cover image Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change

Burn the Page: A True Story of Torching Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change

Danica Roem. Viking, $27 (320p) ISBN 978-0-593-29655-4

“The facts of your life are what they are. The question is: Are you going to tell your own story about them, or are you going to let other people do that for you?” implores Virginia state representative Roem in this witty and contemplative debut. Putting her “warts and flaws on full display,” Roem details her loss-plagued childhood in conservative Prince William County, Va., in the 1980s and ’90s; her experience as a “closet case” struggling to come out as transgender; and her decade-long career as a “metalhead trans lady reporter.” Eventually, she would run a winning campaign for state government in 2017, becoming the first trans woman to both campaign and serve in the legislature while out (known in headlines less by her name than as “Transgender Candidate,” as she wryly points out). Peppered throughout are globe-trotting tales of her alcohol-themed thrash metal band Cab Ride Home, as well as amusing details of the intricacies of small-town journalism (“Covering local governments... in small-town America is... half Forrest Gump—‘You never know what you’re gonna get’ ”) and legislative procedure. Whether readers agree with her oft-cavalier sociopolitical analysis (“It was the time when bathroom bills were all the rage”), Roem’s perspective is an intriguing one for those interested in the future of American politics. Agent: Anna Sproul-Latimer, Neon Literary. (Apr.)