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Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life

Written by alamancelibraries on . Posted in Book Reviews.

“Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life,” by Jonathan Van Ness. Copyright 2022, Harper One, New York (241 pages, $28.00).

Content Warning: Animal Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, Eating Disorder, Addiction.

Similar to tone with Jonathan Van Ness’s first book Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, JVN’s second collection of essays combines humor and heartbreak in a genuine way. In Love That Story: Observations from a Gorgeously Queer Life, JVN veers away from letting us in with their life and upbringing and instead tackles issues of identity and belonging, trauma, addictive tendencies, body image, racial injustices, and other issues that so many people can relate to and can learn from with JVN’s unique point-of-view.

Don’t worry, we do get some personal stories like JVN’s essay about grief and his cat – Bug the Second, but we also see JVN’s drive for learning and educating oneself about the deeper things that are below the surface and some steps on how one can stand up for those without a platform. For example, JVN explores the queer community in their hometown of Quincey, Illinois. A place that they never thought of as being a safe place for the LGBTQIA+ while they were growing up but learned that it was a haven all along with vintage drag queen William Kaufman (Irene West) and Carleen Orton creating safe spaces for the stigmatized community. In another essay, JVN goes through describing their white privilege and how wrong and biased the system can be and still is. JVN doesn’t shy away from the fact that they are not all knowing and that they are still learning. They also don’t shy away from the inequality that is lacking for ALL communities (not just LGBTQIA+) and how we, as a nation, are still marginalizing all minority groups. JVN understands that this is one of their biggest platforms to lend a voice to as much as they can and fame just now allows them to step up in a way that they couldn’t before.

All JVN wants is to create a legacy of joy and continue educating themselves and those around them so we can all have a better, kinder future.

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.