by Bob the Drag Queen
narrated by the author
(post may contain affiliate links)
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert is magical realism meets historical fantasy by debut author Bob the Drag Queen.
I love magical realism, and in this book the fantasy is that several historical figures have magically and unexplainably returned from the dead. This includes the eponymous Harriet Tubman, who uses hip hop to tell her story, taking it on the road to advocate for freedom.
I ended up preordering the audiobook from LibroFM because Bob narrates the book and there are a few original songs at the end. (You can watch the lyric video to one of the songs on Bob’s YouTube page.) I highly recommend listening to this one.
First, a caveat: I’m a big Bob TDQ fan ever since they won their season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I also really loved watching them on the third season of The Traitors, and especially in Dungeons and Drag Queens on Dimension20/Dropout TV. That being said, I found this highly entertaining!
Our main POV character Darnell is a music producer who has been down on his luck for the last decade or so until Tubman reaches out to invite him to produce her record. I really enjoyed his journey throughout the book. There were a few moments where I really felt second-hand anxiety for him.
You can really tell how much research was done to write this book. I learned so much about Harriet Tubman and abolitionism in this book that I never learned about in school. Overall, I really enjoyed Bob’s prose, though some of the transitional areas fell a little flat for me. I was very quickly pulled back into the story when I felt a little knocked out in those places.
Bob has such a unique voice and I’m really excited to see what else they write in the future!
I received a complimentary review copy from Gallery Books and NetGalley. All opinions contained herein are my own.
If you want to see more from me, check out my Bookstagram, TheStoryGraph, or Bluesky.
ruse reviews 