BURN THE PAGE: A TRUE STORY OF TORCHING DOUBTS, BLAZING TRAILS, AND IGNITING CHANGE
DANICA ROEM
� 2022 Viking
$27.00
320 pages

It seemed like Danica Roem was always crying.

To be fair, she had good reason: she was working two jobs and they weren't enough to pay the bills. Her car was a piece of junk. It was 2016, and her states' Republican legislators had just filed several anti-LGBTQ bills. For a Trans woman like Roem, tears were perfectly appropriate — until someone emailed her, asking why she didn't run for office herself.

Actually, why not?

So, in preparation, Roem hired a team to do "opposition research" to suss out any past behavior that her homophobic opponent might try to use against her.

Born in the fall of 1984, Roem was three years old when her father committed suicide in their back yard; soon after, her mother's parents needed care and moved into the household. This, Roem admits, was stressful all around.

Even in fifth grade, Roem knew that she wasn't a "cis-het straight kid," but since she had no "positive representation of LGBTQ people," she stayed closeted. By 13, though, she knew she was Trans but didn't want anybody to know, so to help hide it, she participated in sports, fell in love with baseball and heavy metal music, and admired girls, albeit in ways different than did her male peers. Eventually, she made a community for herself.

But when she began to think about maybe having a relationship, Roem soon realized that she had some work to do. She couldn't expect someone to see her for herself until she did it first.

"I had to commit to being who I was..." she said. "It was time to transition."

If you ever need proof of the concept that little things make big differences, you'll want Burn the Page. Same goes if you want to read a memoir that bounces with energy.

Indeed, this book is a bit like taking a small kid into a toy store: they run amok, touching and examining everything. That's not unappealing; Roem careens about, but she always lands on the heart of this book — being honest, open, and authentic — which is likewise what she encourages readers to do. Her passion for this is contagious, and she sweeps readers along with her enthusiasm in other aspects of her life, whether it's heavy metal music, travel, or politics.

Be aware, though, that, because of her excitement over her career and her heavy emphasis on it, the latter might slam shut the eyelids of readers who are not politically minded.

However, this book is like no other political memoir, ever. It's fun and wildly entertaining, and it aims to mean more than just one woman's story. For readers who want a good activist tale with a smile, Burn the Page is on fire.