Nail polish and feathers

By Jo Ramsey

Heat level

Sweet

Sixteen-year-old Evan Granger has no problems with being gay. Despite his mother's objections, he wears nail polish and makeup to school and pursues his goal of becoming a professional drag queen. TV drag star Taffy Sweet gives encouragement and Evan's cousin Holly tries to protect him, but school bullies abuse him so badly because of his sexuality and the girly way he dresses that he ends up at the hospital emergency room. After that, even his new crush, a closeted football jock named Moe Garcia, is unhappy about Evan's choice to live his life openly gay. But even in girly clothes and nail polish, Evan is a force to be reckoned with, and he soon shows the bullies-and everyone else-that beating a drag queen up does not mean the queen is beaten down.

Content warnings

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Severity reflects intensity, not value — “central theme” means a warning is a core part of the book, not that the book is bad.

Homophobiacentral theme
Graphic violencescene
Anxiety on-pagescene

Nail polish and feathers

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