Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
A Pink Moon is Rising...

“Their world lies between the shadows and the moonlight, between man and animal…and in the city under neon moons and through iron-treed streets, the queer wolves run.”

Bound within QUEER WOLF is an exciting collection of contemporary, urban and sensual werewolf tales; a gathering of queer wolves presented by exciting, new and established authors.

BOOK REVIEW:
Given the contents of my urban fantasy / gothic shelves, I'm not sure that I entirely agree with the writer of the preface when he says that werewolves have been under-represented in recent literature, but there's always room for more.

Even with my predilection for weres, I was a little worried at the sheer scale of the anthology ~ how many different takes on werewolves can there be? The answer is, plenty ~ all the stories here are different, distinct, and high quality.

In any anthology there will be stories that appeal more or less to each specific reader, but the balance was in my favor with this collection, and even the stories I didn't personally enjoy weren't poorly written.

For example ~ Wolf Lover. I couldn't get past how skeevy the narrator was, and possibly as a result, the story didn't quite take me with it when it shifted, but even saying that I'd have to admit it was a well put together story that got an emotional reaction out of me.

In contrast, the opening story, Wolf Strap, is fantastic, and sets a high standard for the whole anthology. The first person voice is so strong, and the world feels satisfyingly messy and vivid, and while I'd love to have more story about Ayla and Shannon, there's also a rightness about where the story ends. It manages to pack in an entire murder mystery into a short story, complete with genuinely creepy bad guy.

Some of the other stories didn't quite make a full five-stars for me, but came very close. Family Matters, for example ~ I loved this world, these characters, but it's less a short story and more the first chapter of a novel. Similarly, Shy Hunter was really sweet, and, again, I loved the world, but the story's action got increasingly rushed to try and keep to the anthology's word count. New Beginnings offers pacey action and excellent pack politics, but left me with one too many questions about how werewolves work in this world to be truly satisfying.

There were other stories, though, that did score a full five out of five, including Moon Sing, a fabulous tale of teenage alienation, which pulled off destiny without being sugary: The Stray, which is so adorably, sweetly, lovingly, laughing at the clueless human, John: Where the Sled Dogs Run, which is a totally different take on human-wolf interactions, and, as do many of these stories, features a fascinating and convincing wider cast: and Night Swimming, which created a spellbinding scene right off the bat, immersing me in it's world.

Queer Wolf is a strong collection, and a very enjoyable read. I look forward to other anthologies in this Queer Legends series.

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