Drag Star!
By Evan J. Peterson
☆☆☆☆☆ (5/10)
Whelp, this is awkward. After receiving a free copy from staff, I was hyped for Drag Star! I’ve seen a couple episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race and am a casual fan of Trixie Mattel and Katya, so I thought it would be a good fit. Whelp, it wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, Drag Star isn’t an objectively bad book by any means, but many of the things it’s clearly proud of ended up being the parts I struggled with most. Unfortunately, while the ideas are solid on paper, the execution didn’t come together for me. Choppy writing, uneven dialogue, and a cast that’s too broad to develop meaningfully made many moments that should have felt fun or dramatic . . . flat. Most readers seem to enjoy the cheesy, sassy writing style, but it wasn’t for me.
Pros:
Concept. Is it bad that this is one out of two pros I could think of? Ah, well, I don’t write reviews to kiss a*s. You play as a drag star competing on a drag show, and you can choose to be the villain, sweetheart, superstar, weirdo, lone wolf, team player, or something in between. The set up is excellent. Each chapter is its own “Episode” with its own challenge you need to succeed at. Based on your stats and choices, you can flop on the runway or win! I won three challenges in a row, if I do say so myself. It’s honestly a super solid experience; I couldn’t tell if I won or lost.
Sobriety subplot. This is a first. The main character is canonically a drug and alcohol addict. However, you are given chances to drink or do drugs, giving you more attention while lowering your self-care. The game doesn’t pressure you if you stay sober (like I did) and if explored more, this would be a neat idea.
Cons:
Writing. I don’t want to sound mean or like I’m prejudiced, but the writing is not great. First, the actual content is lacking. The writing feels stuck in a loop of broad, cartoon-friendly catchphrases. While I know some drag queens talk like this, it feels very much like someone Googled “campy drag slang” and sprinkled it everywhere. That “yas queen,” “hunny,” and “bish” energy comes off less like character voice and more like a template with no real personality behind it. Instead of sharp or witty dialogue, it reads like someone trying too hard to hit generic drag tropes. It’s supposed to be funny, I get that, but to me it comes off as cheesy and cringe-inducing than clever.
The writing lacks subtlety. Maybe this was on purpose, but there were many choices for me to give inspiring speeches or compliment my teammates to bolster their confidence. Well, I did, all right. The writing turns overly blunt and ham-fisted, spelling out emotions instead of letting them land naturally. Like, literally, you will say: “We need to work together. Teamwork is important. You are a diva! Let those haters know!” It’s so basic and surface-level? The humor also leans heavily on pop culture references—some dated, some not. Most, I couldn’t quite catch, however. The game wants to be campy, heartfelt, dramatic, and comedic all at once, but the writing doesn’t have the finesse to balance those modes.
The cast. Like a real drag show, you meet a dozen competitors at once—which on paper sounds rich. However, once you play the game, you see the issue with this. A dozen people with different personalities, names, and behaviors being introduced to the reader at once is insane. I could not tell anyone apart from Day 1, and there’s no codex or description to look at. I also was not emotionally connected to them at all. Because the writing never gives them real depths, they don’t stand out. While the elimination gimmick is cool, it’s hard to care about the cast where at least one is leaving every chapter. By the time I got to know someone, they left.
The saboteur subplot. Again, the concept here is good. One day, items start disappearing from your teammate’s possessions. Nothing big, just a small thing here or there. Then it happens again, and suddenly you get sabotaged on T.V. I was intrigued, so far! The narrative goes over a couple different suspects with possible motives and circumstances. But in the end, the culprit is revealed, and it’s rather underwhelming, Spoilers (it doesn’t really matter); I wouldn’t bother picking this one up: it’s a crew member, and not someone past of the core cast. The reason she does it? She’s anti-LGBT or something of the like. Such a letdown, in my opinion. The narrative is stronger if it was someone who had a direct relationship to you, for greed or money or such. I feel like the venn diagram of people who like Choice of Games and the people in the LGBT community is practically a circle. Why do you need to tell us, the audience, it’s not cool to be homophobic? We already know that!