Fairy Tales:
Traditional Stories Retold for Gay Men
by Peter Cashorali
If you’re a romantic, if you believe in love at first sight, if you believe, like Snow White, that one day your prince will come, then this book is a must-read.
Peter Cashorali takes stories we grew up on and twists them for gay men. Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Rumplestiltskin, the Ugly Duckling and more, all become queerified, and young gay kids and mature gay men will enjoy seeing the fairy tales they knew, now resonating more with tales of Princes’ happily ever afters.
All the magic is still there, all the talking animals, unexpected transformations, ogres, ghouls, and Death. Now, they’re parables on aging, mortality, AIDS, coming out, the shallow and fickle nature of attraction, and, as always, the quest for true love.
Without ruining these stories, I can’t tell you any specifics. The subtle changes he makes are what keeps you flipping pages, from one story to the next. The villains are homophobic bullies, but some see the light. The heros are sensitive and beautiful, yet some are realistically flawed.
You can sit down and read it from cover to cover, or read a story and then come back later on, when you need a little pick-me-up, a little reassurance that happy endings do happen (they just might need a little cleverness, hard work, or a dog in penny loafers). I’ve gone back to this book time and again, and always come away with something new.
We all have demons to slay and ogres to fight. We all want a knight in shining armor. We all want a happy ending.
This book is filled with them.
This review was originally published by homorazzi