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Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat
Not yet published
Expected 2 Jun 26From comedian and TikTok star Kevin James Thornton comes a hilarious and heartfelt story of growing up in a Christian fundamentalist church, turning trauma into comedy, and finding your own way.
Growing up in the 90s in a small town in Indiana, Kevin James Thornton had little notion he would one day make a career as a comedian. Like most kids in his deeply Christian town, his free time revolved around his church community—drinking Messiah Macchiatos at the youth group cafe, bedazzling his jacket with the words “Jesus Is Lord,” and evangelizing in the streets of Spanish Harlem dressed as a sin‑themed clown. But when he started to question his sexuality, life became complicated. Kevin began to realize that the community that raised him might never truly accept him.
What follows is a winding story of self‑discovery, following Thornton from a revelatory summer in New York City to the transformative years of college—where he finds like‑minded people, a knack for performance, and first loves—all the way to adulthood, where he navigates complicated relationships, finds his way into the comedy scene, and forms a special bond with a black cat named Comet (who might just have the power to travel between dimensions). Through it all, he redefines himself again and again, realizing that few things go as planned, and that “driving off into the sunset” is never really the end of the story.
Told in his unique brand of brash but emotionally honest humor, and filled with 90s nostalgia, Big Baby is a coming-of-age tale that speaks to anyone who feels like they don’t fit in.
Growing up in the 90s in a small town in Indiana, Kevin James Thornton had little notion he would one day make a career as a comedian. Like most kids in his deeply Christian town, his free time revolved around his church community—drinking Messiah Macchiatos at the youth group cafe, bedazzling his jacket with the words “Jesus Is Lord,” and evangelizing in the streets of Spanish Harlem dressed as a sin‑themed clown. But when he started to question his sexuality, life became complicated. Kevin began to realize that the community that raised him might never truly accept him.
What follows is a winding story of self‑discovery, following Thornton from a revelatory summer in New York City to the transformative years of college—where he finds like‑minded people, a knack for performance, and first loves—all the way to adulthood, where he navigates complicated relationships, finds his way into the comedy scene, and forms a special bond with a black cat named Comet (who might just have the power to travel between dimensions). Through it all, he redefines himself again and again, realizing that few things go as planned, and that “driving off into the sunset” is never really the end of the story.
Told in his unique brand of brash but emotionally honest humor, and filled with 90s nostalgia, Big Baby is a coming-of-age tale that speaks to anyone who feels like they don’t fit in.
- GenresNonfictionHumorLGBT
320 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication June 2, 2026
1 person is currently reading
135 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I almost never read memoirs or autobiographies, but having followed him years ago on TikTok, I was very interested to read his book. Although, I always did find it funny when he would start of by talking about his 'super fundamentalist church,' but then talk about speaking in tongues and listening to Contemporary Christian music. Then again, I knew people were would argue my church wasn't strict enough because women were allowed to were pants, so I guess it's relative. Sliding scale, I suppose. In any case, I'm out of the church and don't have to deal with any of it anymore:)
This was an amazing book and loved it. I would recommend it to anyone, especially to exvangelicals and/or members of the LGBT+ community. However, I think anyone will love this.
Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.
This was an amazing book and loved it. I would recommend it to anyone, especially to exvangelicals and/or members of the LGBT+ community. However, I think anyone will love this.
Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to NetGalley & Grand Central Publishing for the ARC!
Kevin James Thornton’s Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat mutes the author’s delightful social media presence into a drab assortment of personal facts.
It’s a book with weaknesses so pronounced that they feel like a threat to Thornton’s other work.
If you’ve seen any of Thornton’s material—and I assume you have, if this memoir appeals to you—then you understand the charm of a 60-second, vocoded reel affectionately eviscerating the things that people did because “it was the 90s.” You are likely as entertained as I am by Thornton’s sing-songy takes on religious fundamentalism and the way every bite-sized anecdote ends in a playful conclusion that amounts to little more than, Wacky, right?
And it’s great. And we keep scrolling.
The problem is that Big Baby tries to apply that same approach to a full book, and it’s just nothing in this medium. Memoir demands experience, not anecdotes. It’s not enough to just list things that happened—we need to know why they were significant to the author.
Almost every chapter is little more than a page, and each one is structured like it’s building to a punchline. If you’ve seen any of Thornton’s social media presence, you might incorrectly assume that you can imagine the tone, but he has dismissed his good-natured online flippancy in favor of writerly austerity. As a result, the chapters deflate so dramatically that you can almost hear them wheeze through their conclusions:
I realized I was gay.
I realized I wasn’t religious.
I realized I wanted to do comedy.
I realized I was interested in photography.
Any of these statements could fill memoirs in and of themselves, but Thornton emphasizes the first part of each one as if the revelation is that he had a thought. The writing assumes that we already ascribe some weight to the author’s self-mythology, but these epiphanies don’t mean anything unless Thornton tells us why they are meaningful. That said, there’s some meat on the bones when it comes to the tension between his queerness and his religious background, but even that almost feels like an author at war with himself—he doesn’t seem super interested in exploring it, but it’s obligatory as such a large part of his online persona.
