THE HOUSE OF IMPOSSIBLE BEAUTIES by debut novelist Joseph Cassara makes a grand entrance with Angel. She resides in the Bronx with her mother and younger brother Miguel, who has a heart of gold but a bad habit of selling drugs. While Miguel distracts their mother, Angel sneaks into the apartment during the early morning hours, creeps into the bedroom and changes out of her lady clothes, a slick silver dress that turns heads, and looks at the boy staring back at her. Angel's mother would later say, "My son is shot dead, and you're over here playing dress up."

Angel's mother has a few words for her when she brings Hector over to the apartment, a Martha Graham dancer with an intellect that will sweep you off your feet. Mami and Hector get along fabulously; it's just that AIDS is hitting the city hard, and Angel's mother would rather call a Santera to stop death in its tracks. Throughout this fierce novel that's splashed with glitter and heartache, Angel mourns the loss of her true love. She remembers the time they strutted into Bloomingdale’s. Hector wanted to buy Angel a Chanel suit, but came up short at the register. These are the parts of the book that show how much heart these characters have, and how much they want to give one another.

"THE HOUSE OF IMPOSSIBLE BEAUTIES is written from multiple perspectives. Each character has suffered the loss of someone, something, or a dream at the edge of his or her reach. Yet what brings these dynamic and memorable people together is love..."

Cassara’s novel shines when it displays the generosity of friends and lovers who form their own family, and soon their very own House of Xtravaganza. As Hector once said, their house is "a community of runaway boriqua queens." But they move from Alphabet City to the boogie-down Bronx so Angel can escape the ghost of him.

THE HOUSE OF IMPOSSIBLE BEAUTIES is set in the '80s, at the height of the Harlem drag ball scene. Angel finds a mentor in Dorian, who is the queen of that very scene; she's like a fairy godmother, protecting those who pass through, those who pique her interest.

Angel supports herself and her adopted family by working at Pathmark. She doesn't do welfare lines because "If it can't be done in heels, she didn't want to do it." She's a mother to Daniel and Juanito, who fall in love, and to Venus.

Venus is Italian and Puerto Rican, and as a young boy, life in Jersey was nothing but a tragedy. As Thomas, her Nonna was the town's godfather. Her mother's number-running boyfriend, Antonio, pretended to have a wife so he did not have to marry her. Thomas was the only person who caught on. When his mother and Nonna went to jail, Thomas was smart enough to get away from Antonio and start a new life with a new name, Venus: "like the planet," she says. Venus is the most complex and broken character in this story.

Estranged from her family, Venus is sexually assaulted in a bathroom by her friend's man and abandoned again, until Angel catches her squatting and crying. Like the guardian angel she is, Angel scoops Venus up and beats the living hell out of that nasty man. But Venus' future continues to be filled with ups and downs as she navigates the ball scene. Street life and cruising for a buck take a toll on her. Then there are the rules: Don't mix business and pleasure. Don't fall for a customer. Venus breaks all those rules, which breaks her, and causes her to spiral out of control, breaking the hearts of those who love her --- Angel, Daniel and Juanito.

THE HOUSE OF IMPOSSIBLE BEAUTIES is written from multiple perspectives. Each character has suffered the loss of someone, something, or a dream at the edge of his or her reach. Yet what brings these dynamic and memorable people together is love, and the House of Xtravaganza, a home to those who don't have one, a place where all are treated like the royalty they are, and with love and loyalty --- major themes in this great breakout book by Joseph Cassara.