I liked the core story. Saskia's narrative was interesting, but I struggled with the delivery. We start the novella with a scene that leads to the 'fairy drag queen' setup, but most of the rest of the book is backstory, told in a more or less random order. It jumps around and ends up repeating itself a lot. The actual scenes with Saskia connecting to her fairy dragmother are confined to the last 16% or so of the book, and are quite rushed, especially after the sometimes tedious litany of childhood scenes we get leading up to that point.

This was very well written, with evocative prose and some really fantastic lines of insight about Saskia's treatment in the church. She ends up being very passive, however, and the scenes where she supposedly finds herself are rushed in at the end. This made the whole story feel quite unbalanced for me, but I really liked the earlier parts and found Turner's prose to be emotional and descriptive. I wish the pacing had been a bit smoother, and would personally have enjoyed it more if the timeline wasn't as disjointed. Still glad I read this one, I just felt a bit frustrated at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book is exactly as described on the back cover. I didn’t read the back cover so everything came to me as a surprise. I struggled with some of the plots and the time given to some vs others. I almost wish it was either a duo of novellas (one being in school and one being with the volunteer work), or just one longer novel. I wanted more once we finally met the queer community. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

I got an ARC of this book.

The first line of this book was so incredibly powerful. The book never reached that level again.

The description of the book and the title really say that a drag queen is going to be a central character. Instead what is given is 80% the story of a cis bi woman dealing with sleeping with a man and her mother’s death. Only in the last 20-30 pages does the drag queen even get introduced. There is little character to the drag queen, though it is clear that she is more complicated than a drag queen. She is the only queen in the home that demands to be called she/her and her drag name all the time. She is actively dying and mean. That is it. That is the whole character. The last ten pages happen after the queen has died. So she existed for 10-20 pages. How is she a central character and the basis for the book? It just fell flat for me. If there was not a focus on a particular queen or a “final performance” that never happens, then this would have been a stronger book.

The writing was fancy and well done, but the pacing really threw off the description. I was invested in the grandfather, who might have been magic. I was invested in the dad who was charming and dealing with the loss of his wife. I was invested in the MC who was always stuck between. It was a fantastic book, but it was not what I was promised. If I had not read the description, then I would be able to rate this book higher. The bad luck the author had that I actually read a book description (this makes FOUR this year y’all).

So overall, wonderful writing, just didn’t deliever what was promised.

Julie Harthill Turner's A Date with a Fairy Drag Queen was an interesting read, but one that felt oddly incomplete. The promo material for the book, led me to believe that the central narrative would be Saskia's time at Pippin House, but really that material is left until very near the end of the book. As a result, while I was reading I was confused about the amount of detail provided regarding Saskia's childhood as I kept waiting for the "central" narrative to emerge—but that narrative just wasn't central at all.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

The good: the writing was lovely and very evocative in terms of setting and atmosphere, and it had a very sweet emotional undertone.
The bad: I think both the title and summary sell a story that isn't the one we got. Saskia doesn't even meet Marlena until 75% of the way through the book.
If the story had been marketed by focusing more on Saskia's life and how her childhood built her into the person she became, it would have felt more accurate.
3.5 rounded up to 4.

Book lovers, you need to add this one to your TBR list ASAP! The best book of 2025 has officially been crowned, and I'm hooked! I read it in one sitting, ignoring everything else around me. The plot twists, character development, and writing style all came together to create a truly unforgettable experience. If you're looking for a page-turner that'll keep you up all night, look no further

I’ve sat since I finished reading A Date with the Fairy Drag Queen wiping away tears I knew would come, along with that ache in your chest when a story hits you so hard that it alters a little bit of what makes you who you are. I cried for fictional characters and for the people they are based upon who experienced so much in such a short amount of time.

Julie Harthill Turner wrote a story that jumps from the seventies to the nineties, giving us glimpses of Saskia Nash’s life from life with her father and grandfather in Germany to the adjustment of leaving all that has felt familiar and safe behind as she moves to the east coast of America with her father when he moves back to his home country to teach in a Jesuit college. The author has written Saskia’s life in such a manner that it’s like we’ve been given a moment to read her diary, and it helps bring you as the reader into her life as she grows as a person.

I couldn’t put the book down, even though I knew going into the book that the end result would be me crying and wanting a cuddle from my husband because some of what Saskia experiences I have had some similar moments of enduring too. She has had a lot of loss in her life, and she has been the victim of being judged not by who she is but what she is even as a child, for example her Nanny who is of German descent albeit living in America is quick to dismiss the attraction Saskia feels for girls. I appreciated how the author writes about bi-phobia happening in a very real, and open manner and by the timing of it being directed at the young Saskia shows that not only have bisexual people existed for a long time, but so has the abuse or dismissal of the attraction,

I also feel it is relevant although it is mentioned in the synopsis to reiterate that the subjects of pregnancy and the termination of a child does play a significant part in A Date with the Fairy Drag Queen. If the subject matter does cause you pain -please care about yourself first and foremost.

The author covers this incredibly difficult topic with the care it deserves. They once again, however, show it with an air of realism that it deserves, and my heart hurts for Saskia so much, the author takes the time to show how despite it being her body and therefore should have been her choice? The focus is put upon the man in the situation because he has a hypothetical successful life in the church ahead of him and I hated it just as much as I appreciated what the author was doing - I wanted to reach into the pages of the book and scream at the many men involved who put the blame at the feet of Saskia.

This was where the tears started, and they would come and go until the story took my poor little heart and broke it. Saskia’s complicated relationship with her sexuality and the church has already been hard for her to handle, and I valued the care the author took with her handling this but this is her tipping point and you can feel the pain she feels from the page. It’s beautifully written and I wanted to hug this isolated girl and protect her from the pain she is experiencing.

At Pippin House, the author gives us a glimpse of the reality these men experienced at the end of their battles with HIV and AIDs during the epidemic. The characters we meet are, of course, fictional but Julie Harthill Turner has given them so much life, that you can feel their pain as if it were your own. It’s a stark reminder that so many men were abandoned by family, and died either alone or in some of these houses were a found family was established, Marlene our drag queen is a shadow of their former self, and you could see all that Saskia has to witness in such a tragic, yet also wonderfully hopeful manner.

This is an incredible story, filled with love, and moments of sorrow - but to me there’s the overwhelming reminder that you can survive against all the odds that are thrown against you and it will stay with me for a long time. Just remember, get the tissues near you before you begin reading and know you will smile even when you cry.

Oh my heart!

"The irony. They were sending me to a home for people the church considered outcasts. A perfect fit."

I sobbed.

Saskia's life changes forever when her father decides it is time to move back to his home in the United States. She leaves behind her Opa and a life full of whimsy for one where she struggles to find her place. After turning to religion and falling for a seminarian, she finds herself pregnant and spends the rest of her semester at Pippin House, a hospice for men dying of AIDS, as she recovers from an abortion she was pushed into.

The ability to fit such an emotional and compelling story in such few pages is not one everyone has, but one Julie Turner sure does. I fell in love with Saskia through her relationships with others. Through her love for her mother, her Opa, her father, Max, Marlena, and eventually herself. Don't let the title fool you, A Date With the Fairy Drag Queen, is not a lighthearted fun story about drag and the LGBTQ+ community. It is one about love, loss, pain, and healing through found family. It is one that I think will stick with me for a long time.