It would be unfair to deny the trauma that scaffolds Big Baby’s marketing copy, but Thornton has polished it to shiny oblivion. This is a book that abandons stories in favor of “content.” For example, we witness the proposal and dissolution of a seven-year relationship in about three anonymous pages. There are authors who would be able to tell a whole story with the shape of what they leave unsaid, but Thornton is not one of those authors, opting instead for wistfully vague platitudes about how people grow apart.
Okay, and?
The book literally ends with a page of the effusive-but-empty thanks one might expect from a celebrity instagram post. An apology might have been more appropriate.
More often than not, influencers rise to prominence by algorithmic fluke, not some innate talent. By the end of Big Baby, that’s how I felt about Kevin James Thornton. Everything I previously appreciated about him started to feel hollow. His style seemed like schtick, a gimmick from an app. Without a cheap hook, there’s just nothing here, and it made me wonder if there was ever anything.
To be clear, I don't want to discredit the wonderful career that Thornton has built or his clear talents, but if a book is bad enough to rattle someone's entire public image, it's one that wasn't ready for the public.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but put the book down and open TikTok.
Kevin James Thornton’s Big Baby: On Endings, Beginnings, and an Interdimensional Cat mutes the author’s delightful social media presence into a drab assortment of personal facts.
It’s a book with weaknesses so pronounced that they feel like a threat to Thornton’s other work.
If you’ve seen any of Thornton’s material—and I assume you have, if this memoir appeals to you—then you understand the charm of a 60-second, vocoded reel affectionately eviscerating the things that people did because “it was the 90s.” You are likely as entertained as I am by Thornton’s sing-songy takes on religious fundamentalism and the way every bite-sized anecdote ends in a playful conclusion that amounts to little more than, Wacky, right?
And it’s great. And we keep scrolling.
The problem is that Big Baby tries to apply that same approach to a full book, and it’s just nothing in this medium. Memoir demands experience, not anecdotes. It’s not enough to just list things that happened—we need to know why they were significant to the author.
Almost every chapter is little more than a page, and each one is structured like it’s building to a punchline. If you’ve seen any of Thornton’s social media presence, you might incorrectly assume that you can imagine the tone, but he has dismissed his good-natured online flippancy in favor of writerly austerity. As a result, the chapters deflate so dramatically that you can almost hear them wheeze through their conclusions:
I realized I was gay.
I realized I wasn’t religious.
I realized I wanted to do comedy.
I realized I was interested in photography.
Any of these statements could fill memoirs in and of themselves, but Thornton emphasizes the first part of each one as if the revelation is that he had a thought. The writing assumes that we already ascribe some weight to the author’s self-mythology, but these epiphanies don’t mean anything unless Thornton tells us why they are meaningful. That said, there’s some meat on the bones when it comes to the tension between his queerness and his religious background, but even that almost feels like an author at war with himself—he doesn’t seem super interested in exploring it, but it’s obligatory as such a large part of his online persona.
It would be unfair to deny the trauma that scaffolds Big Baby’s marketing copy, but Thornton has polished it to shiny oblivion. This is a book that abandons stories in favor of “content.” For example, we witness the proposal and dissolution of a seven-year relationship in about three anonymous pages. There are authors who would be able to tell a whole story with the shape of what they leave unsaid, but Thornton is not one of those authors, opting instead for wistfully vague platitudes about how people grow apart.
Okay, and?
The book literally ends with a page of the effusive-but-empty thanks one might expect from a celebrity instagram post. An apology might have been more appropriate.
More often than not, influencers rise to prominence by algorithmic fluke, not some innate talent. By the end of Big Baby, that’s how I felt about Kevin James Thornton. Everything I previously appreciated about him started to feel hollow. His style seemed like schtick, a gimmick from an app. Without a cheap hook, there’s just nothing here, and it made me wonder if there was ever anything.
To be clear, I don't want to discredit the wonderful career that Thornton has built or his clear talents, but if a book is bad enough to rattle someone's entire public image, it's one that wasn't ready for the public.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but put the book down and open TikTok.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
ARC for review. To be published June 2, 2026.
4 stars
I only have a TikTok account because you have to have one to watch videos that are sent to you; I’ve never gone on the site just to poke around. But I must admit, a few of my friends have forwarded some hilarious stuff, including a short clip sent by my beloved Joe which featured a handsome, middle aged guy, sitting in his guy, speaking into a vocoder, starting off a short anecdote with “it was the 90s” and making himself laugh a little. It was hysterical. I watched it three times then immediately went searching for more. This man is Kevin James Thornton and if you’ve got some time to kill you could do worse than to look him up on TikTok.
So, when this book came up on NetGalley I was thrilled to see it. However, though I enjoyed it because I like reading about people’s lives, the book is definitely autobiography, not comedy. Thornton has lived an interesting life, so I found it well worth reading (that fundamentalist church? He got there on his own, his parents weren’t members.) even though it wasn’t what I expected. For laughs, hit him up on TikTok, for for a compelling look at a gay man who grew up a fundamentalist and found a true calling (career-wise) late in life, this is good.
