Rating: 
Summary: makes you want to write
Review: Michelle's book is indeed one that is hard to put down! I felt rebellious just taking breaks at work to try to finish it. And for a long while after, I sort-of looked at everything around me a little differently--like there was a story waiting to be told in every nook and cranny. Truly a gift.
Rating: 
Summary: i should have quit my job to follow michelle tea
Review: the imaginative, lyrical and sensual motion in this "confessional" novel can only be attributed to a liver and lover. those who do not connect with this book in one way or another have not connected with much; the survival sensibility contained in this book transcends that contained in most. The raw lines, extracted involuntarily by a reader like me who was, prior to her reading, vying for something more tangible in books written by 20-something lesbians with something to say, emerge as an "every-woman's" inner-monologue, one that most might be afraid to admit to.
Rating:
Summary: not just a... [lesbian] book
Review: The tragedy of Valencia is that it's going to be pidgen-holed as "lesbian fiction" and it's audience will be limited because of that. this is indeed a book whose characters are lesbians, but to limit it like that a shame; no one files hemingway under "straight fiction". this is a brilliant book of raging life, confused emotions; a whirlwind of activity. the narrator finds herself at the epicenter of friends, relationships, cops, drugs, and emotions that are never again as powerful as they are when you are young and michelle tea does an incredible job of capturing this confused cacouphony of time and space in a meaningful and really tender way. this is a book that i really wish i could keep a secret, but ms. tea deserves much more than that. i hope there's much more to come from her.
Rating:
Summary: the best realistic lesbian book i've read
Review: There are so many ... mainstream lesbian books out there that aren't realistic at all--but this one is different. You really don't have to be ... to like this book, although i have to say as a young lesbian; i gained a lot of strength and confidence from reading it. It's a little raunchy in places, sure, but you don't have to be "alternative" to think every page is about you. It's such a perfect display of the lesbian scene: the bars, the random attitudes of modern ..., the political candidness, and oh the emotions...and Tea's writing style is perfect--i promise you will not want this book to end. It's funny and sad and heartfelt...whatever. just read it. you won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: the best realistic lesbian book i've read
Review: There are so many ... mainstream lesbian books out there that aren't realistic at all--but this one is different. You really don't have to be ... to like this book, although i have to say as a young lesbian; i gained a lot of strength and confidence from reading it. It's a little raunchy in places, sure, but you don't have to be "alternative" to think every page is about you. It's such a perfect display of the lesbian scene: the bars, the random attitudes of modern ..., the political candidness, and oh the emotions...and Tea's writing style is perfect--i promise you will not want this book to end. It's funny and sad and heartfelt...whatever. just read it. you won't be sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: Less Gossip and More Substance, Please.
Review: There is a not-so pleasant side to Valencia that I believe has hurt & affected a lot of people. While the book might provide a memorable and often amusing glimpse into the world of "dyke drama" - the author did not bother to try to disguise her characters or stories enough as to protect their anonymity. A few of my friends and acquaintances are characters in "Valencia". Many familiar with or in the SF dyke scene will easily recognize who is being written about. Some may have the opinion that this is what happens when you hang out with writers -- and that readers-at-large won't be able to identify these characters anyway. So what's the big deal? The fact of the matter is that in these people's everyday lives, in their communities, they have to deal with the aftermath of these half-truths -- some definitely more damaging than others. "Literary memoirs" ought to amount to more than just gossip -- and Michelle is talented enough to use more of her imagination in telling her story without victimizing the very community she gets her source material and sustenance from.
Rating:
Summary: unabashed fun
Review: there's something exciting about reading michelle tea's words. as if you are prying into someone's personal emails to a close friend and you get to hear all the juicy details in one's life that you'd normally not be privy to - particularly one so replete with drugs, sex, prostitution, and the underground of the SF lesbian scene. i loved this book, plain and simple. i appreciated it more than passionate mistakes...., but not because anything was more developed or complex but because i think i just got used to michelle's style. get used to grammatically incorrect, run-on sentences. in fact, forget paragraphs altogether. this novel isn't so much a novel,but rather an entire monologue which encaptures about a year in the life of michelle. more so than a cheap thrill for lesbians that just want to read some girl-on-girl action, michelle candidly explores much more than that and has you belly laughing almost the entire way through in her no-apologies style that has absolutely won me over. highly recommend!!!
Rating:
Summary: unabashed fun
Review: there's something exciting about reading michelle tea's words. as if you are prying into someone's personal emails to a close friend and you get to hear all the juicy details in one's life that you'd normally not be privy to - particularly one so replete with drugs, sex, prostitution, and the underground of the SF lesbian scene. i loved this book, plain and simple. i appreciated it more than passionate mistakes...., but not because anything was more developed or complex but because i think i just got used to michelle's style. get used to grammatically incorrect, run-on sentences. in fact, forget paragraphs altogether. this novel isn't so much a novel,but rather an entire monologue which encaptures about a year in the life of michelle. more so than a cheap thrill for lesbians that just want to read some girl-on-girl action, michelle candidly explores much more than that and has you belly laughing almost the entire way through in her no-apologies style that has absolutely won me over. highly recommend!!!
Rating:
Summary: A mixed bag if ever there was..
Review: This book is incredibly difficult to review, simply because it is both the best and worst piece of writing you are likely to read this year.
You desperately want to like this book because of it's innovatively and beautifully written prose and its blindingly obvious potential. However, in the end, the bad repetitive and completely dull elements of this story win out above the interesting writing and all else that this book may offer.
Like a dykey 'Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas', Tea's stream of consciousness narrative examines the underbelly of 20th century Lesbianism in San Fransisco. While this is a fascinating subject, Tea manages to inject the work with such unbearable repetition ('We were all on drugs', 'I was avoiding this girl', 'My green hair', 'This girl kissed me in the bathroom' etc etc) and works so hard to push this book to the very edge of the lesbian counterculture.
Was I meant to sympathise? Was I meant to care about this woman and her relationship/alcohol/drug issues? Probably not, but if I don't care about the subject of a book, I am unlikely to see it through to its conclusion to find out what happens. As many other reviewers have suggested, I couldn't help but wonder why this repetitive tale necessiated an entire book.
Nevertheless, I did stick with the mindless drug-hazed oblivion that was the conclusion, and came out none the wiser, but merely feeling as if Tea had played to a number of lesbian tropes and wasted my time on her drugs, mindless sex and green hair and latex gloves.
But nevertheless, beautiful prose never realised.
Rating: 
Summary: a voyeuristic glimpse at life not mine
Review: This book may not have been inspirational or life altering, but it was definately interesting. A quick read, and a glance at the restless punk rock, SF dyke scene. The characters are excessive but believeable, Michelle Tea does a good job of taking you there.
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