Little F

by Michelle Tea

A new epic novel about a teenage queer runaway from cult classic author of Blackwave and Valencia Michelle Tea.

In Spencer’s fantasies, the breezy, queer streets of Provincetown, MA, are utopia, a place where he can be free. Yet when a violent attack in his suburban Arizona schoolyard sends him to the hospital, he decides queer utopia can’t wait. And one night, with the help of his best friend, the teenage witch Joy, he hitches a ride to find it.

The cross-country road odyssey that follows brings Spencer from new moon rituals in Arizona canyons to Texas bus stations, from the luxe drag stages of Houston’s Montrose district to the jazz-soaked streets of the French Quarter and beyond. This new novel from Michelle Tea tells the story, by turns raw, romantic, and sweet, of a sheltered boy taking his first leap into queer life, among all the complicated queers who live it.

Genres: Queer, Young Adult, Coming Of Age, Fiction, LGBT, Gay, Friendship

232 pages, Paperback

Published October 14, 2025

About the author

Michelle Tea (born Michelle Tomasik) is an American author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose autobiographical works explore queer culture, feminism, race, class, prostitution, and other topics. She is originally from Chelsea, Massachusetts and currently lives in San Francisco. Her books, mostly memoirs, are known for their views into the queercore community. In 2012 Tea partnered with City Lights Publishers to form the Sister Spit imprint.

Reviews

[sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

michelle tea really solidified herself as a writer of such honestly written queer stories with this book. i felt like i was in the passenger seat of spencer's wild journey, from phoenix to austin to new orleans (even his imaginary uncle's house in provincetown) i really hope that this book finds its way into the hands of a lot more queer people (both young and old) and gives them the same sense of queer joy & endearment i felt. i had a c t u a l tears in my eyes reading the last few pages and i already know i'll be giving this a reread sometime soon

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A new epic novel about a teenage queer runaway from cult classic author of Blackwave and Valencia Michelle Tea.

In Spencer’s fantasies, the breezy, queer streets of Provincetown, MA, are utopia, a place where he can be free. Yet when a violent attack in his suburban Arizona schoolyard sends him to the hospital, he decides queer utopia can’t wait. And one night, with the help of his best friend, the teenage witch Joy, he hitches a ride to find it.

The cross-country road odyssey that follows brings Spencer from new moon rituals in Arizona canyons to Texas bus stations, from the luxe drag stages of Houston’s Montrose district to the jazz-soaked streets of the French Quarter and beyond. This new novel from Michelle Tea tells the story, by turns raw, romantic, and sweet, of a sheltered boy taking his first leap into queer life, among all the complicated queers who live it.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Road novels lend themselves beautifully to the coming-of-age genre. In a road novel, the main character is by definition seeking some unknown, longed-for thing...adulthood is that thing, the long-dreamed-of delights of not being under someone else's thumb, making your own decisions....

I know, I know, it's as far from reality as a time-travel novel is. The traveler/comer-of-age doesn't know that (yet) so let it ride while the trip educates the youth into disillusionment's many pleasures. ...wait...pleasures? Spencer is, like so many of us formerly young queer lads going to run head-first into reality and find it pretty good.

Escaping homophobia is not possible, but getting out of a bully's sights is not a bad idea. As Spencer moves to other peoples' whims, aka hitchhikes, to get to Provincetown, the world shows him a bright face. He meets people who help him, in spite of taking him away from the direction he's set; lots of endearing, heartfelt chats; sleeping on couches (my back twinged just typing it); finding his first reciprocated love.

A lovely story, but not one we haven't read before (over thirty, anyway), so best really as a gift for your sweet young giftee. You know the one...not ready to come out; not ready for The Talk; but turning life over in their mind painfully loudly.

Give them this book to give those gears a bit of "others before you have been there, here's what they say about it" lubrication before you, their parents, and the rest of us go deaf.

