Merging memoir, poetry, and criticism, this radical literary revue traces a first-generation Nigerian American’s search for home and belonging on her own terms.
“Reckoning with identity, illness, and in-betweenness, Freda Epum’s voice comes through these pages like a flame: crackling with insight, wryly humorous even as it sears, and impossible to look away from. This hybrid marvel of a book is not just a variety show but a magic show—you will be transformed.”
—Erica Berry, author of Wolfish “The Gloomy Girl Variety Show is a one-of-a-kind, thought-provoking tour of contemporary American life. Knitting vignettes to poetry and photography, this memoir urges us to reconsider how we think and talk about mental health, pop culture, and Black women’s lives. Whether chronicling ‘How to Be a Terrible No-Good African Daughter’ or testifying on ‘Why (I Choose to Remember),’ Freda Epum writes with tenderness and great wit. She is a vibrant new voice for our times.”
—Daisy Hernández, author of The Kissing Bug |
Buy Gloomy Girl from my favorite independent bookstores
Also available at your favorite retailers
Praise for THE GLOOMY GIRL VARIETY SHOW
”Touching and unconventional . . . Epum effectively transports readers inside her mind and offers bracing, funny testimony that will feel familiar to those who’ve struggled with their own anxiety and depression.” —Publishers Weekly
“Celebrates a resilient woman’s hard-won understanding of the meaning of home in a racist world determined to annihilate her spirit. A unique memoir about the struggle to find wholeness in a white supremacist society.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Each piece is short and easy to read but skillfully crafted as Epum successfully describes her pain with emotion and humor. This well-written and engaging memoir is recommended for readers wishing to better understand the experience of mental illness or anyone who can relate to Epum’s search for belonging.” —Kathaleen McCormick, Library Journal
“Freda Epum’s debut The Gloomy Girl Variety Show appears at a time it’s especially needed. (Is it too early to attest it will be one of the most important books published this year?)....The Gloomy Girl Variety Show is a hybrid work like no other….[Epum] makes so many smart craft choices, her sentences are razor sharp, and the accompanying images are in dialogue with the prose. It’s an inventive narrative dealing with mental illness, while also highlighting the urgent need for racial justice.” –Rachel León, Foglifter
“This debut memoir from Nigerian-American writer and multi-disciplinary artist Freda Epum is like a spark plug, electrifying the traditional memoir form with vibrancy and ingenuity. The Gloomy Girl Variety Show introduces a new dimension for the genre, one that reveals all that an author can accomplish through creativity, unabashed candor, and a striking sense of humor. Epum’s references to pop culture and the digital age make this an ideal choice for those looking for a substantive read that also tethers itself to the wildly imaginative.” –Felicia Reich, Paste Magazine, The Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books and Memoirs of 2025
“In her debut memoir, Freda Epum tackles identity, mental illness, self-acceptance and belonging with candor, curiosity and poetry.” –Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine, The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2025
“As a self-described “gloomy girl,” Nigerian-American writer Freda Epum uses a pop culture lens to examine her issues with inadequate and unaffordable housing and healthcare. In the memoir, the Cincinnati-based author openly speaks to the complicated nature of surviving oppression.” –Jaelani Turner-Williams, BET
“Epum invites readers into a world filled with beautiful language and clever quips to explore identity in an approachable way. It is a mesmerizing debut that will open readers’ eyes to new worlds.” –Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
“I know it’s early to call it, but I’m certain Freda Epum’s debut The Gloomy Girl Variety Show will be one of the most important books published this year. Epum examines intersectional identities of being Black, disabled, female, and a first generation Nigerian American through an inventive and brilliant book structured as a search for the safety one can find in home.”--Rachel León, Chicago Review of Books
“[A]n impressive, and incisive exploration of connection, diaspora, mental health, and the search for home in a fractured world….Epum hooks the reader from the opening pages…Epum’s memoir brilliantly captures the nuances and emotional complexities of mental illness, while illuminating the unflinching realities and impact of othering….This memoir is a powerful call for acceptance, not only of the truths and traumas we carry but also of the judgments that cloud our vision of those who walk a different path.” —Britta Stromeyer, Bending Genres
“Celebrates a resilient woman’s hard-won understanding of the meaning of home in a racist world determined to annihilate her spirit. A unique memoir about the struggle to find wholeness in a white supremacist society.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Each piece is short and easy to read but skillfully crafted as Epum successfully describes her pain with emotion and humor. This well-written and engaging memoir is recommended for readers wishing to better understand the experience of mental illness or anyone who can relate to Epum’s search for belonging.” —Kathaleen McCormick, Library Journal
“Freda Epum’s debut The Gloomy Girl Variety Show appears at a time it’s especially needed. (Is it too early to attest it will be one of the most important books published this year?)....The Gloomy Girl Variety Show is a hybrid work like no other….[Epum] makes so many smart craft choices, her sentences are razor sharp, and the accompanying images are in dialogue with the prose. It’s an inventive narrative dealing with mental illness, while also highlighting the urgent need for racial justice.” –Rachel León, Foglifter
“This debut memoir from Nigerian-American writer and multi-disciplinary artist Freda Epum is like a spark plug, electrifying the traditional memoir form with vibrancy and ingenuity. The Gloomy Girl Variety Show introduces a new dimension for the genre, one that reveals all that an author can accomplish through creativity, unabashed candor, and a striking sense of humor. Epum’s references to pop culture and the digital age make this an ideal choice for those looking for a substantive read that also tethers itself to the wildly imaginative.” –Felicia Reich, Paste Magazine, The Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books and Memoirs of 2025
