House of Villadiva

A St. Louis Magazine Must-Read for 2021!

WELCOME TO THE "ornate but rickety" Villadiva, whose stained glass windows and uneven floors house more than a century of St. Louis's queer culture and drama. In a city where "ambition and history and activism and machinations mix with scandal and sex and ghosts and murder," it's beneath Villadiva's crystal chandeliers that secrets are revealed and stories come to life. You'll feel you're in the room with provocateur Andoe and his riotous, multigenerational tribe of eccentrics, socialites, drag queens, card-reading witches, psychic mediums, addicts, and promiscuous extroverts--as well as the stalkers, liars, and felonious, headline-grabbing sociopaths who are determined to destroy them.

House of Villadiva reveals the heart and heartlessness of urban queer life in the 21st centuryand the secret to living through it.

About the Author

With an archly observational voice that has drawn apt comparisons to David Sedaris and Armistead Maupin, Chris Andoe's stranger-than-life true stories have made him a household name in the Queer Midwest. His first book, Delusions of Grandeur, was released to critical acclaim in 2015 and has a 5-star rating on Amazon. He served as editor in chief for Out in STL, and currently writes for The Riverfront Times and St. Louis Magazine.

Book Review:

"Chris Andoe writes like he talks, which is a very good thing, because he's one of our city's best talkers. And the object of his fascinationwhether he's three martinis into a happy hour or three thousand words into a written chapteris the ensemble cast that is LGBTQ St. Louis, in all its pettiness and pageantry, glory, and weirdness. Sometimes he only records the drama; other times he spritzes gasoline on the flames. But all of it captivates him. Readers of this book can count on feeling the same way." -- Nicholas Phillips, St. Louis Magazine

Dettagli