5* - beautifully insightful, and an utter delight to read. Have recommended to several friends into folklore already

I have a passion for folklore and myths and this book did not leave me disappointed. Sasha Coward covers mythical beasts, the occult and supernatural, and contemporary folklore, in this fascinating book. Many examples were taken from Greek, Roman and Norse myths and legends, and then discussed how these classical tales are echoed through history and contemporary literature.

The queer history around these tales is riveting, I now want to read more about these topics. Coward talks at length about how much of the ancient queer history has been lost, or accounts are one sided, especially where the law was involved. History has also been shaped to suit the narrative of the time too.

I particularly found the section on contemporary folklore interesting. Coward looks at aliens, robots and superheroes and how they have appeared in past narratives but in different forms. He also speaks of how popular culture has evolved throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries to include more queerness in films, comics and video games. Also explaining how the queer community has shaped these spaces, an example being how much Alan Turing has influenced computers and robotics through AI.

I was amazed by this book, how much research and references went into writing it. I found myself making too many notes when I was reading. I will definitely purchase a copy, along with a lot of other books in its expansive reference section!

Thanks to NetGalley and Unbound for the Advance Review Copy. All opinions are my own.

There are an ever-growing selection of books about queerness and mythology, and this is the best one I’ve read so far!

What sets this apart from similar books is that instead of just describing the often-well-known connections, the author delves into the history, the context, and the actual meaning behind each example. He explores what certain mythological figures, such as unicorns, vampires, and more, have represented over the centuries and how they have come to be associated with queerness in the modern day.

The book assumes a very broad understanding of both “queer” and “folklore”, which works really well in this context. After all, aren’t aliens just the unicorns of the 20th and 21st Century? Occasionally the topics slightly lose focus, but it’s still a compelling read overall.

This is a must-read for anyone interested in the topic, being both fascinating but also an extremely enjoyable read.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

"Queer as Folklore" by Sacha Coward is a fascinating and insightful exploration of queer identities within folklore. Coward masterfully weaves historical tales and contemporary perspectives, offering readers a unique lens to understand and celebrate LGBTQ+ narratives in myth and legend. A thought-provoking and well-researched book that both educates and inspires.

I love the way this author has delved into the queer folklore tales and how they've written about them.

I read this book in 3 sittings because I couldn't get enough of it - I will certainly be recommending it to my friends.

I look forward to hopefully seeing more of this author published in future!

This is a really fascinating read, showing different queer histories of folkloric and mythological entities. I enjoyed Sacha Coward’s writing style, he made it very easy to follow along and understand all the different figures and references for someone who wasn’t any type of history or folklore scholar.

Each chapter covers a different “creature,” from mermaids, unicorns, witches, fairies, to things that people might think of as being more modern or not typical beings from folklore like aliens, robots, and superheroes. I liked getting to see the evolution of these different characters and how they have had queer roots going back centuries. These different chapters really go to show how many queer people were involved in the creation of these folkloric creatures and why the stories continue to appeal to so many queer people. I also appreciated how Coward didn’t shy away from referencing messy situations and how these figures weren’t always positive representations.

Definitely check this book out if it sounds interesting to you. It’s not a dry history textbook, Coward’s writing makes the subject really come to life. And it’s compelling to see how these old stories have evolved and how they tie in to the current queer community.

Thank you so much to Unbound for the ARC of Queer as Folklore in exchange for an honest review!

One of my favorite sentiments is the idea that queer stories have always existed, though often forgotten and untold. Gathered and explored in Sacha Coward’s Queer as Folklore, these stories come to new life in brilliant and detailed color. The way that queer figures throughout history and folklore were previously normalized and currently “sanitized” and re-manufactured to present to modern audiences without their authenticity is abysmal. Luckily we have writers, historians and caretakers of these sacred pieces of our human web like Coward, who gather and detail and present these foundational aspects of queer history.

The art of storytelling and words, whether spoken or written, is alive and well. It’s both affecting and fascinating to read Coward’s work, equally compelling and educational. I so appreciate the opportunity to read and engage with this piece of history.

A lot of passion went into this project, and it contains some fascinating forays into various creatures and characters. Due to my lifelong delight in folklore, mythology, history, and gender studies, I was eager to read it.

I found parts of Queer as Folklore engaging, particularly the exploration of werewolves and other transformations, vampires, Gothic authors, and possible LGBT+ clues in cemeteries and ancient burials. 

Based on the description, I expected a stronger focus on folktales--especially little-known ones: “...these forgotten narratives tell stories of resilience that deserve to be heard,” and “...we must confront the twisted tales of the past…”

There were a few tantalizing, brief mentions of folktales unfamiliar to me.

Many readers will be delighted by Queer as Folklore. It’s a sprawling work with treasures in it, including wonderful illustrations.

Thank you, Unbound for the e-ARC via NetGalley for consideration. These are my unbiased opinions.

Queer as Folklore takes a canter through myth, folklore and other stories to draw together queer influences and representation across millennia, ultimately seeking to draw out some core themes relevant to modern queer people. I can’t say I fully agreed with all Coward’s conclusions, but the journey is well structured and has sound internal logic, even if there are a few leaps.
For me, Coward is most successful when considering classic mythology and European folklore, and these sections really felt they came alive. I was disappointed at some section’s brevity, and felt there could have been more depth in areas - perhaps at the expense of other areas that had more time than worked for me. I was less convinced by Coward’s inclusion of science fiction, computer games and comic book superheroes, which would have fallen outwith my definition of folklore, but their inclusion is given some justification.

Personally I’m less interested in what I’ll loosely describe as gender politics, which was a bit of a recurring theme; again there was good reason and justification, it just interests me less.

All in all, an interesting read, more 3.5 than 4.

Oh dear. I've been looking forward to reading this for a while and was left feeling disappointed.I realise where folklore is concerned very little can be paraded as hard evidence for this or that, but I felt the author's links between mermaids (rather than merfolk for instance), unicorns, fairies etc and those from the LGBTQ+ community were tenuous at times. So tenuous in fact it put me off the book in general. Sorry.

I really enjoyed this look at diverse folklore and queer identities in many different cultures. I’ve always been fascinated with mythology and folklore and how they teach us about different cultures and people. I like they way this book approached these stories.

A tremendously readable and informative survey of queer identity and pop culture iconography that I found endlessly entertaining. It’s a bit informal at times - I certainly don’t mind a more academic voice or rigorous textual approach, but I certainly can’t fault it its mass appeal. I hope a lot of people read it. It’s delightful.

Thanks to NetGalley and Unbound for an Advanced Reader Copy - pub date 8/22/2024. So you're going to hand me a book that combines mythology and folklore and LGBTQIA+ social history and think I won't expect the moon? Silly NetGalley. Luckily, this book delivers. Segmented into chapters so the reader can better focus, it covers magical creatures (yes, of course, unicorns), cursed beings and shapeshifters (yes, we're looking at you, Lestat), the occult and supernatural, the expanded universe (we all feel like aliens sometimes, right?), and then a nice wrap-up. Overall, it is a very in-depth and creative way to look at both the parallels between folklore and queer-ness and the historical reasoning behind why the LGBTQIA+ community has embraced certain images and stories. I mean, we've all heard "fairy" but I never really paused to consider the in-between nature of mermaids or the potentiality of shapeshifters as self-identification help. While at times the book was a big heart-breaking due to the simple fact that othering is such a strong reason behind the links, the book also reveled in humor and the moments of strength.

Coward also took great care in setting down the rules of his work as well as the fact that, quite frankly, certain things in queer history can only be guessed at since there was decided bias in the historical records. He was very respectful and careful to refer to individuals as who they were and point out that they MIGHT be considered through such a lens or carry such a title today but, as we don't have their input on it, this is speculation. Very solid and wise scholarly ethics, there. Coward also made sure to look at the entirety of history - from Gilgamesh to Victorians to comic books as well as covering a wide variety of locations. Sometimes we don't make the written history books but damn if we don't pop up elsewhere. :)

By the by, I'm so confused because NetGalley has the pub date as 8/22 but GoodReads has it 11/5 so spin the wheel if you want to read it!

3.5 stars
——————

This was such a fun, well researched exploration of queer culture and how it relates to common folklore and present pop culture.

The connections in this book were genuinely fascinating and I appreciated the authors delicacy with topics like gender assumptions. I found the connections between queerness and unicorns/mermaids to be particularly fascination, but not all the connections were convincing. Some of the connections in sci-fi were really grasping at straws, using perceived queerness as inherent support. There was also a definitely lack of diversity within the focus and I wish the author had spent more time researching and incorporating other cultures more, rather than relying so heavily on Western folklore and pop culture. Several parts of the book use the authors personal experiences where I wanted more factual research. Not every queer experience is the same and I wanted to see that explored more. While accessible by all, I wish the book had been written less academically. It felt like a dry research paper more than it did a book. I wasn’t quite expecting that.

