Loved learning about the all the various ways queer identities can be found in (or have been removed from) folklore throughout history. This is a great book to pick up for anyone who wants to learn more about the intersection of folklore and queer identity. I did find the format hard to read digitally on my kindle, but i imagine that will get fixed in the final product it just made my personal experience a little more challenging.

With a clever title and an engaging tone of voice, queer historian Sacha Coward expertly intertwines ancient folklore with contemporary pop culture, creating a web of associations that will resonate with most contemporary queer people in Western countries. From mermaids to aliens, new and old legends come together to explore why queer people seem to have an innate tendency to be drawn to the fantastical from a young age. Although this book is heavily written through a Western lens, other folklore is mentioned and explored with respect for the cultures they belong to, taking the reader on a breathtaking journey through time, places, and myths.

Coward is a talented writer and meticulous historian, and that shines through his work. With each word he writes, the reader is both transported in time and invited into an ongoing conversation with the author. Reading this book feels like being in that one fun class you look forward to every week, with the engaging teacher who values input and talks about history as though it's a story, giving flesh and voice to ancient humans and making them feel so much closer to us.

I had the pleasure of attending the ‘Queer as Folklore’ book release event in London, which really solidified my review of the book. It was an enriching experience, and hearing the voices of other queer people, researchers, and storytellers building up momentum to the main conversation culminated in a memorable and well-spent evening.

This is a book I highly recommend to lovers of history and the fantastical, or to anyone who fancies an engaging and fun non-fiction read to get them out of a reading slump!

Thank you Unbound for providing an ARC for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

An interesting examination of queer identity through the lens of myth, legend, and folklore, bouncing from mermaids to Amazons, from pirates to HAL.

3.5⭐

Despite finding the topic very interesting, I've been struggling with reading non-fiction lately, and unfortunately this book has suffered from my slump. My sent-to-Kindle ARC also didn't seem to have the footnotes in correct pages, and some other layout issues, so I found the reading bit of a chore. So I haven't yet finished this book, though I will still want to get back to it.

This is pretty academic writing, though not heavily so. But one should know this book isn't about retelling these riveting queer tales, more about referencing and connecting them. It's interesting, but I currently just want to be completely swept away into a story. From my short experience, I would already recommend the title for people interested in queerness in history and folklore.

3.5/5

I don’t read a lot of non-fiction but I was super intrigued by the idea of how the queer community and common myths and legends have shaped each other of the years. This book reminded me a lot of my intro to anthropology class from university, being able to deep dive into a variety of cultures and groups of people. It was a bit dry at times, which also reminded me of the heavy texts from my class but the topic was interesting enough to get me through it because this is more what I wanted out my textbooks. This book was able to relate everything to modern terms or at least a slightly more universal experience which was something I never got from my anthro class, and it actually made me understand more and want to dive deeper into some of these stories.
thank you to netgalley and unbound for the e-arc!

An interesting book that I would recommend to anyone interested in old history. I could not put the book down.ihave become more aware of ancient past events. Many thanks

A fun and engaging exploration of queerness in folklore and pop culture that felt well-paced, even if some themes seemed to be too brief despite the book's hefty word count.

What a beautiful book this has been! A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with early access to this gem.

I've been diving into folklore, tales, and legends over the last few months, and "Queer as Folklore" has been a wonderful addition to my reading list. Sacha Coward takes us on a well-researched journey through history, myths, art, and media, exploring queer representation in a refreshingly inclusive way. I was pleasantly surprised by how the book covers a wide range of cultures and experiences, moving beyond the usual Western focus, and it gave me a new perspective on stories I thought I already knew. And I looooved that the gorgeous art images discussed were included in the book, as most, it not all, of them l wasn't familiar with.

This is the kind of book that would be lovely to have on your coffee table to revisit and flick through from time to time; it’s so richly detailed that I’m sure I missed a few things on my first read.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to readers interested in LGBTQ+ history, folklore enthusiasts, students of gender studies, fans of alternative histories, and anyone looking to explore diverse and inclusive narratives in myths and legends.
4/5 ⭐

I loved learning and relearning folklore. I like where things came from and this was well done. It's a good book to read a section here and there when you just need a short story to read between things.

I love history, but I've never been particularly good at it. All the specifics dates just seemed to slip through my brain. I couldn't tell you what happened when or where but I absolutely love a story.

Post-school I've gotten more interested, thanks in part to the Betwixt The Sheets a brilliant podcast hosted by I-daily columnist and sex historian Kate Lister. She explores the more sordid sides of the past, from Sex in the middle ages to Victorian Drag, bringing on all sorts of experts for lively and often amusing discussions.

