Queerbook by Malcolm Mackenzie
Mar. 10th, 2024 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Queerness is everywhere.
It always has been, and it always will be.
Queer people have been finding ways to fly their flags for centuries. Only problem is, it hasn’t always been from the rooftops for everyone to see.
Queerbook is here to help you discover the bits of gay culture you never knew you’d missed. It’s here to tell forgotten LGBTQ+ stories. It’s here to set you straight (ahem) on the LGBTQ+ terms you’ve seen lying around but might not have pinned down yet. It’s here to lead you through the magical portals of queer film, books, music, art and much, much more.
Wherever you are on your journey of discovery, this book is for you.
Are you ready?
Queer we go …
Malcolm Mackenzie is an award-winning author, editor and journalist. This entertaining and informative YA book is a good summary of LGBTQ+ history and culture with lively illustrations by Emily A Foster. Despite being broad in scope there’s inevitably a personal element to the choices here and I wondered if there could have been more contemporary LGBTQ+ people/culture but it’s still a great introduction for any teens interested in queer culture.
I picked this up because I am always keen to learn about new topics and have been diving more into LGBTQ+ history. As a gay man, Mackenzie’s enthusiasm for the topics here really comes through, not least because when he was the age of the readership there wasn’t a lot of material for him to learn about LGBTQ+ people and history. He certainly tries to rectify that here. This book is remarkably broad in scope covering biology, terminology, LGBTQ+ friendly cities, history, music, film and TV, comics and gothic history.
There are all the usual suspects here - David Bowie, RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Wachowski sisters - but the real fun comes from learning of people and periods that you don’t know about (in my case, a pair of ancient Egyptian gay manicurists and dancer Willi Ninja (who invented voguing). If I’m going to be picky, then I did want to see more cultural references from closer to 2023/2024 (to be fair there are a few there - e.g. Heartstopper) but given the target readership audience I would have been interested to see more (but that’s partly because I am out of touch with modern culture so don’t know what’s going on).
Mention should be made of Emily A Foster’s lively and playful illustrations which work well with the tone of the book. There’s also a great list of references at the back for those wanting to know more about some of the topics that Mackenzie touches on.
All in all it’s a lot of fun and a great starting point for any teens wanting to know more about LGBTQ+ community, culture and history and as such it’s definitely worth a look.
The Verdict:
Malcolm Mackenzie is an award-winning author, editor and journalist. This entertaining and informative YA book is a good summary of LGBTQ+ history and culture with lively illustrations by Emily A Foster. Despite being broad in scope there’s inevitably a personal element to the choices here and I wondered if there could have been more contemporary LGBTQ+ people/culture but it’s still a great introduction for any teens interested in queer culture.
QUEERBOOK was released in the United Kingdom on 1st February 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
It always has been, and it always will be.
Queer people have been finding ways to fly their flags for centuries. Only problem is, it hasn’t always been from the rooftops for everyone to see.
Queerbook is here to help you discover the bits of gay culture you never knew you’d missed. It’s here to tell forgotten LGBTQ+ stories. It’s here to set you straight (ahem) on the LGBTQ+ terms you’ve seen lying around but might not have pinned down yet. It’s here to lead you through the magical portals of queer film, books, music, art and much, much more.
Wherever you are on your journey of discovery, this book is for you.
Queer we go …
Malcolm Mackenzie is an award-winning author, editor and journalist. This entertaining and informative YA book is a good summary of LGBTQ+ history and culture with lively illustrations by Emily A Foster. Despite being broad in scope there’s inevitably a personal element to the choices here and I wondered if there could have been more contemporary LGBTQ+ people/culture but it’s still a great introduction for any teens interested in queer culture.
I picked this up because I am always keen to learn about new topics and have been diving more into LGBTQ+ history. As a gay man, Mackenzie’s enthusiasm for the topics here really comes through, not least because when he was the age of the readership there wasn’t a lot of material for him to learn about LGBTQ+ people and history. He certainly tries to rectify that here. This book is remarkably broad in scope covering biology, terminology, LGBTQ+ friendly cities, history, music, film and TV, comics and gothic history.
There are all the usual suspects here - David Bowie, RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Wachowski sisters - but the real fun comes from learning of people and periods that you don’t know about (in my case, a pair of ancient Egyptian gay manicurists and dancer Willi Ninja (who invented voguing). If I’m going to be picky, then I did want to see more cultural references from closer to 2023/2024 (to be fair there are a few there - e.g. Heartstopper) but given the target readership audience I would have been interested to see more (but that’s partly because I am out of touch with modern culture so don’t know what’s going on).
Mention should be made of Emily A Foster’s lively and playful illustrations which work well with the tone of the book. There’s also a great list of references at the back for those wanting to know more about some of the topics that Mackenzie touches on.
All in all it’s a lot of fun and a great starting point for any teens wanting to know more about LGBTQ+ community, culture and history and as such it’s definitely worth a look.
The Verdict:
Malcolm Mackenzie is an award-winning author, editor and journalist. This entertaining and informative YA book is a good summary of LGBTQ+ history and culture with lively illustrations by Emily A Foster. Despite being broad in scope there’s inevitably a personal element to the choices here and I wondered if there could have been more contemporary LGBTQ+ people/culture but it’s still a great introduction for any teens interested in queer culture.
QUEERBOOK was released in the United Kingdom on 1st February 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
