"One of the best, most evocative titles of the release season." -- The Millions "This is a vast, arresting story. It''s a story of loving addicts. Of a queer sexual awakening. Of inhabiting a female body in America. Of biracial identity. Of obsessive, envy-fueled friendships. Of assault.
It''s a eulogy and a love song. It''s about girls and the women they become. And it''s all compulsively readable, not just because of those big themes, but because of the embodied, needle-fine moments that make the stories sing." -- New York Times Book Review, Editors'' Choice "Gripping and gloriously written . Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls , a memoir from the literary essayist T Kira Madden, is a searing, vivid, and deeply thoughtful take on growing up in a turbulent family in Boca Raton, Florida" -- Elle, "Best Books of Spring" "Gorgeous . [Madden''s] story is filled with desire and loss, love and forgiveness, and it''s an utterly unforgettable debut." -- NYLON "Madden, ''a writer, photographer, and amateur magician,'' pulls a rabbit out of her hat and turns her life into art in this gorgeous reckoning" -- Washington Post, "Best Books of the Month" "Madden brings her sharply funny voice to her new book, which humanely explores her coming of age as a biracial queer teenager in Boca Raton, Florida, and the climate of abuse and addiction that surrounded her." -- Entertainment Weekly, "Most Anticipated Books of 2019" "The literary equivalent of sucking on a Warhead: at once nostalgically sweet, stingingly sour, and unnervingly satisfying.
Set mostly against the helter-skelter backdrop of Boca Raton-a place of both privilege and immense squalor-these vignettes acutely capture the grit of girlhood" -- Oprah Magazine " Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is a deeply compassionate book, though not an apologetic one. In baring the bad and ugly alongside the good, Madden has succeeded in creating a mirror of larger concerns, even as her own story is achingly specific and personal." -- NPR.org "Truly stunning . Not many memoirs can get away with calling themselves page-turners, but T Kira Madden''s sure AF can" -- Cosmopolitan "A dizzying and dazzling coming-of-age story, Long Live The Tribe of Fatherless Girls is a story as hard to shake as glitter . [Madden] writes of that longing for unique personhood, but also of family, of death, of grief, of love." -- Bustle "Harrowing and sad and funny and beautifully written. [ Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls ] inspires rage and also care.
I keep stopping to admire sentences, word choices, deft slips in time." -- Emily Temple, Lit Hub, "Lit Hub Recommends" "Very much looking forward to everyone getting to read T Kira Madden''s Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls this March (it''s a stunner)." -- Kristen Arnett, Refinery29 "I''ve been excited to read T Kira Madden''s Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls ever since I first heard her read last spring." -- R.O. Kwon, Electric Literature "Madden is magic . she uses language new and strange but always devastatingly right." -- Spencer Quong, The Paris Review "A riveting and deeply personal work that captures the loneliness and desperation of a girl coming to terms with her individuality and the shortcomings of her own family.
" -- The Advocate "Easily one of the best memoirs of the last decade . Gorgeous on the sentence level and flat out breathtaking as a whole. [ Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls ] is a read-it-all-the-way-though-in-a-single-night kinda memoir. You will love this book." -- Lit Hub - Best of the Month "One of my favorite reads in recent years. Madden''s prose is sharp, lyrical, and gut-hitting, made up of sentences I want to read over and over again." -- Hyphen Magazine "Madden writes about the dangers of growing up in a toxically wealthy environment with such clarity and lyricism." -- Books Are Magic, "Most Anticipated Books of 2019" "A Gorgeously written debut .
Exquisitely captures the pain of growing up . Read if you''re into: memoirs, family stories . actually I don''t care what you''re into you should read this" -- Alma, "Favorite Books for Spring 2019" "A deeply courageous work that chronicles one artist''s jagged-and surprisingly beautiful-path to wholeness. Affecting, fearless, and unsparingly honest." -- Kirkus "A tale of an artist''s journey that showcases the coexistence of familial love and complication with such shattering grace, understatement, and openness" -- Booklist (starred review), "Best New Books" "Necessary . Madden weaves together an utterly human paean to belonging, to healing, and to loving and being loved." -- BookPage "A particular must-read for queer humans--T Kira is one of us, and her story of how she comes to her queerness, her self, and ultimately her belonging on this earth is one that I think every queer person will feel deep inside their heart. I know I did, and I am grateful.
