"From Texas to St. Louis, from depression to mania and back again, and into and out of the handcrafted costumery of drag, sparkling with glue-gunned rhinestones, and rattling with fake fingernails, Gabe Montesanti's Drag Thing is an outsider masterpiece, a picaresque of her quest for a self and a home she can call her own. Set against the backdrop of escalating violence against queer bodies, Gabe's story is one of the enticements of art as a platform of survival and of its perilous intensity, as she discovers she is neither king nor queen but thing, reigning over the grand in-between." --Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets and Modern Poetry "Gabe invites us to skip the line past the polished forms of drag that we see in the mainstream and leads us into the crowded back rooms of Midwestern gay bars to experience the realities of queerness in America. Drag Thing feels so personal and real that I felt like I was right next to Gabe through all of it--the pressing anxiety of ever-present gun violence, the euphoria of building queer community as resistance, and finding out who you are as you create yourself on stage." --Rose Butch, a.k.a.

The Original Non-Binary Drag Thing "I couldn't put this book down! Drag Thing is an electrifying, poignant, and fiercely tender journey into the intimate world of drag and mental health. Gabe pulls us deep into the raw, vibrant core of queer life--where chosen family, drag artistry, and survival collide in the face of a world that continues to marginalize and misunderstand. With prose that drips with emotion and fire, this book reveals the beauty and resilience of drag communities, the sacred bonds of drag families, and the radical tenderness that lives in between. A powerful celebration of queer kinship, vulnerability, and the lifeline that drag offers--it's a feast of truth you'll want to devour." --Julián Delgado Lopera, author of Fiebre Tropical.