The Essential RuPaul: Herstory, Philosophy & Her Fiercest Queens

by John Davis, Libby VanderPloeg (Illustrations)

The essential guide for fans of the most famous drag queen in the world. RuPaul—the most famous drag queen in the world, recording artist, cult television host, pop-cultural icon—is celebrated in this essential fan guide. Bursting onto the scene over two decades ago with the huge hit Supermodel of the World, RuPaul has been confounding critics to clear her own path over the many years since. Most recently, RuPaul has again become an unlikely pop-cultural icon by producing and starring in RuPaul’s Drag Race—a reality television series that judges the charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent of the competing drag queens. Over seven seasons and numerous spin-off series (including All Stars and RuPaul’s Drag U), RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a cult global hit—fans know the catchphrases, the personalities, the catfights.The Essential RuPaul celebrates Ru’s history (or herstory, as she frames it) and philosophy ("If you can’t love yourself—how in the hell you gonna love someone else"), as well as profiling the most loved and reviled queens from her TV series. This is one for the true fans.

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer, Gender and Sexuality

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Francesca Calarco]

I have been a fan of drag queens and their magical art long before RuPaul’s Drag Race graced Logo (and later VH1), but when it aired oh boy did it change the drag game in a revolutionary way. My favorite seasons are easily those early ones (1-5) when the show was finding its footing, and this book does cover queens up until season 7. That said, these queens featured are undoubtedly favorites of the author John Davis, and as such they do leave out some of my own favorites like Alexis Mateo and Yara Sofia. Keeping all that in mind, this book is very much a snapshot of an earlier time period in the RDPR timeline, rather than an up-to-date “essential guide,” nearly twice as many seasons have aired since its publication. It is still a solid coffee table book though, and definitely worth reading if only to see Libby VanderPloeg’s beautiful illustrations.

[Stine Thomsen]

I am a huuuuuge Drag-Race fan. I just can't help it! My #1 guilty pleasure and I love this funny book with the cutest illustrations of my fav queens



Shantay, you stay - on my bookcase

[Sarospice]

interesting little coffee table book of quotes and reviews of some of the most popular queens from Rupauls Drag Race. Would make a breezy recap for anyone about to binge watch the series....

[Melissa]

Gurl, you better werk it!

[Carrie]

Very basic and brief biographies of the early queens from RPDR.

[Kendy]

3.5 - basic facts, some of the art was good, some of it I could not tell what queen it was.

[Trish]

Fun reading about drag-race contestants.

[Libby]

3.5
I don't know how to rate this. I think I just wish it was longer with more queens.

[Santino]

Great little book! Doesn't include season 8 or all stars 2, as well as other legendary queens I'd have included, but that's the thing with something like this; it's a book and there's only so much space and with something like this that grows from strength to strength it's gonna become old quickly. Great fun though!

[Jaimie]

As a huge fan of drag queens and overall LGBTQ+, I loved this easy read book. Super fun and you can pick it up and drop it whenever!!