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute gay coming of age story

[Benny]

This is so silly and I enjoyed it a fair bit. I confess to believing for the book's entirety that it was YA and only in the adult category for the language used, but I actually cannot find any evidence to this effect so perhaps the leniency I've given it is less warranted... idk. Not gonna rate because I'm not really the intended audience. High camp and highly ridiculous and quite sweet. the dialogue exchange that goes like "I'm going to kill myself." "You can't joke about that, not after the gay bully suicides!" "What the fuck are the gay bully suicides?" [Spencer then finds out that three gay teen boys have killed themselves that day and if he kills himself it looks like he's following a trend so he decides not to] is so funny sorry big fan you had to be there

[Translator Monkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the right audience, I think this will be a godsend. Wonderfully written, maybe a bit formulaic (which is okay) and a handful of contrivances, but contrivances and formula be damned, it's a very good coming-of-age-queer story that will touch many readers. The ending is a bit much, and I felt compelled to tape my eyes into their sockets to keep them from rolling right out, but there's also a glimpse in the final pages that perhaps the ending is a bit more open to nuance than meets the eye.

Four stars.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

[Paul Rand · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic story of a gay teen finding acceptance and discovering a new world where he could be 'normal' when the world he'd grown up in was so unaccepting.
This book reminded me in places of Demon Copperhead, but with a lot more hope, particularly in the ending. At a time when prejudice towards LGBTQ+ folk is growing, we need this book, and others like it.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Fun and cheesy YA vibes. Very different than Tea’s other work but still enjoyable.

[Beth]

Very charming! Looking forward to reading more of Michelle Tea's back catalogue as it comes out in the UK.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sweet, very fun

[Daniëlle Wolfs · Rating 4 out of 5]

4e boek deze week 🔥🔥🔥

[sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

very different from tea's other books, very sweet

[Julia Rhea · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars

After Spencer, a gay 13-year-old, is brutally beat-up by a classmate, he runs away from home in attempt to flee towards his dream: moving to Provincetown, MA (a town known for their acceptance of queer folk). Spencer hitches rides with strangers, sleeps on a drag queen's couch, finds his first love, and so much more in this road-trip novel. It was funny, tense, and emotional all at once.

As a huge lover of coming-of-age, found-family, and queer stories, I adored this book. It made the queer, angsty (and occasionally bratty), teen that still lives inside me feel seen and comforted. This is another read that oddly felt like an indie movie I would've loved and watched in high school.

[Lane Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely adored this book. Reading it filled with me with staying happiness and optimism.

Maybe this kind of relatable adventure and excitement is what other people experienced reading Catcher in the Rye, and I lacked the empathy necessary to relate to the perspective character simply because he was straight, and weird around people that reminded him of his sister.

I suppose this boy’s voice was also brighter, not so whiny, self-aware… filled with irrational optimism in the face of frustrating circumstances… eager to see the best in others… ready to smile and cry and feel on a path of wild, frightening adventure.

I’m glad (and sad) that I didn’t have books like this to read as a kid. I might’ve run away! (Would that have been so bad?)

[Michael La Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michelle Tea is my favorite writer and I have always loved everything she’s done but this one did not click for me. It’s truly a departure from everything else she’s done and reads heavily like a YA novel that it was hard for me to enjoy at times because it was so so whimsical.

