Sarah

A young sex worker reinvents himself as Cherry Vanilla, hitching rides through Appalachian truck stops with a leather mini skirt and a Velcro makeup bag to perform a bold, dangerous identity. Raw and lyrical, this road tale mixes myth and grit as Cherry seeks the love of a woman he calls mother, navigates predatory pimps, and communes with odd holy creatures like the jackalope. The tone moves from playful and transgressive to tender and incandescent, never shying away from the costs of survival or the small fierce joys that keep a chosen family alive. By turns shocking and redemptive, the narrative reframes identity as performance and offers a wild, compassionate look at how saints and sinners are made and loved.

~ Included for its fearless portrait of gender as performance and for centering queer survival, found family, and magical realism in a rural landscape ~