Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Dev is a football player at Forester University, a small liberal arts college where he and his teammates get to strut around and have their pick of the girls on Friday nights. That's as good as it gets ~ until he meets Lee, a fox with a quick wit and an attractive body. Problem is, Lee's not a girl. He's a gay fox, an activist who never dreamed he'd fall for a football player. As their attraction deepens into romance, it's hard enough for them to handle each other, let alone their inquisitive friends, family, and co-workers. And if school is bad, the hyper-masculine world of professional sports that awaits Dev after graduation will be a hundred times worse. Going it alone would make everything easier. If only they could stop fighting long enough to break up.

BOOK REVIEW:
Let me start by saying that Out of Position is one of the best books I've read this year. I really think you should go buy it right now.

That said, I'll try to explain why I think so, although sometimes a book just has that 'je ne sais quoi' that is a combination of things that make it transcend the great and move it into awesome. Among the items worth noting are the awesome illustrations throughout by Blotch. They are beautifully evocative and added greatly to my enjoyment of the book.

Out of Position is the first book I've read in the genre of anthropomorphic romance, or furry fiction. Anthropomorphism ascribes human characteristics to, in this case, animals. It was an eye-opener for me, because I had not read anything like it before. I think I expected it to be shifters or people talking to animals ~ but it most definitely is not. It is, rather, a world roughly similar to modern-day North America populated with bi-pedal animals who live, play and work in a world like ours, who have lives and hopes and problems like ours, but which are filtered through the characteristics that one might imagine that that particular animal might have. Bears are lumbering and growly, otters are sleek and like to swim, foxes are quick and smart, coyotes are clever and fast. They have families and live in houses, they dress in human clothes (and don't like to be caught naked), they watch TV, use computers, and some of them are gay. Gay furries have the same problems in their world as gay humans do in ours.

Out of Position is a story about two guys named Dev and Lee. The story begins when they are students at Forester University. Devlin Miska is a tiger. He's straight, he's a business major, a good student and a star football player, a real jock. Wiley Farrell (Lee) is a gay English major who writes and acts in plays, is active in FLAG (Forester Lesbians And Gays). He's a fox. Lee's best friend is Brian Dallas, a skunk, who has at the beginning of the book recently changed schools after being mugged by football players, who were thrown off the team for doing so.

The story begins when Lee decides to avenge Brian by dressing up as a vixen (we find out later that he loves to dress up as a girl) and seducing one of the football players, to embarrass him by making him 'accidentally' have sex with another guy, and preferably enjoy it, at least until the moment of truth. What happens is that he catches Dev's eye. Many of the students aren't into interspecies dating, but Dev thinks the vixen is cute and it's only a hook-up after all, so he offers to walk 'her' home. Lee invites Dev upstairs and ~ hot sex ensues. By the time Dev realizes it's a guy, he's having such a good time, he goes right through with it, and it's the best sex he's ever had in his life. He's so happy he doesn't even run away until he wakes up the next morning in horror. He'd had sex with a guy! Oh, no. But he can't get it out of his head. After a week of trying to be with girls, trying to forget, he goes back to find Lee. Lee's afraid Dev's come to beat him up, but not so.

"I wedge my foot in the door. He backs way a couple of steps. I scream at him, 'You've ruined me for women!'

We stand and look at each other for an eternity. He gets that cocky grin on his muzzle, but there's a sad sweetness behind it, too. 'Oh, honey!' he says, reaching out with those gentle fingers to tickle my chin, 'You were never for women.' He puts the slightest stress on the last word. I stare at him ... I hate that he's right ... Goddamn foxes."

And that's just the first of many memorable scenes in this book as Dev comes to terms with himself, and as Lee does, too. You see, Dev is a football player, and Lee is an armchair football strategist. As Lee coaches Dev, Dev becomes more and more likely to have a chance to become a professional football player. But that won't happen if he's out. So as the two become more and more involved, it becomes less and less likely that their relationship can be public, especially after Dev really is drafted onto a professional team, and Lee quits school to become a professional football recruiter. As Dev and Lee become Dev-and-Lee, their relationship gets pushed further back in the closet, much to the disgust of Lee's friend Brian, who begins writing a football blog called TightPants.com, with the goal of outing Dev, both to spite Lee, because he's jealous, but also with the goal of exposing the first gay professional football player. Families are also an issue. Dev's family wants him to settle down with a nice tigress, and Lee's family is furious that he quit school to go into football of all things. Things get more and more complicated, but underneath shines the against-all-odds love between this tiger and this fox.

This five-part book starts with Dev and Lee in college continues into their professional careers. The point of view shifts in the five parts from Dev to Lee, but is mostly Dev. I learned so much about anthropomorphic fiction (and football!) in this book, as Kyell Gold submerses us into his furry universe.

In Out of Position, the primary protagonists are Lee, a deviously clever fox, and Dev, a straightforward jock tiger. The characteristics and actions of each type of animal reinforce those traits. For example, I don't think it's any accident that Brian is a skunk. Even on the football team, each species has its specialty ~ who knew that wolves made the best quarterbacks? And you'll be amazed at how hot anthropomorphic sex can be! It's different in some ways, because after all, there's all that fur to get sticky. You really need a shower after, and then to blow dry your fur and fluff up your tail. And you can do really clever things with two extra paws and tails to twine.

The point of the story, is, I think, to show that shared experience, even between species, is more important than differences. Yes, it's a fantasy, but it's all about what the most important things in life are. When it comes down to the bottom line, you have to be true to yourself. The results almost certainly won't be what you expect.

Out of Position is a coming-of-age story, a humorous, romantic, erotic gay tale that is well worth reading and re-reading. I know you will love it. Kyell Gold has done an amazing job of sharing his furry world with us, and I look forward to reading more of his books. They will be must-buys for me.

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. However, some books were purchased by the reviewer and not provided for free. For information on how a particular title was obtained, please contact us at reviews@rainbow-reviews.com.