[Hal Schrieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book halfway between underground queer cult classic and soft and sauishy sentimental YA, and it can’t quite decide what it is. I love Michelle Tea’s Black Wave— and I love her ability here to depict a kind of 2010s homophobia which starts in the realm of the trope (f-g gets beat up) and then sketches its central gay boy and his witch bestie in a sudden depth of color that make them more than 3D while leaving homophobic mom and repressed gay dad in the realm of birdcage camp. Tea then takes her barely-teenage runaway on an enlivening , hilarious, breakneck speed bildungsroman as he attempts to make it to provincetown in search of a fantasy gay uncle figure. Along the way he encounters straight stoner burner bros, texas hikers, bus-station pedophiles, strip clubs, and an older gay teen homeless bandit named Velvet who takes him under his wing. Michelle’s child-POV is clearly something she enjoys. I think a lot of her other books reflect a certain identification with the child as sacred figure, and potentially with gay boys in particular. It is maybe a gender thing for her. And the parts of this book i love the most are where she feels out the lines of what her protagonist understands (far more than his suburban upbringing gives him credit for) and how much is still beyond him (the long term outcome of his or others’ actions). What interrupts the canny insights about straight america, the family, and the vast world outside the respectable is Tea’s somewhat hectic optimism— suddenly, a queer youth organization full of perfect wonderful people show up! Suddenly, spencer’s witch bestie is back, radiating protective magic! Suddenly, his terrible parents have changed their minds about gay people to such an extent that they adopt his feral boyfriend as well! It brings what has been a tight if maudlin journey to a halt and reversal with a bit of a squelch (and we never reach P-town). It is interesting to put this book alongside a gay guy writer about orphan teens/adoption like Delany’s Hogg or Dennis Cooper, who are invested in imagining the very worst case outcomes in this scenario and also invested in imagining the carnality of the child’s desire as he escapes the suffocating family. Tea depicts Spencer as romantic and nearly sexless, which is true for some children but also kind of places him back in the realm of the fetish-object, an untouchable ephebe whose desire is yet to awake. Poppy Z Brite also wrote about orphan gay boys (from Drawing Blood to Lost Souls) while living as a woman, and had much worse things happen to his characters closer to Cooper (and beyond— vampire murder orgy). Brite for me is softhearted and optimistic about the love that can prosper between queer outcasts in a way more like Tea, and less like gay male writers, while retaining a sexual ferocity in his teens alongside their vulnerability. Tea and Brite come out of a 90s punky queerness which loves the idea of bizarro found family, but other things have happened for Brite and Tea since, and their visions od a future for rogue children really vary. Brite sees the potential in community mediation (and retribution) among morally ambivalent monsters and adoption by rock bands and healing via complex twin-flame chaos, where Tea basically ends on a kind of fairy tale note where imperfect parents pick back up their social role, interrupting her own story with a recuperative It Gets Better reflecting her own How To Grow Up trajectory. I don’t know that i want Spencer back in arizona!! I want them to be stolen away by new complicated adults and new darknesses— and perhaps set up their own life somewhere outside the four walls of home.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little F— by Michelle Tea is a heartwarming, queer coming-of-age road trip novel that will make you feel hopeless and hopeful about the state of humanity.
I don’t normally read YA, but Michelle Tea is one of my favorite authors, so I was excited when X sent me a copy of her newest novel. It’s 2010, and Spencer is a shrimpy 13-year-old living in the bland suburban expanse of Phoenix, Arizona. He understands that he is gay, but so far, his only gay experiences have taken place in his air-conditioned bedroom, where he Googles things like ‘gay cities’ and ‘drag queens.’ His research leads him to the magical gay paradise of Provincetown, MA, a place he wants to be so badly that he invents a gay uncle (a retired Harvard professor, no less) who, after a traumatic gay bashing incident that sends him to the hospital, Spencer decides to run away to.
It’s a fast-paced novel that leads Spencer through the seedy underbelly of the American Southwest. He’s introduced to truly heinous people (check the trigger warnings), but he also meets good-hearted, if morally corrupted by need, people who are willing to help him for nothing in return.
Spencer’s POV is what really made this novel work for me. Sarcasm and biting wit are often coping mechanisms and self-protective measures for queer kids who are, for various reasons, unable to or unwilling to hide behind the mask of heteronormativity. This mask fades as he learns to be himself in an increasingly dangerous world, aided by the kindness and love of other queer people that is strong enough to overshadow the darkness. While the novel ends on an undeniably cheesy note, I feel that it was fitting here, as it gives the characters and young readers a sense of hope and belonging that’s still so necessary.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michelle Tea has knocked it out of the park once again. This book is a celebration of and cautionary tale for young queer people. I am hoping it will circulate among queer youth in knowing they are not alone and never to blame.

The story centers around Spencer,who is gay bashed at high school yet is blamed for antagonizing the basher. His parents do not support him, his father is closeted and thusly he runs away in search of the "perfect gay uncle who will nurture him in Provincetown."

This journey takes him on many adventures, and he meets up with another gay teen runaway who has no family and is prone to crime and theft. Together, they travel haphazardly and, although initially very different, come to appreciate each others' different experiences and outlooks on life.

They wind up in New Orleans, where the story comes to a head, and both Spencer and his partner's pasts collide. The ending seemed a little far fetched, as it seemed too neatly concluded. However, that takes nothing from the vitality and heart of this essential coming-of-age story.

Thanks to EdelweissPlus for the eARC.

