| Title | : | Burly Tales: Fairy Tales for the Hirsute and Hefty Gay Man |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781590210840 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 216 |
| Publication | : | Published August 1, 2021 |
Burly Tales: Fairy Tales for the Hirsute and Hefty Gay Man Reviews
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I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Burly Tales is an interesting collection of twelve MM romantic takes on some well known and less well known fairy tales. There is also an interesting Afterword by Jeff Mann that is well worth a read. The standard is a little bit variable but mostly hits the mark. The first one does not quite do it for me but it may work for you.
‘Three, To The Swizz'!’ should be more fun but tries a little too hard to be . . . well I’m not really sure but I’d say irritating if I was pressed up against a brick wall down a dark alley by a big bushy bearded bear (sigh). Three billy goat gruffs avoid the troll under a bridge and one gets to meet his princess. Were there princesses or princes in three billy goat gruff? No, I think not. And as for three billy goat gruffs? Well, what we have is just three bores. This tries to be niche but ends up a bit nasty. Read a bit, think about what’s trying to be described and enjoy the images you concoct yourself.
‘The Red Bear of Norroway’ concerns a cursed prince, who is a bear by day and man by night, who is wooed by a blond bear of a man. What’s not to love as the blond bear goes on a quest to save the bear he’s set his heart on. Let’s not forget the warlock who is into non-consensual sex and standing in the way of a HEA ending.
‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue’ is a retelling of ‘Bluebeard’ with a younger brother helping his sister deal with the murderous husband. For a bit of spice we have a sister who is a sharp shooter and a brother with the hots for the cute chef.
‘Snow Melt and Rose Bloom’ is another cursed bear story with a hero bear to the rescue. This manages to be a sweet story with elements of anachronistic humour that had me smiling.
‘The Three Little Prigs’ is a version of Three Little Pigs where the three brothers cannot keep their hands off the big bad wolf. Mind you the third brother’s going be the one in control if he can manage it. Boy, does he manage it.
‘A Giant Problem’ is a Jack and the Beanstalk retelling from the viewpoint of the giant. The giant in question, Ben by name, is a giant with a difference. He’s vegetarian and magical animals rights vigilante by the sound of it but he’s terrified of the tiny humans. He is also lonely and inexperienced on the romance side of things but considering he has lube and condoms ready in the nightstand he can’t be that inexperienced. Giants need condoms? Can giants even find appropriate condoms? Never mind that as he deserves to have Drake, the local human exterminator and giant in his bed and his life.
‘The Most Luxuriant Beard of All’ is a retelling of Snow White in which Snow becomes Forrest Snow or Frosty Snow, the prince with the most luxuriant beard in the kingdom. The rest you can guess maybe but there is a pleasant turn of events at the end. There is a minor editing error along the way: ‘something familiar about him. about him.’
‘The Man Who Drew Cats’ is based on ancient Japanese culture and stories. Shiro is an ex-monk who can only paint cats. Whatever he starts out to paint it becomes cat based. Crow is a tengu or supernatural being in the shape of a crow. Crow is supposed to torment and distract monks and he tries to do his best by magically transporting Shiro to far away places so he has to make his way back to his tiny home. Crow is not a good tengu just as Shiro was never good at anything other than being a kind quiet human being. Crow is secretly protecting Shiro from the goblin rat and her minions. The rats are going to get them in the end if they have a say in it. Let’s hope love will out.
‘Heft’ is a version of the Emperor’s New Clothes in which the king or emperor is happy to flaunt his beautiful nakedness inside his palace once he had got over his initial embarrassment of being tricked into parading through the town naked. You might think it’s poem from it’s layout and you might be right as it is pure poetry.
‘El Muerto's Godson’ concerns how difficult it must be to be Death’s godson. The unnamed godson becomes a healer, a curandero, who can see Death as he stands at someone’s bedside. Where he stands tells the curandero whether the person will live or die. If he or she is to live the healer can give the patient a life giving draught. All is well until he has to let the ones he loves go. Can he do it or not? If he cannot he will put his own life in the balance.
This is a good gentle tale but there are a few minor issues. The hero’s love interest seems to be more experienced about MM unions than he admits too. On another occasion he asks the healer not to go when he is clearly in the healer’s dwelling at the time. There’s a typo: ‘He was a large man, bud he did not lack for strength.’
