25. A book released in 2024: All About Yvie: Into the Oddity by Yvie Oddly with Michael Bach

List Progress: 8/30

Anyone is allowed to write a memoir. But it takes a very specific sort of person to write an engaging memoir, and it takes an even more specific type to write a memoir that actually has something to say. Yvie Oddly is an incredibly talented artist and drag queen who won the 11th season of the reality competition RuPaul’s Drag Race. They are also thirty years old and in the middle of their career, with no real distance for analysis. Perhaps an incisive biographer could pull out and hone a message from Yvie’s story, but co-author Michael Bach seems like too much of a fan, of Yvie specifically and Drag Race as a whole, to run the risk of saying anything critical or even neutral. So the book turns into a soapbox for Yvie to tell their story about being on Drag Race and their life before and after the show, with no real larger point to be made. This is a book written for superfans, but even they might be left a little wanting.

Rather than written from Yvie’s perspective with the help of Bach as a ghostwriter, the book is structured as an interview, with Bach serving as the narrative voice and quoting Yvie and their friends and family. Unfortunately, Bach’s voice comes across as fawning, and even his introduction gives the impression that he just wanted to spend time with a Drag Race alum, no matter what they or he had to say about anything. The book assumes an encyclopedic knowledge of Yvie Oddly’s season of Drag Race and often neglects to include concrete facts or recaps, but also doesn’t dig deep enough into analysis to satisfy Drag Race fans who may want more. There is something to interrogate about the fact that Yvie Oddly doesn’t seem that interested in talking about their season of Drag Race, despite it being what rocketed them to fame, but Bach seems loath to press into the weak spots in their story. And then complete branches of their story, like their blossoming musical career and their drag daughter Willow Pill going on to compete on and win a later season of Drag Race, are skimmed over completely.

All About Yvie is not very long and moves along quickly enough that it’s easy to consume as a literary snack to audiences who already know and love Yvie Oddly. But for readers wanting much more, Oddly and Bach don’t feel ready to deliver. Maybe when Oddly’s in their sixties, after a hopefully long and fruitful career, they’ll have a bit more to say.

Would I Recommend It: No.