This was definitely a fun read that I would still recommend, but I would be selective of the audience I recommended it to.

It is written with such care and attention to detail. It gives a sense of calm and belonging. The novel is addressed to both queer and non-queer folk in an understanding and accepting voice. It is full of captivating information and I found myself googling and saving the references.
I have looked into Sacha Coward's previous work and am very happy with having found this new (to me) author.
All in all it was an enriching experience.

This review is based on the first two sections, and the fifth sections, as I was not enjoying the book as much as hoped and skipped over some of the middle.

Let me start off by saying this is incredibly well researched. It covers so many topics with so many references that that alone is astounding. But, reading this reminded me of my high school English teachers telling me that my thesis was too broad and to narrow it down. Because so much was covered in this book, each story/folk tale was only talked about for a few pages at most and then it was onto the next thing. It was great as a primer or a jumping off point for readers to go learn more about a topic, but it was just so much to digest that I don't even remember most of what I read.

I think the other big thing I didn't like was the tone, which was very academic as this read like a long essay. It's not written in a super approachable manner so I found it difficult to get through much of it.

This is not to say this isn't a good book - it's packed full of information and collects so much important queer history and references, specifically in the folklore area which I haven't seen explored as much. It would be an interesting read to people interested in history or queer culture and enjoy non fiction literature!

Thank you to Netgalley and Unbound for the eARC!

This was an amazing read to discover queer history in a way that I have never seen it explored before.

As someone who enjoys folklore and who loves queer history I knew I really wanted to check this book out as soon as I saw it. If you, like me, already know some part of the overlap of queer history and folklore there will certainly be some stories here that are familiar to you. But even then, there were many that were new to me and even the ones that were familiar were told in an engaging and interesting way. The book is separated into multiple chapters and deals with a variety of folklorical beings, from the ones known from fairytales such as mermaids, unicorns and fairies to the ones known from horror such as werewolves, vampires, witches, demons and ghosts, and finally to more modern folklore featuring aliens, pirates, AI, robots and superheroes. The chapter on ghosts also includes an exploration of the queerly departed, some archeological queer discoveries and gothic ideas and spiritualism. The chapter on AI and robots also explores video games as a form of modern folklore. And as you can see in this short overview the aspects explored in this book are many. The chapters always explore the historical facets of these beings, important queer personalities connected to them as well as modern queer connections to them, which makes them feel very relateable to our modern day and age.
The author writes very accessible despite this being an academic book, allowing his own voice to shine through the book, while providing the reader with plenty of information, and often points out were something might just be queer imagining instead of queer factfinding, while still allowing for a queer imagining. I especially enjoyed the last chapter where the author connects five important qualities combining folklore and queerness and think it could have served a bit better as a introductory text to get the reader excited about what was to come than as a big finale, but I still enjoyed it either way.
At points the stories were somewhat skimmed over and a bit more exploration of modern queer folklore and the way queer people connect to it nowadays separated from outfits at pride and memes online could have made this story even more interesting to me. Particularly in regard to gender and the way many trans people connect to creatures from folklore, while present a little bit, seemed a bit understated to me. Finally the chapter on witches didn't really need to mention She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, as the only queer connection she has is through queer people engaging in fandom (and tbh if that is enough to make folklore queer then this book would need to double in size!) and there is a multitude of actually queer literature exploring witches out there instead, where queer people can find a real connection. While I appreciate the author making her transphobia explicit in the text and calling it out, as a trans reader it was a reminder I didn't need and one that I am not sure I needed from a cis author.
All in all however this was a quite interesting (and accessible) exploration of the connection of folklore and queerness and despite the parts I did not enjoy as much I still had a good time reading it.

This was such a fun read! I love how the folklore and history the author looked at was so wide reaching and from so many different periods. It opened my eyes a lot, teaching me about queer history I didn’t know. The writing style was educational but still light enough to be fun.

Incredible collection on myths from around the world, discussing how they play on queer stories and identities. If that weren’t enough, the illustrations are magnificent, would recommend this to anyone interested in seeing a new side to mythology or wanting to write queer fantasy stories.