Kate Elizabeth's Reviews > Flaming Iguanas: An Illustrated All-Girl Road Novel Thing

I got this book when I was 17, I think, at Powell's in Oregon on a trip with my dad. I had (and have) a weakness for journal-type books, which this is, but it's also pretty raunchy at parts and blatantly sexual and feminist at others, and if I remember correctly teenage me was somewhat scandalized by that. (Teenage me was in retrospect very cute and I wish to hug her and tell her lots of things.) Adult me liked this, though. It's weird and different and funny and honest and smart, filled with line drawings and rubber-stamp art and not like anything else I own or have read.

Some favorite excerpts:

"My mom and my sister just naturally knew how to always be appropriate, while I never had a clue. They were always well pressed and knew not to lunge for the turkey leg at someone else's house. It's tough being born without an 'appropriate' barometer. To this day I still feel like I have spinach in my teeth, the back of my skirt tucked in my underwear and toilet paper stuck to my shoe."

"One of the advantages of being alone is that you're more open to the magic that's really still out there."

"The louder you laugh and the farther apart you plant your feet, the more respect you'll get. Take up space because it's not a school dance."