Book Summary and Reviews of Little F by Michelle Tea

Little F by Michelle Tea

Little F

by Michelle Tea

  • Critics' Consensus (9):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 232 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A new epic novel about a teenage queer runaway from cult classic author of Black Wave and Valencia Michelle Tea.

In Spencer's fantasies, the breezy, queer streets of Provincetown, MA, are utopia, a place where he can be free. Yet when a violent attack in his suburban Arizona schoolyard sends him to the hospital, he decides queer utopia can't wait. And one night, with the help of his best friend, the teenage witch Joy, he hitches a ride to find it.

The cross-country road odyssey that follows brings Spencer from new moon rituals in Arizona canyons to Texas bus stations, from the luxe drag stages of Houston's Montrose district to the jazz-soaked streets of the French Quarter and beyond. This new novel from Michelle Tea tells the story, by turns raw, romantic, and sweet, of a sheltered boy taking his first leap into queer life, among all the complicated queers who live it.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"A comical, tender, queer coming-of-age, where the journey is the destination." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Each episode in the colorful and gritty narrative captures the reader's attention, but the main attraction is Spencer's barbed voice: "I was born to solid, stable, functional, miserable straight people." This coming-of-age story soars." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Dazzling, daring, and darkly hilarious, Little F is a novel that breathes new life into the gay coming-of-age story from a writer whose work has helped define the tradition of queer writing. Gritty with a hopeful twist, this gorgeous book is sure to join the canon of classic young adult coming-out fiction." —Kai Cheng Thom, author of Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars

"Little F is the book I've been needing all my life. It's like Michelle Tea has a magnifying glass pointed straight into every angsty teenage queer's soul. I can't wait for everyone to meet Spencer, her heartbreakingly tender and deliciously messy hero, whose cross-country odyssey is equal parts To Wong Foo and My So-Called Life. I saw the best parts of myself in this book. The anger. The hunger. The private, indestructible yearning. I laughed so hard I cried." —Edgar Gomez, author of High Risk Homosexual

This information about Little F was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Michelle Tea

Michelle Tea is the author of over twenty books of fiction, memoir, poetry and children's literature. Her autofiction Valencia, a cult classic, won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Fiction. Her essay collection Against Memoir was awarded the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for The Art of the Essay. Tea is also the recipient of awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation. The founder of Drag Queen Story Hour, she has received honors from the American Library Association and Logo Television. Tea curated the Sister Spit Books series at City Lights Publishers and founded the ongoing imprint Amethyst Edition at the Feminist Press.

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