The author’s story wonderfully captures the awkwardness, strife, and even terror of his experience as a gay teen; it is also upbeat, endearing, and achingly funny. A vivid and dramatic slice of adolescence.” — Kirkus Reviews
“...engaging memoir...Crabb presents this hormone-fueled roller-coaster ride with humor and sensitivity, and draws moving portraits of the people who provided him with a community. His evocation of postpunk bands, brutal skinheads, and Goth attire will resonate with those who experienced the era, while his sexual anguish and fumblings are all too universal. Crabb’s exploration of the intensity, and necessity, of teen friendships especially resonates.” — Publishers Weekly
“I expected a memoir from David Crabb to be funny; what I wasn’t prepared for is how touching it is. You needn’t have been a gay and Goth teenager in San Antonio in the early ‘90s to relate to Bad Kid. It’s a story of finding oneself in adolescence for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.” — Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Kapitoil
“I expected a memoir from David Crabb to be funny; what I wasn’t prepared for is how touching it is. It’s a story of finding oneself in adolescence for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.” — Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Kapitoil
“Crabb winds up taking us to the sweet spot of literature: the truth. I rarely laugh or cry when reading. Bad Kid moved me to both.” — Brad Gooch, author of Smash Cut
“You simply won’t find a more hilarious and captivating storyteller than David Crabb. His tales of a misspent youth are jaw-dropping, but clearly, his head and heart stayed gold.” — Kevin Allison, writer and performing member of MTV's The State
“How can this author’s painful coming-out story-set in Texas be so utterly hilarious? Only David Crabb could transform loneliness and awkwardness and heartache into a laugh-out-loud, ‘90s-music-blasting, eyeliner-dripping joy ride. Bad Kid is a must-read.” — Diana Spechler, author of Who by Fire and Skinny
“Bad Kid manages to do what so many books claim, but then, frankly, fail to do: it makes you laugh, and then, through a perfect turn of phrase or, perhaps, the perfect reference to the perfect song, it makes you cry. Crabb moves masterfully from the profane to the exalted.” — Sara Barron, author of The Harm in Asking
“...engaging memoir...Crabb presents this hormone-fueled roller-coaster ride with humor and sensitivity, and draws moving portraits of the people who provided him with a community. Crabb’s exploration of the intensity, and necessity, of teen friendships especially resonates.” — Publishers Weekly
“With just the right mix of humor and pathos, Crabb recounts cringe-worthy teenage milestones like a forced first kiss and the unwanted gift of a car. Not everyone had to face what he did, but all can empathize with Bad Kid.” — Booklist
2015-03-11
Reflections on growing up goth and gay in Texas at the dawn of the 1990s—based on the author's one-man show. As a gay teenager in Texas, writer and performer Crabb suffered the abuse of having his head smashed with encyclopedias and enduring hate speeches from his classmates. By the time he entered high school, the author's denial of his sexuality was tested when he began listening to George Michael's "Faith" and was introduced to Interview magazine, with its glossy, artful spreads of male models. Suddenly, the message that seemingly everyone else around him had received made sense to Crabb, yet he persisted in repressing his feelings, despite his first crush on the mysterious new student named Greg. To make matters more confusing, he came of age at the height of the AIDS epidemic and hysteria, when "you couldn't watch MTV for more than ten minutes without hearing about AIDS." Crabb's gradual sexual awakening and comfort with his own identity coincided with his friendship with Greg, who also admitted to being gay. Together, the two acclimated themselves to the "freak" crowd, circulating in the teen club scene around San Antonio and excessive experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Their friendship forms the backbone of Crabb's narrative, as each relied on the other to help understand his identity in the face of intolerance and violence. Though the author's story wonderfully captures the awkwardness, strife, and even terror of his experience as a gay teen, it is also upbeat, endearing, and achingly funny. (The mall-rat generation will be especially at home with Crabb.) The author experienced all the highs and lows of adolescence, from the reckless pleasures of youth to the inevitable distance and loneliness of outgrowing relationships. A vivid and dramatic slice of adolescence.