4 stars
I only have a TikTok account because you have to have one to watch videos that are sent to you; I’ve never gone on the site just to poke around. But I must admit, a few of my friends have forwarded some hilarious stuff, including a short clip sent by my beloved Joe which featured a handsome, middle aged guy, sitting in his guy, speaking into a vocoder, starting off a short anecdote with “it was the 90s” and making himself laugh a little. It was hysterical. I watched it three times then immediately went searching for more. This man is Kevin James Thornton and if you’ve got some time to kill you could do worse than to look him up on TikTok.
So, when this book came up on NetGalley I was thrilled to see it. However, though I enjoyed it because I like reading about people’s lives, the book is definitely autobiography, not comedy. Thornton has lived an interesting life, so I found it well worth reading (that fundamentalist church? He got there on his own, his parents weren’t members.) even though it wasn’t what I expected. For laughs, hit him up on TikTok, for for a compelling look at a gay man who grew up a fundamentalist and found a true calling (career-wise) late in life, this is good.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I’ve seen Kevin James Thornton on Tik Tok a few times and I’ve always enjoyed his content. His Tik Tok page is more funny than this book. This is more of an autobiography, but it still has humor sprinkled throughout. His humor is clever and still touches on topics of being raised in a religious community in the south while discovering sexuality while being sheltered from knowledge. I was raised in church with youth groups in the 90s so I got a lot of the references. I think he handled both sides of the coin very well while still showing some respect. It’s always hard to rate an autobiography because how do you quantify entertainment value in someone's life story? But at the same time all books, even autobiographies/memoirs depend on star ratings to help move a book forward. I enjoyed my time reading this. It is humor filled coming of age while coming out in a community that doesn’t share that value. I think it was brave for him to write this and it was well done. It has a lot of heart in it and I know a lot of people in my personal life that I’d recommend this book to.
Thank you, NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read this early. The opinion in this review is my own.
Thank you, NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read this early. The opinion in this review is my own.
December 11, 2025
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for an early digital copy of comedian Kevin James Thornton’s memoir, BIG BABY for review.
I adore Kevin’s whole vibe. I was expecting BIG BABY to be hilarious - much like his autotuned “It was the ‘90s!” TikToks - and parts of it certainly made me grin, but overall I was surprised to find that it’s more honest and soul-baring than funny. This memoir is a coming of age story, but also a story about adulthood and change, and the ways life surprises us with its unexpected twists. Sometimes, it doubles back and leads us to the beginning, but it always moves forward.
I have lived a completely different life than Kevin: I didn’t go to a super fundamentalist church in the midwest, I haven’t traveled widely as part of a tour of fringe festivals, and I was never made to feel ashamed of my sexuality. But that doesn’t matter: this memoir was still impactful and, most importantly, interesting. I blew through it in 24 hours. I really resonate with the idea that we are constantly redefining ourselves, and BIG BABY makes me reflect on what is really important in life. I’m not a cat person, but Comet really stole the show.
I adore Kevin’s whole vibe. I was expecting BIG BABY to be hilarious - much like his autotuned “It was the ‘90s!” TikToks - and parts of it certainly made me grin, but overall I was surprised to find that it’s more honest and soul-baring than funny. This memoir is a coming of age story, but also a story about adulthood and change, and the ways life surprises us with its unexpected twists. Sometimes, it doubles back and leads us to the beginning, but it always moves forward.
I have lived a completely different life than Kevin: I didn’t go to a super fundamentalist church in the midwest, I haven’t traveled widely as part of a tour of fringe festivals, and I was never made to feel ashamed of my sexuality. But that doesn’t matter: this memoir was still impactful and, most importantly, interesting. I blew through it in 24 hours. I really resonate with the idea that we are constantly redefining ourselves, and BIG BABY makes me reflect on what is really important in life. I’m not a cat person, but Comet really stole the show.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I've followed Kevin James Thornton for a while and enjoyed this funny, thoughtful memoir of his evangelical adolescence ("it was the 90s!!!") and pursuit of a career in comedy. He has truly lived several lives. As a fellow late bloomer, I'm thankful he shared his story and am glad he's found much-deserved happiness on his own terms.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I first heard of Kevin James Thornton on Instagram when I randomly saw one of his videos. It made me laugh—a lot—and it was really relatable, so I watched a few more and then followed him. None of that humor really came across in the book, unfortunately—it was definitely an autobiography, not a comedy. It might have been better to listen to the audiobook, but I read an ARC so the audiobook wasn't an option at the time I read it. It was interesting to see how he went from being a teenager deeply enmeshed in a fundamentalist church to a gay adult who becomes a comedian, and while it wasn't the best autobiography I've ever read, I did enjoy reading about his life. I know I mentioned earlier that it's not a comedy, but that's not to say that I didn't find some of it humorous. Unfortunately, for me, the pacing was a bit off, however. The chapters were odd, in my opinion, as far as when where he chose to start and end them, and it felt more like little vignettes instead of a cohesive life story. All in all, however, it wasn't bad and I'd recommend it to those fans who are interested in learning more about his life, but it's not one that I'm putting on my shelf of favorites.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews