The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 1,665 ratings

Price: 22.04

Last update: 01-11-2025


About this item

***An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!***

From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date--a deeply intimate memoir of discovery, found family, and self-acceptance. The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag.

Central to RuPaul’s success has been his chameleonic adaptability. From drag icon to powerhouse producer of one of the world’s largest television franchises, RuPaul’s ever-shifting nature has always been part of his brand as both supermodel and supermogul. Yet that adaptability has made him enigmatic to the public. In this memoir, his most intimate and detailed book yet, RuPaul makes himself truly known.

In The House of Hidden Meanings, RuPaul strips away all artifice and recounts the story of his life with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, bringing his signature wisdom and wit to his own biography. From his early years growing up as a queer Black kid in San Diego navigating complex relationships with his absent father and temperamental mother, to forging an identity in the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York, to finding enduring love with his husband Georges LeBar and self-acceptance in sobriety, RuPaul excavates his own biography life-story, uncovering new truths and insights in his personal history.

Here in RuPaul’s singular and extraordinary story is a manual for living—a personal philosophy that testifies to the value of chosen family, the importance of harnessing what makes you different, and the transformational power of facing yourself fearlessly.

A profound introspection of his life, relationships, and identity, The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag. “I've always loved to view the world with analytical eyes, examining what lies beneath the surface. Here, the focus is on my own life—as RuPaul Andre Charles,” says RuPaul.

If we’re all born naked and the rest is drag, then this is RuPaul totally out of drag. This is RuPaul stripped bare.


Top reviews from the United States

G1977
5.0 out of 5 stars RuPaul Gets Real
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2024
This was a fast read and very different from RuPaul's first biography, "Lettin' It All Hang Out." He goes into more detail about his mother, his family life, and his the start of his career as a Drag performer. He doesn't sugarcoat anything--he's more honest, forthright and introspective. His other biography was more humorous and upbeat. I recommend you read both.

Ru worked very hard to get where he is today, and he details his struggle for recognition and fame. He doesn't go into his Drag Race years; this book is about his childhood and salad days as a club regular. He discloses how he got into Drag, and how he met Lady Bunny and became friends. I am hoping he will continue with another autobiography detailing his career as a Drag Superstar, such as his Talk Show and Drag Race show, along with his film and singing career. I'd like to know how he met such close friends like Michelle Visage and Mathu Andersen. I don't know if Ru will ever discuss his private life in an autobiography--it seems he wants to keep his husband and domestic life out of the public eye. I have to respect him for that. So many celebrities tell all instead of leaving certain aspects of their life private.
Aimee Morrison
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful memoir.
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2024
Learning about the early days of the living legend that is RuPaul was amazing. Well written and full of insight and inspiration.
Juanjocruz
4.0 out of 5 stars I Need More
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2024
I could hear RuPauls voice as I read each page. This is an engaging book about one familiar and talented being who in spite of clearly knowing he is unique, time and time again acknowledges that we are all one. To see yourself in others and vice versa can be a rich and humbling practice, you just have to be wise eough to let it happen. I wish there were twice the number of pages and more pictures, but I am sure the mogul in Mr. Charles has more projects as an author in the future.
J.H.
5.0 out of 5 stars RuPaul is EVERYTHING!!!
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024
I fell in love with RuPaul when I started watching Drag Race, so when this memoir was announced, I KNEW I had to read it.

For anyone who follows RuPaul, we know that he makes music, makes queens, makes products, acts, can DRESS, and NOW we see that he can tell a story!!

This memoir exposes all facets of RuPaul: Smart, Comedic, Classy & Simultaneously Hood, Real, Classic, & Unapologetically RuPaul

Although I already knew this, the memoir confirms that RuPaul is different; and I mean this in the best way possible. A rare unicorn that we’re fortunate to be able to experience/witness

The memoir shows us that his experiences with his mother & father & their expectations of him made him who he is.

His rise to stardom was filled with many of the same repeat experiences with different people in different locations, but the way he tells the story makes you want to be along for the entire ride.

*Hearing him tell his story in the audiobook is an added bonus*
Braden Pickering
3.0 out of 5 stars A perfunctory look at RuPaul’s early years
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2024
I’ve always been peripherally aware of RuPaul, and was interested enough to pick up a few CDs over the years and casually catch the odd episode of Drag Race along the way. (I still regularly listen to the remix single of “Snapshot” I bought when I was fourteen. Hey, style is style.) Even as a gay man myself I don’t have any particular inclination toward or knowledge of the drag culture, so it was somewhat on a whim I decided to pick up his new memoir in an effort to learn a little bit more about the man behind the woman, so to speak. If anyone’s life made for a good book, surely it would be RuPaul, I thought.

Well…yes and no. First, this isn’t really a fully realized autobiography as it is just a few random reminiscences about his early years in San Diego, Atlanta, and New York. Even then, every chapter reads like a sort of copy-and-paste of the one before it; a new set of friends, a new set of couches to crash on, a new club to go to, a new drug to get high on, and so forth. There are a lot of names and places casually strewn about and it’s a little hard to keep up, honestly. I will say he does paint a pretty good picture of his childhood and family dynamics, though trying to trace every break-up or unfortunate turn of events to something his mother or father did is a little forced; I’m all for introspection but sometimes you just gotta say “it is what it is” and not impart influence where there perhaps is none.

Other reviews have described this book as depressing, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. It’s just told in a very matter-of-fact, humorless sort of way, often meandering off into dry, lengthy non-sequiturs which caused me to start entire paragraphs over again to remind myself what he was talking about. Ru is just a serious guy; truth be told, for as colorful and irreverent as his celebrity persona may be, he has always struck me as the kind of person who is incapable of taking a joke in real life, and this book definitely solidifies that opinion. And then there’s the page describing his icy 1984 encounter with Madonna which seems just plain bitchy; god-like and inaccessible as she may be, even back then, I somehow doubt she was intentionally minimizing your entire existence with just a glance.

After about 239 pages of this, it just ends. There was a bit of redemption in that RuPaul gets sober, but frankly, other than just stating objective facts, I never felt the struggle, as it were, or got the sense he was descending into darkness of addiction to begin with. And the bizarre epilogue left me scratching my head completely. Still…good for him?

I realize I’ve done a lot of criticizing, but “House of Hidden Meanings” is still an interesting glimpse into the early life of a pop culture icon and I don’t want to take away from that. I appreciate RuPaul for telling his story, or at least part of it. However, it’s curious what he DIDN’T say. There is literally not one word about Drag Race, his marriage, or even his music, aside from the “Supermodel” single. And we never do truly see his journey from “sissy” boy to full-fledged drag queen. It’s like he fell out of the womb as the fully-formed glamazon we all know and love today. So, in the end it’s a fine enough read if you go into it knowing nothing at all, but I think it’s going to leave both casual and hardcore fans wanting more on all fronts.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2024
RuPaul is the aunty I never had. Wise, storied, funny, and real.
scrapsofoz
5.0 out of 5 stars Humor, Humility and Humanity
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2024
This is written as a memoir and not an autobiography. It is indeed a recollection of RuPaul's sense memories of the people, places and events that shaped and influenced him. The book is heartfelt, very sincere and written from a place of gentle honesty. Ru is courageous in his vulnerability and self-reflection. He presents his story to us as a hope that perhaps it will have meaning in our own worlds. The book is written in the style of Ru's voice which makes it an easy, insightful, fun read. I couldn't put it down. I've long admired RuPaul, but after reading this, I admire him more. He tells his story with humor, humility and humanity. I highly recommend this book.

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