‘Lesson Learned’ is a retelling of Rapunzel where Rapunzel is a great bear of a prince with a very long blond beard. He has been locked away in a tower to learn a lesson, what lesson he has no idea until he hears a woodsman working out in the forest.
‘Bears Moved In’ is The Three Bears with a difference. Auren or Goldilocks needs to find a new apartment to share. Lucky for him the three bears move in next door and one of them is bound to be just right.
All in all a great read that will have you chortling every now and again. Bears chortle don’t they? Growl happily? Yeah, that’ll do. -
Anthology review to come
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Delightful! I think my favorite tale was "The Red Bear of Norroway." ♡
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Fairy tales of the past have been cookie-cutter but now, thanks to these twelve accomplished authors, there’s a fairy tale for all shapes and sizes. Burly Tales is here and let us rejoice, for the curvy and heft now get their happily-ever-after, especially those of the bear community. Many of these fairy tales you’ll remember from long ago but with a fresh, new, gay vibe. I’ve got my scarlet hooded cape and my basket is full of goodies. Come away with me to a kingdom long forgotten where heroes look like you while going on a journey to find romance and a bit of magical misadventure.
Burly Tales is a delightful collection of reimagined fairy tales I couldn’t stop reading. As I read each story, I tried to guess which fairy tale/fable the author was using before it was revealed. Each tale features one or more gay heroes but honestly, I didn’t focus too much on that as I was having way too much fun reading. I am thrilled, though, that the gay community now has fairy tales of their very own. It’s about time. I’m a huge fan of fairy tales, especially when they are retold in a different voice and setting. In Burly Tales, I connected with the heroes right away. The humorous dialogue has me clutching my sides. The tender moments, the romance, the action, the adventure, the happily-ever-after endings came together beautifully to make my heart swell with love. Each author’s writing style is different, yet I enjoyed every single story. The flow from one story to the next is spot-on and I give credit to Steve Berman on the exceptional editing and formatting of this anthology. If you love gay romance and looking for a whimsical read, pick up Burly Tales. If you’re looking for a fantasy romance unlike anything you’ve read before, you’ll want to read Burly Tales. This is the must-read of the year and one I can’t recommend enough!
Disclaimer: I received a copy from the authors in the hopes I'd review it.
My Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by: Mrs. N
This review first appeared:
https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/po... -
This collection is immensely fun to read! It gave me exactly what Matthew Bright promises in the introduction: stories "𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑗𝑜𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑡ℎ, 𝑠𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑠𝑚, 𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑚𝑠𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 ". Several authors participate, each giving classic fables their personal touch and originality. Most of the stories have quite a good length, with satisfying plot development and viviv sceneries, great world building and interesting characters.
I enjoyed reading all of them, with a few favorites. Like B.J. Fry's 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝐿𝑢𝑥𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠, a very fun take on Snow White, and Charles Payseur's version of Jack and the Beanstalk in 𝐴 𝐺𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑙𝑒𝑚. And one story that I absolutely loved is 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑛 𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝐷𝑟𝑒𝑤 𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑠 by Alysha MacDonald, an adaptation of a Japanese fable. With a monk and a 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑢 as protagonists, it's a brilliant, sweet and suspenseful immersion in Japanese folklore.
But, really, each of this stories is fully charming and I can't recommend this collection enough.
* I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. -
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This book was utterly delightful! I really wanted to read it because THAT COVER and the stories inside really lived up to it. I liked the good mix of fairy tales covered (not just the most well-known Disney Princess stories), and the mix between straight up Once Upon a Time fairy tales and more modern takes and writing styles. In collections of short stories, I often find one or two stand out stories and the rest just okay, but I genuinely really enjoyed all of the entries in this book! A great read! -
This was really funny and easy read. It contains 12 fairy tales, transformed in MM world and with a fresh vibe.
I enjoyed while reading and I was glad I stumbled upon this book.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. -
I didn't really click with this book, which is absolutely fair, because I'm not a "hirsute and hefty gay man", so I'm not the key demographic here. But I'll say this book is so important - it gives the chance for people to see themselves in stories they're so often ignored of, including a retelling of Snow White in "The Most Luxuriant Beard of All" by B.J. Fry, that while was not a favorite, it was such an interesting rework of a classic story!!!
