In my effort to bring more content to this blog, I like to introduce Thurston Howl very 1st (which I hope of many) review. I think he is an excellent writer, and really gets into the material. See if you agree.
Review of the Out of Position series by Kyell Gold
By Thurston Howl
Last month, January 2016, marked the end of the one of the most popular furry novel series at least in the past decade. Kyell Gold, frequent Ursa Major Award winner, published the first of the five book series in 2009, telling the story of football star Devlin Miski and gay rights activist Wiley Ferrel.
I will try to give as few spoilers as possible with this review, as I do not want to ruin a single volume of the series for potential readers. However, I think it is safe to discuss the basic plots of the series and the characters.
Out of Position starts with Dev the tiger hitting the bars after a game. After he lets a pretty fox take him to her bedroom, he suddenly realizes this fox is no lady. The novel follows his increasing feelings for the gay—and occasionally cross-dressing—fox Lee, while Lee struggles to stay afloat while he juggles helping Dev memorize his plays and keeping his English grades up. An old friend of Lee’s, a skunk named Brian, frequently antagonizes Dev and Lee’s relationship by trying to out Dev publicly.
The next two novels (Isolation Play and Divisions) focus primarily on Dev and Lee confronting their parents. While Dev’s are morally conservative, Lee’s mother becomes devoutly religious. Both of the characters deal with very real issues in America’s present-day LGBT community, and these issues are not made light of in this series. In a very pragmatic and visceral way, Gold creates one of the most emotional allegorical novelizations of modern struggles for the gay male. Among the questions Gold addresses are the following: Do I have to say I’m gay to be gay? What do I do if my parents don’t accept me? Am I gay if I’m just the “top?” Can I believe in God and still be gay?
The final two novels (Uncovered and Over Time) deal more with Dev and Lee’s interpersonal relationship as well as their relationship with the football community. Between settling on houses and Lee’s struggle for a job, they stay emotionally, mentally, and often physically stressed to the breaking point. Not only do they come to realize how much work a relationship requires, but they also have to, for the first time, think about what comes next for them.
I came into this series as a football opponent: I saw football as a mind-draining game for blumbering buffoons. Of course, I was saying this from a comfy seat in the ivory tower, but I was confident of this idea. This series had no appeal to me whatsoever until a friend begged me to try it. I will proudly admit now that I had been incredibly wrong. This series is a must-read for everyone, regardless of their relationship to football. It has such poignant themes throughout, about relationships, love, living, and, sure, football.
Gradually, I started to feel that Lee was the literary incarnation of myself. Sure, tons of readers think that of their favorite books, but I speak the truth here. Same majors, same favorite coffee, same dislike for Starbucks, same attitude, same mentalities, and what happened with Lee’s parents happened the exact same way to me at the exact time I was reading that book (book three, if memory serves correctly). Still, I’ve known fans of the book to associate more with Dev. I’ve known others who admired Gerrard and other characters too. The point is that, in reading this series, you are bound to find yourself relating to the characters here.
[SPOILER ALERT: SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE FINAL BOOK]
I feel that I have to speak on the newest volume of the series, and I cannot fully do that without giving some spoilers, so I’ll just add a disclaimer above. Over Time brought me to tears. To this day, I have read far too many books to count (well, in my house alone, I have 800 books presently), but only three have ever made me cry: Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt, Fault in Our Stars by John Green (don’t judge me), and Over Time by Kyell Gold. Throughout this book, Gold dropped hints about “marriage,” usually through an examination of other married couples in the book or a focus on rings. I was deeply wanting there to be a successful proposal by the end of the book. Increasingly, the concept of marriage became more overt. Despite any chance of a surprise being ruined, I was thrilled, because then I was sure Gold would have that scene at the end. Sure enough, there was a proposal, but it didn’t go the way I had expected. I had the proposer wrong and the outcome wrong. Yet, I was still pleased. Gold didn’t give us a cliffhanger, a dropoff, or even the perfect happy ending. He gave us the middle road, the one “not taken.” I was so incredibly relieved at the way it ended, the perfect ending for a series, one that makes us sigh in relief.
[SPOILERS CONCLUDED]
I have praised this series highly and shall continue to recommend it, but I would still like to point out my criticisms. The least powerful novel of the set was definitely Isolation Play. Though it dealt with poignant issues, probably the first hundred pages were mostly unnecessary. I have two friends who tried to read the entire series but could not get through the second book. Granted, this may be more of a critique of the editor than the author. However, the point stands that much of the second book comes off as literary fluff rather than literary stuff. I was glad to see the books pick up the pace of the first book after Isolation Play. My second critique may very well be amended upon Gold’s next books in this same universe: There were so many characters who played a minor role yet teased us. Brain, for example, is a major character in the first book. From then on, he floats in and out, getting a major role in book three or four for a few chapters. I might be the only one to say I want to see if he gets better or if he stays crazy for all eternity. Some of Lee’s friends from before meeting Dev are mentioned briefly in the series only to have a reunion at the end of the series. Some of this character teasing can become annoying after a while: You never know who’s staying and who’s going.
Despite these two minor critiques however, the series is thoroughly enjoyable, and this calibre of excellence certainly proves that Kyell Gold is worthy of his multiple awards, and I look forward to continuing to see his work flourish.
Furry Times 