[The Page Ladies Book Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Little F felt like hopping into a stolen car with a map full of dreams and no real plan just the wild, aching hope of finding somewhere you finally belong. Michelle Tea captures that reckless, tender rush of queerness and self-discovery so vividly that I swear I could smell the desert air and the cigarette smoke from every roadside diner Spencer passes through.

Spencer’s voice broke my heart in the best way. He’s innocent but burning with hunger for love, for freedom, for a life that makes sense. Watching him run from Arizona toward this imagined queer utopia in Provincetown is both beautiful and terrifying, because you can feel how badly he needs it to exist. And yet, what he finds along the way drag queens, witches, bus stations, heartbreak, community is even more powerful than the dream itself.

Michelle Tea doesn’t shy away from the messiness of coming of age, or the contradictions of queer spaces the danger and the magic, the loneliness and the joy. It’s raw, funny, and full of grit and glitter in equal measure. By the last page, I felt like I’d taken that road trip right alongside him.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spencer is thirteen and winds up in hospital after a violent encounter with a homophobic bully. His own mother doesn’t believe the attach was unprovoked so when they arrive home he rings his best friend Joy and tells her he’s going to run away. He’s decided he’s going to Provincetown, a queer utopia in his mind, to live with a made up gay uncle.

This is very funny but the whole time I was thinking “he is thirteen!! A baby out on these streets!”. Spencer has thoughts that seem to be beyond his years but he’s also very sheltered and naive. At times he’s stupid. Because he is THIRTEEN and thirteen year olds are definitely stupid on occasion.

Overall I found this a combination of sweet and mildly stressful. I enjoyed the host of characters Spencer came into contact with. I will definitely read more of Michelle Tea’s writing (I cannot believe this is my first of hers??)

*read via Edelweiss

[Karim Zayn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun, if short, coming-of-age story about a gay runaway getting himself into all sorts of mischief. I certainly enjoyed it (I finished it within a day) and the highlight for me was that although what’s driving the story is pretty heavy at its core, the subjects are handled with such lightness and comedy that it ends up being fun to read rather than depressing.

There are plot points where you have to suspend disbelief, though my sense is that’s intentional given this is YA fiction. It’s going for lighthearted over realistic, which is fine.

My only real criticism (which is hardly a deterrent) is that the story wraps up way too neatly. There’s a short postscript outlining where each character ends up, but given the wild ride you’ve just been on, it feels like too little an aftermath.

With all that said this was a very fun read, and one I’d highly recommend.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A picaresque novel, in which Spencer, a 13-year-old queer kid, is forced to run away from home, when his parents blame him for being the victim of a hate crime. This sounds like a very dark premise for a story, but Little F actually ends up being uplifting. Spencer finds himself in many dangerous situations, but he also finds the help and support of other people who are outcast from society, especially another queer boy called Velvet. While the dénouement could be a little too good to be true, it fits the fable-like quality of this story, and I found it moving. Definitely recommend this one!

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feel-good, utopian, coming-of-age read. I admire Michelle Tea’s contributions to the queer community greatly. That being said, this felt a bit too heavy-handed and ‘social issue 101’ for my liking (I know that I am not the target audience of the book’s 15-17-y/o demographic). Made me want to read Valencia next!

[August Driussi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This teen runaway roadtrip novel is a delight -- laugh-out-loud funny, earnest, brave and sweet. I cried happy tears! Spencer is so angry and sarcastic and weird. I need to have hope for the world and I find hope here. Thank you Michelle Tea! I'm gonna finish Blackwave now!

[Becca Fergus · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a lovely story although the end felt quite rushed and unlikely, and the consequences didn’t quite match up to the intense situations they were in? despite that, i also now long for a faceless Provincetown uncle

[Diba · Rating 2 out of 5]

stupid ending

What a stupid ending. So unrealistic and unlike the characters. The whole book was hugely optimistic which was ok for the most part but the ending….is this a fanfic to encourage kids to run away and everything will be perfect in the end??? Ugh

[Verity O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny and magical and cinematic and sweet <3

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cried and laughed simultaneously in the book's last pages which I don't think has ever happened to me before!!!

[Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 is the year of queer roadtrip stories

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michelle Tea in fine form! Really fucking smart and fun and hilarious and feelgood and hard to quit. I loved this.

[Grace Stafford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I've read a lot of road trip novels lately. Little F is perfectly sweet, hopeful, celebratory, and heart-warming.