Queer as Folklore

by Sacha Coward
2024, Unbound
Hardcover, 324 pages

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Sacha Coward’s passion for history, mythology, and folklore—and their ties to modern queer culture—comes through loud and clear in the text. I don’t think it’s enough to make the book an entertaining read, but I think it’s enough that it makes the book a great reference point for re-examining common understandings of history, mythology, and folklore. I also think Coward doesn’t convey enough that queer people are largely connected to folklore they are ostracized by society, and not because they are inherently mystical or have a biological predilection to folklore. He does take the time to explain that he has largely discarded the tenants of evolutionary psychology, though I don’t think he’s fully shed its influence.