A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2022
A BookRiot Most Anticipated Read of 2022
“Well, I guess Bigfoot-Lesbian-RomCom-Mystery-Horror is my new favorite genre! So much fun!” ―Lilly Wachowski, showrunner on Work in Progress and co-creator of The Matrix trilogy and Sense8
“Samantha Allen’s Patricia Wants to Cuddle is just as wonderful as it is weird. It’s a queer romp with a bombshell of an ending, horrifying and delightful, a real page-turner. It’s truly a book that made me laugh out loud. I loved every minute of it.“ —Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
“To die for. Samantha Allen has filled each page with unadulterated, unbridled, unhinged genius.” —Jacob Tobia, bestselling author of Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story and voice of Double Trouble on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
“Who knew a queer Sasquatchian horror comedy could pack so much emotion! As fun as it is weird, which is just plain delightful.” —Michael Kennedy, Freaky screenwriter
“This is the lesbian Sasquatch novel you’ve always wanted . . . this is the most badass book imaginable. . . . The publisher describes it as 'viciously funny' but I thought it was also kinda sweet. I’d give Patricia a cuddle.” ―Molly Odintz, CrimeReads (Most Anticipated Crime Fiction of 2022)
Praise for Real Queer America and Samantha Allen
"Real Queer America is a book necessary for anyone in—or allied with—the queer community, especially those of us who see the bad news day after day. [Allen is] sharing the beauty of the spaces that LGBTQ+ people have carved out for themselves, and she's giving credit where credit is very much overdue, because it's the queer folk who live and stay in red states—whether by choice or due to a lack of options—who have to survive there and work to make them better." ―Los Angeles Times
"Samantha Allen's America is filled with buoyant queer people in supposedly red states living their lives with resilience and joy. This moving journey starts out in Utah—but Allen's road ultimately takes the reader to the center of her heart. Surprising, inspiring, and thoughtful." ―Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There and Long Black Veil
"A powerful book of memoir and reportage. . . . It is difficult to capture universality in a way that also celebrates uniqueness. Allen does so through the diversity of the individual stories she uplifts, giving any reader an entry point into LGBTQ lives. . . . [She writes] with a vulnerability and humility as approachable and accessible as it is profoundly moving." ―New York Times Book Review
"It's kind of like a trans Travels with Charley in Search of America, but without Steinbeck's lightly misogynist depictions of women and meandering, stream of consciousness. As Samantha Allen travels across the country's reddest states and perhaps the most unsafe for queer people, she unearths a humanity that the midwest and south are rarely afforded. Queer people exist everywhere, not just cities, and this book is a fierce testament to that." ―Out magazine
"Real Queer America is a delight to read . . . an engrossing journey full of humor, vulnerability, insight, and joy. What results is a beautiful tapestry of, well, the real queer America. . . . Real Queer America is well-written and well-researched, and it's a blast to read, but perhaps its most essential question is that of how complicit 'blue state' LGBTQ people are in dismissing red states as scary places for queers. The whole world is scary, for queers and for everyone. Perhaps Real Queer America will inspire the reader to be more involved in fighting discrimination everywhere." ―Rewire
"Samantha Allen doesn't just have her finger on the pulse of queer and trans America—the pulse runs through her fingers and onto the screen and page. I am always amazed at her capacity to get the story, convey the facts, and yet leave no doubt as to what really matters behind the buzzwords and slogans: real people with real lives you'll be grateful to have encountered." ―Jay Michaelson, author of God Vs. Gay?
"In her generous, clear-eyed reporting, Samantha Allen invites us to see ourselves for who we really are: a country of queer possibility. Her work proves these American stories are too powerful to ever be kept in their place." ―Melissa Gira Grant, author of Playing The Whore
"Allen is smart-as-hell, but inclusive and impassioned. Hers' might not be the book all the gay boys are talking about in an exclusive NYC salon, but it is the book the rest of us can read aloud at the kitchen table with our queer family and our blood family, with our chosen sisters and our yet-to-be-educated uncles. . . . So many wonderful books get written for the NYC and San Francisco LGBTQ community. I'm glad Samantha Allen wrote Real Queer America for the rest of us." ―Lambda Literary
"Real Queer America might be the best travel book of the year. . . a must-read for all Americans." ―Refinery29
"Bursting with queer joy." ―BookRiot