“In her debut memoir, Freda Epum tackles identity, mental illness, self-acceptance and belonging with candor, curiosity and poetry.” –Karla J. Strand, Ms. Magazine, The Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2025
“As a self-described “gloomy girl,” Nigerian-American writer Freda Epum uses a pop culture lens to examine her issues with inadequate and unaffordable housing and healthcare. In the memoir, the Cincinnati-based author openly speaks to the complicated nature of surviving oppression.” –Jaelani Turner-Williams, BET
“Epum invites readers into a world filled with beautiful language and clever quips to explore identity in an approachable way. It is a mesmerizing debut that will open readers’ eyes to new worlds.” –Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
“I know it’s early to call it, but I’m certain Freda Epum’s debut The Gloomy Girl Variety Show will be one of the most important books published this year. Epum examines intersectional identities of being Black, disabled, female, and a first generation Nigerian American through an inventive and brilliant book structured as a search for the safety one can find in home.”--Rachel León, Chicago Review of Books
“[A]n impressive, and incisive exploration of connection, diaspora, mental health, and the search for home in a fractured world….Epum hooks the reader from the opening pages…Epum’s memoir brilliantly captures the nuances and emotional complexities of mental illness, while illuminating the unflinching realities and impact of othering….This memoir is a powerful call for acceptance, not only of the truths and traumas we carry but also of the judgments that cloud our vision of those who walk a different path.” —Britta Stromeyer, Bending Genres
In the luminous, formally inventive memoir THE GLOOMY GIRL VARIETY SHOW, Freda Epum interrogates ideas of home and safety as a Black woman with mental illness. Epum’s genius is her ability to weave lyric fragments, cultural and political criticism, and her own photographs and art into an incisive, cohesive constellation. This work, like her journey, is “both festering and healing”. I have been waiting for a book like this all my life. --Jami Nakamura Lin, author of The Night Parade
"Unforgettable. The Gloomy Girl Variety Show is a love song in medley form to the 'raced and disabled,' the sick and unseen. Don’t let the title fool you, this memoir is more wit and humor than doom and gloom. Organized like a series of TV shows about househounting, Epum writes with fierce creativity about race, migration, and mental illness as she navigates the search for home. Her bold voice and visual art show that this is Freda Epum’s world and we are lucky to be welcomed into it." –Jen Soriano, award-winning author of Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing
|
“The Gloomy Girl Variety Show has everything I could ever want in a book. Dazzling, darkly funny, and fiercely incisive, Freda Epum takes center stage to deliver her profound insights on mental health, diaspora, belonging, and her search for home in a fragmented world. A masterful showman, Epum invites readers in with an honesty and heartfelt vulnerability that lingers long after the final word. These essays blew me away. I love The Gloomy Girl Variety Show, and you will too.” —Edgar Gomez, author of High-Risk Homosexual
|
In three parts, The Gloomy Girl Variety Show traces the joys and despairs of an imaginary house hunt. Author Freda Epum takes the real-life housing inequity she encounters and spins it into a sprawling meditation on the larger cost of living and enduring as a Black disabled woman in America. Brick by brick, and despite the difficulties she faces, Epum creates space for women, people of color, people with disabilities, children of immigrants, and anyone else who has felt “in-between.”
In this formally inventive memoir woven with essays, poems, and images, Epum explores the opposing forces of her “no-place, no-where” identity. As a Nigerian American daughter who spent years in and out of institutions while she sought treatment for life-threatening mental illness, Epum examines her journey through healthcare and housing systems via a pop cultural lens: our collective obsession with HGTV’s home buying and makeover shows.
With raw honesty and a wry sense of humor, The Gloomy Girl Variety Show explores the complexity of coming of age under intersecting forms of oppression, and reveals what it takes to come back from the brink of despair and arrive somewhere safe, beautiful, and empowering.
In this formally inventive memoir woven with essays, poems, and images, Epum explores the opposing forces of her “no-place, no-where” identity. As a Nigerian American daughter who spent years in and out of institutions while she sought treatment for life-threatening mental illness, Epum examines her journey through healthcare and housing systems via a pop cultural lens: our collective obsession with HGTV’s home buying and makeover shows.
With raw honesty and a wry sense of humor, The Gloomy Girl Variety Show explores the complexity of coming of age under intersecting forms of oppression, and reveals what it takes to come back from the brink of despair and arrive somewhere safe, beautiful, and empowering.
Featured In
Publishers Weekly - How ‘The Gloomy Girl Variety Show’ by Freda Epum Got Made
BET – 8 Must Read Books by Black Authors Dropping in 2025
Debutiful - Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2025 Part 1
Chicago Review of Books - Our Most Anticipated Books of 2025
Write or Die – 20 Books We Can’t Wait to Read January 2025
LitHub – 27 New Books Out Today
Memoirland – Q&A
Brittle Paper Freda Epum’s Forthcoming Memoir Explores Living with Disability in America
Movers & Makers SW Ohio artists, organizations receive thousands in state funding
Excerpts from THE GLOOMY GIRL VARIETY SHOW
The Rumpus, "The Aesthetics of Safety"
Electric Literature, "How to Be a Terrible No-good African Daughter"
Heavy Feather Review: #NO MORE PRESIDENTS, “Race Day”
Rogue Agent, “The African Dream”
Third Coast, “I am sorry to inform you about the banana peel thrown at the black girl: A One Woman Show”
Nat.Brut Beyond Resilience Folio: Edited by Kay Ulanday Barrett, “MARKED MANIFESTO,” “Segment on the inner workings of a first-generation girl"
Reading of “The African Dream,” appearing in THE GLOOMY GIRL VARIETY SHOW
|
In the evenings, I picture every detail of my future life there. This period of imaginary Africanization fixes me. Rebuilds me from broken, remolds my tongue, deconstructs the Atlantic. I zigzag against the current of the borderlands, never arriving. |