Steve Berman's Lair
Red Caps
''The positivity that runs throughout the book, even in stories that end on gruesome or eerie notes, is the best part: the sense of 'coming out' in many of these pieces is also a sort of coming to life, or a coming into the self. The undercurrent of acceptance despite the odds is pleasant and heart-warming. These are stories about kids finding out what it means to be themselves, and how to be with other people. That's good stuff...''
--Brit Mandelo for Queering SFF at Tor.com
- "In most of these stories, the same-sex relationships are either wholly accepted or at the very least tolerated. This grants most of the characters the freedom to see the fantastic as it materializes around them. Whether facing literal Red Caps or figurative, Berman's boys and girls mostly have the benefit of being able to express their love, jealousy, lust, and temptations publicly, with far less fear than they exhibit facing ghosts, vampires, and magic books."
--Anthony Cardno for Strange Horizons
"Thus, like many classic fairy tales, these stories star strong men and women who seek love and happiness in an uncertain world and must overcome obstacles (a fire-breathing dragon or magical yearbook) to find it. The collection shines when it mixes the commonplace with fantasy..."
--Kirkus Review
Red Caps might be a rock band. Or they might be something more sinister, a fey source of sounds that are but the backdrop to thrills and misadventures. These thirteen stories provide readers jaded with the traditional, Old World fairy tales and tempts them with new stories that will engage bored readers from their suburban ennui. Closets are waiting to be explored. Escape from work camp leads to a dangerous encounter on a wet road. That high school year book is magical and might be mocking you...or helping you find love. And isn't love one of the central premises of the fairy tale? These teenage boys and girls need not fear that their love has no worth, because Steve Berman has written for them princesses who love maidens and adorkable students who have wondrous and smart boyfriends. Readers can be assured that, if the tale does not end happy, it ends most memorably.
