Billy Bloom is kicked out of his mother’s house after he is caught wearing her cocktail dress. Subsequently, the adrogenous flame-haired teen drag queen is sent to live with his estranged father in the Florida swamp lands. On his first day of school Billy thinks it would be a great idea to wear a vintage Vivienne Westwood pirate outfit (lip gloss and mascara included) to the ultra conservative Dwight D. Eisenhower academy. However, his fellow classmates are not so like minded and Billy is met with an onslaught of hatemongers who bombard him with spitballs and homophobic epitaphs. To counteract his fellow students Billy dreams up the most outragous costume to scare the hate out of them, the ultimate swamp queen ensemble. However, his plan backfires and his classmates beat him until he is knocked unconscious. Just as Billy falls into a coma he is saved by Flip Kelly the all around golden boy football player of the school. As Billy recovers from the beating he and Flip become best friends. However, Billy still longs for his classmates acceptance and feels the only way to win them over is to run for homecoming queen. Will he succeed and change a school full of narrow-minded “aberzombies”?
James St. James author of Disco Bloodbath, a chilling memoir of club kid life during the late 80s-90s, has written a young adult novel loosely based on his life. And if you watched Party Monster you will definitely see the similarities between St. Jame’s club kid character and Billy Bloom. While I was reading this book I kept thinking it had indie movie written all over it. The book is written with such fierce sharp wit that you’ll be quoting lines from the book for days. I still can’t get “Tease hair not homos!” out of my head.