Now the two stories I really loved and want to mention, (coincidently are also stories with bigger roles for women), are "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue" by Jonathan Harper, which is this suspense/mystery/horror tale, that really support herself in a brother-sister relationship!!! And then also "Snow Melt and Rose Bloom" by John T. Fuller, that is also at its core a story about family and especially two brothers, but with a touch of magic and a curse :) These two stories were just AMAZING!!! Everything else didn't work for me as well
Again, I fully recommend this, especially if you're a gay man and want to see yourself in stories more often :D
(I received this book for free through BookSirens in exchange of an honest review) -
Big and burly bears are center stage for this collection of short stories. Berman's anthology presents readers with a different take on the classic damsel in distress and prince on white horse to save the day. Each story presents love interests that are hairy and certainly well-rounded (physically and personality wise). This collection was entirely brilliant and showed how the hero can be of any shape and size.
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This is the book i always wanted to write but never could. I think my favorite story might be the Red Bear of Norroway only because I've been looking for this story FOREVER. Thank you goodreads for showing me this existed, thank you Steve Berman for helping put this anthology together, and thank you to all the authors that wrote these wonderful creations. 1000% will be reading and sharing again.
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A very cute collection of queered-up fairy tales that starts a bit shaky but quickly charmed me. My favorites were "The Man Who Drew Cats" and "Bears Move In", but almost all of the stories had something delightful in them. I polished off the book in two hours; it was a lovely bath read!
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After a stressful two weeks, this book is exactly what I needed. Fun and funny. Affirms my identity, gives me a place in a community, and reminds me that I'm not the only person who wants what I want. Not high-brow or literary like AS Byatt's fairy tales, but it's a perfect treat.
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I really loved some of those stories. I recommend it to all the fairy tales lovers!
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For more bookish thoughts, see my blog:
Craft-Cycle
Definitely a population that has been underrepresented in fairy tales, Burly Tales gives hefty gay men their own happily ever afters.
A fun collection featuring a variety of styles, each putting a new spin on classic tales. I loved how each author went in a different direction with their story. Not only are they all based on different fairy tales, some are (relatively) realistic, some are fantastical; some are humorous, some are somber; some are sweet, and some are spicy.
The retold stories include The Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Brown Bear of Norway, Bluebeard, Snow-White and Rose-Red, The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, The Boy Who Drew Cats, The Emperor's New Clothes, Godfather Death, Rapunzel, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. As someone who loves fairy tale retellings, this one was fun to explore, especially some of the less common stories.
As someone who enjoys fantasy, especially dark fantasy, I found those tales resonated most with me. A few of my personal favorites in this collection were
John Linwood Grant's "The Red Bear of Norroway",
Jonathan Harper's "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue",
Rob Rosen's "Lesson Learned", and
Alysha MacDonald's "The Man Who Drew Cats".
While this book leans more into romance and erotica, there are a few references to non-consensual sex. Scenes are not explicit, but are implied.
On the whole, the book focuses on love, attraction, companionship, and making connections. Humorous, clever, romantic, with some heat thrown in. A fun collection of fairy tale retellings featuring hairy men and literal bears. -
I love anthologies because they provide the opportunity for themed reading in low-pressure stories with easy pause points. This anthology does that pretty well. It’s well paced with shorter stories breaking up the longer, more involved ones.
Somehow someway reading this I totally forgot these stories were by different authors. They flowed really well together and felt, despite the fantastical elements of some compared to the mundane of others, like they existed in the same universe. The same time at the very least!
If you aren’t feeling the first story, don’t give up! I’d say that one felt most different from the others. Unsurprisingly I enjoyed some more than others. My favorites were the more fantastic fairy tales involving burly princes and curses.
All in all, this was cute and fun to read.
I received a review copy for free, but I’m leaving this review because I want to and I think more books like this should exist. -
Audiobook Review:
Overall – 5
Performance – 5
Story – 4
Interesting take on fairy tales.
I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Some stories I liked a bit better than others but all of them were clever reimaging of well-known fairy tales. The stories were good but the best thing for me was the great audio performance of the narrators. As far as I know this is the first audiobook I’ve listened to by either performer and both voices were very pleasing to listen to.
