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The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

Fabulous, fierce, tough, tragic, this is a raw work of queer, trans, and Latinx historical fiction set in the Paris is Burning drag ballroom scene of Harlem. It chronicles a fictionalized account of real-life people struggling with poverty, discrimination, and the 1980s AIDS crisis. Cassara folds slang, profanity, and Spanglish seamlessly into his literary writing, making it all the more expressive. Rewatching Paris is Burning right before starting this book really made it come alive.

Ethan, R.J. Julia Booksellers, Madison