" -- Autostraddle "Haunting . Harrowing and charged with sharp edges, yet somehow life-affirming at the same time, Madden''s story is one of toxic privilege, destructive families, and life-saving friends." -- Esquire, "Best of Spring" "A memoir this fearless is bound to change readers'' lives . In a series of emotionally honest and incisive essays, Madden describes what it took to survive this journey ''out.'' She turns her strange childhood into a page turner" -- Refinery 29, "Best Books of March" "Haunting, artful, and profound." -- BuzzFeed "It would be easy to describe T Kira Madden''s debut memoir Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls as a coming-of-age story, or as a memoir about trauma, or a memoir of growing up biracial or queer. The truth is, the book is all of those things and more. It is an examination of privilege and wanting, of the components that make up family, of addiction, and of healing.
It is an apt representation of growing up in a culture where appearance matters--especially for young women--and finding out where you belong isn''t easy for many people" -- The Rumpus "In essays written with raw and fearless prose, Madden asks the questions to which we all seek answers. In so doing, she honors fathers and mothers and families; the ways they love, and the ways they fail." -- Electric Literature "In this fiercely honest memoir, T Kira Madden offers a look into her unstable childhood through to her sexual awakening in her teenage years. She writes about her father''s alcoholism, being a misfit at her private school, and exploring her queerness that she never knew was there. LONG LIVE THE TRIBE OF FATHERLESS GIRLS is written with a raw emotional explosiveness that is so often hidden in our social media era." -- Electric Literature, "The 20 Best Debuts of the First Half of 2019," (Adam Vitcavage, Founder of Debutiful) "A tough, raw literary voice." -- Entertainment Weekly "Both gripping and beautifully written, [Madden] tackles race, identity, and trauma with skill and grace." -- Twenty Stories'' picks for the month, The TODAY Show "[Madden''s] prose is so vivid that readers can practically taste the flavored lip gloss and feel the thick glittery foundation of the early aughts on their faces, melting in the harsh Florida sunlight or under the flashing orbs of a middle school dance.
" -- Windy City Times "T Kira Madden''s highly anticipated debut memoir is a queer girl''s handbook . It is a striking and honest voice, this debut, so let''s hope Madden has more books to come because LGBTQ+ literature is starving for this." -- Out Magazine "T Kira Madden''s memoir pairs gorgeous writing with honest emotion, exploring identity and family in her must-read book." -- Paste, "10 Best Books of March" "Luminous. Madden''s lyrical portrait of her Florida childhood, is nothing short of astonishing. The book spoils us with stylistic and structural novelty from start to finish. It''s a song of self at once stunningly variegated and yet somehow powerfully unified. Madden''s incantatory prose is spell-binding.
" -- Los Angeles Review of Books "One of the most transparent, candid and heartrending collections of personal stories that is currently on the shelf." -- International Examiner "Composed as a kaleidoscope of darkly shimmering fragments, this courageous debut memoir is the documentation of one woman''s attempt to write down and rewrite her own history, so as to make space for more love." -- Asian American Writers'' Workshop " Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is a journey in lyrical bursts through Madden''s youth, adolescence, and adulthood . Her prose is as graceful and rhapsodic as it is heart-wrenching." -- them. "Many readers--especially those to whom Madden offers her dedication--may find courage to confront, and perhaps recount, their own difficult stories thanks to Madden''s brave undertaking to tell her own." -- Bookreporter.com " Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is sad, funny, juicy and prickly with deep and secret thoughtful places.
It is raucous and poignant at once and I recommend it highly." -- Mary Gaitskill, author of THE MARE and SOMEBODY WITH A LITTLE HAMMER "Harrowing and beautiful. What seems most miraculous about Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is the way T Kira Madden forges out of such achingly difficult material a memoir as frank and funny and powerful and surprising as this, her utterly gorgeous.