And Don't F&%k It Up

An Oral History of RuPaul's Drag Race (The First Ten Years)

By: World of Wonder, Maria Elena Fernandez

Narrated by: Alec Mapa

Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

A definitive history and celebration of the groundbreaking show RuPaul's Drag Race in its first decade, from a Burbank basement set all the way to the Emmy's, and every weave in-between, as told by its stars, producers and fans.

Told over the first ten years, And Don't F&%k It Up tells a cultural history through the stories of the people who lived it: the creators of the show, the contestants, the crew, the judges, and even some key (famous) fans.

It begins with RuPaul's decades-long friendship and business relationship with World of Wonder Productions, the entertainment company that helped launch him into superstardom, and later talked him into giving a drag reality show a chance.

From there, it follows the growth and evolution of the show—and its queens—through a decade of gag-worthy seasons, serving up all kinds of behind-the-scenes realness. With a history as shady and funny as it is dramatic and inspiring, And Don't F&%k It Up shows how RuPaul's Drag Race is a mirror reflecting the cultural and political mores of our time. Its meteoric rise to becoming a once-in-a-generation success story is explored here as never before, in intimate, exuberant, unfettered detail.

©2023 World of Wonder (P)2023 Grand Central Publishing

Critic reviews

"10s 10s 10s across the board."—Andy Cohen

“¡Amo este libro! It’s dripping with cuchi, uniqueness, nerve, and talent!”—Charo

“Everything you wanted to know (and more) about the twisted minds behind the best mothertucking show on earth.”—Simon Doonan, author of Drag: The Complete Story

A fun, interesting if incomplete history

You can definitely tell WOW wrote this; while you get a pretty extensive history of the franchise they definitely gloss over the more controversial/unsavory aspects (Mathu Anderson and his contributions are only briefly discussed and they never get into his departure; production’s unwillingness to cast trans folks until recently, Willam’s departure, etc)

Alec Mapa is a great narrator; occasionally he slightly affects his voice to match who’s speaking (or maybe that was just me subconsciously hearing it) in a way that’s a little odd/distracting but it does help set the scene.

Quotetionary

This is a book of quotes, not a cohesive story. It rarely takes me no more than 3 days to "read" a book. This took nearly 3 weeks. Having said that, I think the diehard drag race fan will be glad they "read" this.

Enlightenment Extravaganza!!!

This book is well read, and very eye opening to the ins and outs of the RDR galaxy! I look forward to a part 2 !

The people who wrote this…you are safe, you may step to the back of the stage

There’s no real “scoop” here. You can tell everyone’s still under NDA. But it’s still a nice confection for true Drag Race fans.

The star is Alec Mapa. He brings slight inflections to each queens voice, which adds a special layer to the journey. Made it feel like we were Kiki-ing with the queens.

I’m glad a listened but doubt I’ll listen again. Unlike drag race episodes, which are a great escape.

Enjoyable if you like the show

“Iconic” as a description needs to be retired after this book though. I enjoyed hearing the queens talk about their experiences. Not everything is entirely accurate though.

Meh

Incredibly self congratulatory Dash not reflective of the entire history of RuPaul’s drag race. Not really, addressing any of the controversies that it’s hard or providing any type of real information that is an already known. I was expecting a lot more out of this book especially for a show that has paved the way as much as it has, but unfortunately it comes off like a promo magazine. The narrator does a decent job on performance of the book – but I didn’t really care for his inflections he would do for certain individuals like Valentina. Towards the end it gets very tiresome to hear “we were once a spunky little show. Wow look at us now!“