Reviewed by Kimberley
TITLE: Let’s Hear it for the Boy
AUTHOR: T. A. Webb
PUBLISHER: A Bear on Books
LENGTH: 46 pages
BLURB:
Auntie Social is the biggest, baddest drag queen in Atlanta—she knows what she wants and she gets it. She’s tough, merciless, and top dog. That’s what Paul Stewart, reporter for the Journal, had heard, and all he expects when he’s assigned to interview the legend.. But nobody really knows the person behind the make-up.
What if…what if the person behind the sarcasm and music was more than just a man in a dress? What happened in his life that, thirty years later, made him a successful CEO, a philanthropist, and a legend in the gay community? Thirty years and almost a million dollars raised for people living with HIV/AIDs, yet still no one knows the real story.
Until one night, one man breaks through the shell, and Matthew Trammell—Auntie Social—opens the door he closed many years ago and lets his secrets spill out.
Pain is like rain, it covers your skin and soaks in bone-deep, but it eventually recedes and allows fresh things to grow.
REVIEW:
It was exactly two years ago, almost to the day, that this book was released and I read it.
This book is a wonderful, bittersweet and nostalgic look at the past of a popular Atlanta drag performer, Auntie Social. Paul, a journalist for the AJC, reaches out to find out about the man behind the drag, if you will. What follows is one of the most heartbreaking trips down memory lane that I have ever read. It explains why Matthew, aka, Auntie Social does what he does. This book will take you on an emotional journey that will leave you on the verge of–if not outright tears.
This book packed quite an emotional punch and with only forty-six pages, that’s quite impressive. This book stays with you long after you finished reading it. It will make you smile through your tears as it tells one of many stories–too many–of the utter devastation–especially the LGBT community–endured during the early days of the AIDS epidemic. The song Let’s Hear it for the Boy stayed in my head for almost a month after reading this book and brings a lump to my throat every time I hear it because to me, it’s attached to this wonderful story.
This book could’ve been depressing, but it wasn’t. Even though sad and heartbreaking, it showcased the strength of the LGBT community and how they pulled together and took care of each other while as the AIDS virus claimed the lives of so many of their friends and loved ones. If there was ever a book that I could choose that affected me and still does, it would be this one.
Have a box of Kleenex handy with this one. You’ll definitely need it.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
I also really liked this one. It was read knowing that heartache would follow but leaves us with a hopeful end – and a serious message.
Think I will have a reread, tissues at the ready!
One of the best books I have ever read.