race, those who are wanting to broaden out of just the drag race alumni and be opened to how incredible and powerful the art of drag truly is besides what we view on a TV show!
The book is available at all good retailers such as Gay’s The Word and Waterstones and all good local bookshops! Also, follow Felix Le Freak on the following social media:
Instagram: @felixlefreak