Ever since I started listening, I've been looking out for non-fiction books on obscure histories, so as soon as I discovered Queer as Folklore on NetGalley I had to request a copy!

The book (published on 22nd of August, World Folklore Day) explores the ways in which Folkloric creatures - Fairies, Unicorns, Vampires and the like - have resonated with the LGBTQ+ community through time. It's fascinating to behold the breadth and depth of research here, I was unaware of just how many Queer stories were out there... or how much the collective imagination has been sanitized - mostly by the prudish Victorians. (An often mythologized culture that Dr Lister has revealed to be anything but)

It's galvanizing for Ally's and Queer people alike to read a text like this, and to know that fantastic fiction has been molded by and for the Community for centuries. It was particularly enriching to learn about the Queer subtext of The Little Mermaid. I'll not spoil anything here, but the new context gave a fresh dimension to a story that I found beautifully sad as a child.

Whatever the topic covered, Coward writes it all a brilliantly accessible way, drawing out stories from all kinds of sources making everything feel contemporary. Through my first read, I found myself highlighting passages to go back and revisit. I could easily do a deep dive into each and every example mentioned - however briefly, which is what the best sort of history books do.

I love myths, legends and folklore (and I'm queer) so this book was perfect for me.

The author describes and analyzes popular characters from broadly understood folklore through queer lenses. We go from mermaids through werewolves to even superheroes. For each character we have an introduction, history, mentions of pop culture and connections with queer people today and in the past. Sacha Coward clearly did a lot of research, the chapters are filled with interesting information and great study on queer history. I appreciate how in some chapters (like pirates or Ancient Greece) some facts about relationships between men were not sugarcoated.

Some chapters could use a little more information on poc myths, but the author warned that the book will be Eurocentric.
I would love to see another part of this book, there's a lot of potential here for a series.

A book of queer history, not just folklore. There are so many aspects of the LGBTQ+ community that are discovered by people all the time, and Queer as Folklore embraces this not just in teaching the theoretical, but also the history and the present of queer people.

I've not technically read this in its entirely yet, but given I've bought my own copy so I can read it at a more casual pace, I feel I can give it 5*!

MY only real complaint is that I want more depth for each chapter, but I suspect that'd make each chapter its own book, so I do understand the brevity

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

This was a very enjoyable addition to queer history. Coward delves into the intersections of queerness and folklore, finding some obvious connections and some less obvious ones. He includes both ancient and modern folklore, moving from mermaids and demons to superheroes. This is thoroughly researched and well-written. Very good book.

This was such a fun surprise of a book! I have a degree in folklore and mythology, so to read Coward's retellings of famous tales and connecting them to queer history was amazing. Coward does such a great job of breaking down the history, and his reasoning behind the connections that he makes. It was even delightful to read the sections about why we might connect to certain mythologies and see parts of myself reflected back.

I find myself info-dumping things that I learned from this story to the people around me, and I cannot wait to gift them copies of this book!

A wonderful book! I loved the way the author writes and the images and history tied into this book. A fantastic read for anyone interested in folklore or queerness. A great read.

This book has really open my eyes to so many LGBTQ+ things embedded in the stories we thought we knew.
There were definitely some chapters that went over my head, but when I understood and had a recollection of the myths in question I was really invested. It makes you see the world in a different way.
Really recommend!

"Even among less overtly anti-LGBT fans, you can still come upon a certain level of background hostility against the introduction of LGBTQ+ characters...this is often described using such language as 'shoehorning', being 'unnecessary', or 'pandering' to a perceived liberal agenda."

This quote from Queer as Folklore really stuck out to me because, as a fantasy and comic reader, I've seen plenty of reviews where people have Opinions about queer characters. Queer as Folklore dives deep into the past to show that, far from being a recent phenomenon of "woke" culture, queer characters have been a part of folklore, myths, legends, and art for literally thousands of years. By using examples throughout history (Gilgamesh, The Little Mermaid, Zeus, Wonder Woman) Coward paints a picture of the myriad ways that LGBTQ+ characters have impacted the social landscape and provided representation for people who exist outside of societal stereotypes. Although some of the examples were a bit of a stretch (looking at you, sections on robots and AI), I found the book as a whole to be informative and well-researched.

Queer as Folklore is the book I wish I had when I did my folklore and oral traditions module two years ago in university. It is informative, diverse and recognises colonial impact on oral tradition. This is not a read you can whip through: you need to sit with it, be patient and allow the stories to be told.

A guide through various folklore with wider context and history than is easily found otherwise!

I really enjoyed this book, easy to read and seemed well thought out.