A complimentary copy of this audiobook was provided to me at my request but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author and/or narrator. -
these were great fairy tale retellings, it kept the spirit of the stories and made them original. I really liked the way the author writes and look forward to more from the author.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. -
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I’m generally not a big anthology fan. They seem to put the best stories first and the quality goes down as the book progresses. The only reason I read this was because Jeff Mann, who is one of my favorite authors, wrote the afterwards. If he thought the collection was good enough for him to do this, I thought why not read it.
There were some hits and some misses, but overall, the collection was a hit. The stories all center around “bears” which is a term used in the LGBTQ+ community for larger, usually hair, gay men. The stories are all retellings of fairy tales. I think most of the original source material was pretty obvious. However, my little ADHD brain was confused on some which made me not enjoy some of the stories as much as I should have. My fault-definitely not the fault of the authors.
The majority were the same European ones that most of us grew up on. There were two that weren’t. “The Man Who Drew Cats” was based on a Japanese tale. I had to google the story since I wasn’t familiar with it. My ADHD brain at work again. Another one was “El Muerto’s Godson,” which was Mexican. First of all, I loved the fact that the editor included these two stories because I wasn’t familiar with them. Second, it makes the collection a bit more universal. Too many LGBTQ+ books only focus on white characters with characters of color being secondary characters.
These stories are for adults. There is sex and most of it is pretty hot. There’s plenty of romance as well. Instead of the prince saving the princess, we get the prince saving another prince.
I recommend it. Even if you’re not into bears, the stories should keep your attention so enjoy! -
A COLLECTION OF M/M FRACTURED FAIRY TALES
Even though I couldn’t recognize some of the fairy tales, I enjoyed them. The ones I could recognize had a pleasant twist to them with HEAs all around. I recognized the Snow White, the Grimm’s tale about the hidden room and several others. It was a delight to hear these stories with their twists.
The narration and the voice changes were wonderful. -
Reviewed for Library Journal
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First off: this is a book of fairy tales, but it's not for children. It contains multiple explicit descriptions of sex and also a few sections with moderate horror elements.
Secondly: this is an anthology, and the quality is all over the map. Several of the stories in the first half were a real slog, and I nearly bailed, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the stories I liked best were in the second half.
Notes by individual story:
Three, to the Swizz'! (James Moran) - Felt like it was trying too hard to be clever. I was also put off by the imagining of a post-pandemic world that was celebrated as a single day everyone was free to return to "normal" - a future that didn't happen, and never really could have.
The Red Bear of Norroway (John Linwood Grant) - Strikes the narrative cadence of a fairy tale pretty solidly, and the story is good, but loses a point for the part about "the market stalls held silks from Araby and sweet spices from the Eastern Isles". It's 2021, folks, learn to invoke far-off places without the colonialism.
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (Jonathan Harper) - I wasn't particularly compelled by this story, and also put off by the description of a woman as "near exotic in her dark features and exaggerated hand gestures". See previous comment. I felt like there was more graphic description of the past wives' tortures than was really called for.
Snow Melt and Rose Bloom (John T. Fuller) A sweet little story, but a little disjointed in the narrative.
The Three Little Prigs (M. Yuan-Innes) The consent in this story is questionable-at-best, and while that's clearly by design I'm not convinced it's done well. Wasn't appealing to me, at least.
A Giant Problem (Charles Payseur) A delightful reimagining of what a giant might feel towards humans, and especially fun for the way it imagines a softer masculinity.
The Most Luxuriant Beard of All (B.J. Fry) It's fine. Nothing especially positive or negative to say about it.
The Man Who Drew Cats (Alysha MacDonald) A sweet slow-burn love story, set on the backdrop of a bleak and terrible world - makes an interesting combination that's pulled off impressively well. Vivid descriptions of violence towards cats and also some significant body horror.
Heft (Mark Ward) - Short prose poem with a sweet ending.
El Muerto's Godson (Evey Brett) - A lovely cross between a classic fairy tale and Discworld's Death. Sweet and tender.
Lesson Learned (Rob Rosen) Successfully strikes a humorous tone with an initially-unlikeable protagonist who learns to love.
Bears Move In (Ann Zeddies) Well-written! As a retelling of Goldilocks, it's obvious exactly where there story is going - but it was still fun to get there. -
Delightfully fun.
