Nev's Reviews > The Boy in the Red Dress

If a murder mystery set in a queer speakeasy in 1929/1930s New Orleans doesn’t sound amazing to you then... I don’t know what to say. I enjoyed how even though this was a very difficult time to be queer, and the book does show the unfair way the marginalized characters are treated by the police and other people in positions of power, the story also shows these characters having full lives with joy, sorrow, love, friendship, and found family.

The murder mystery kept me guessing. There were definitely times when I thought I had it all figured out but then I’d be completely proven wrong. It was really fun watching Millie be this badass bisexual amateur sleuth.

My one main complaint is that sometimes I don’t think the writing did enough to make the story seem like it was taking place in 1929/1930. Sometimes the ways the characters spoke to one another felt a little bit too modern to me. I think there could’ve been a little bit more old fashioned slang or words specific to New Orleans just to really emphasize the time period and location.

Overall I think this was a really fun queer YA murder mystery. I’d definitely recommend checking it out.