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I'm admitting defeat that I'm not going to finish this one. The biggest turn off is how all the short stories insist on trying to keep the tone of classic, dreamy fairy tales, which does somewhat work for the few that just stick to that?, but then also have a modern day setting. So you get the nice old lady who lives in the woods and speaks to all her magical woodland animal friends--aaaand follows bands around on tour. Admittedly, I only got halfway through, but the tone and writing style consistently clashed very awkwardly in nearly every story.
Also:
Several instances of rape or close-enough-tbh that are just kind of glossed over. Its a retold fairy tale that has the feel of like, Rapunzel, except--oh yeah the MC just got kidnapped and tied up by the evil warlock who then rapes him for a month and that's just sort of dropped in there like, well you know!! GOSH how those things happen *sitcom laugh*
The young adult (age unknown, sounded like ... 19ish?) who got so drunk he couldn't walk and could barely remember the night at all, but the (evil) Duke does for sure have sex with him, but AGAIN, it's just so weirdly glossed over. And then he's willing to let evil-Duke strangle him. For ... reasons?
[this episode featuring the writer's barely disguised fetish]
I think there was one more, but I really don't want to skim through to remember what it was. I'll just say that the Very. First. Story. starts with the fat hairy man being an almost literal troll who drops the f-slur in a way that is clearly meant to be a slur to deride our MCs, who each turn him down one by one. I guess, to be fair, the MCs are specified to be fat gay men themselves, but sooo much more is made of this Horrible Nasty Ugly Troll Man being fat and hairy that I kind of forgot about that. I was mostly just sort of whiplashed at the juxtaposition between the sweet authors note and then the very first fucking story lighting up a cigarette and drawling, "Yeah but some fat men ARE still hairy and disgusting and sexually unattractive though. Like this one. He's mean and horrible, and everyone hates him. Just didn't want you to forget that."
At this point, I think I've reviewed myself down to two stars, but I guess there could be better stories in the second half. The cover art is gorgeous. The author's note made it sound great. The premise is fantastic. Just--who the fuck wrote, and then who the FUCKETH chose, these particular stories?? -
It's a great collection of tales, some of them are good retellings of stories that we know but with a gay bear twist. The book is amusing but not muy favorite book. There are two stories that I didn' t understand why they were included. I think the stories that captive me the most were the fairy tale formula one where we can find princes, villains, magic...
My favorites were:
-the red bear of Narroway by John Linwood Grant
-the most luxuriant beard of all by B.J. Fry
-the man who drew cats by Alysha MacDonald
-el Muerto's godson by Every Brett -
Going to review these as I go:
THREE, TO THE SWIZZ'! by James K. Moran
Skip this one would be my suggestion. It didn't work for me at all. I think it was the post-covid lockdown setting that put me off. 1 Star.
THE RED BEAR OF NORROWAY by John Linwood Grant
Just a few pages into this story, I realized I'll be reading more of this author and soon. He's very, very good. 5 Stars.
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE by Jonathan Harper
That this is a Bluebeard story surprised me. Wasn't crazy about this one but it's okay. 3 Stars.
SNOW BELT AND ROSE BLOOM by John T. Fuller
THREE LITTLE PRIGS by
A GIANT PROBLEM by
THE MOST LUXURIANT BEARD OF ALL by
THE MAN WHO DREW CATS by -
While I didn't love all of the stories, they were all enjoyable in their own ways ^_^ "Lesson Learned" was probably the funniest <3
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I had been really looking forward to this but was sadly disappointed by this collection.
I enjoyed Heft by Mark Ward and El Muerto's Godson by Evey Brett. I especially enjoyed Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue by Jonathan Harper which was more a gothic fiction which is definitely my cup of tea. But overall the majority of the stories just didn't quite hit it for me, some started slow and improved, others started off really well and then petered out for me. Some were just a complete no for me.
I did find that the lack of diversity was palpable. As a trans masc bear who is an admirer of bears, I'd have also loved to have seen a trans masc story in there. So that was disappointing.
As far as I'm aware, the vast majority of the writers in the collection are white, which is a shame in terms of a balance of tales from different perspectives. Further to that there was some very questionable descriptors used in the stories that were uncomfortable. A character of South Asian heritage being described as having warm, spicy breath was awkward to me. A story where black characters are described in culinary detail (coffee, mocha) is something that I don't particular like and find at best outdated and, to many, potentially offensive.
Overall, this could have been better.
