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grimondgalgmod's review against another edition
5.0
Holy moly. I feel like this collection was written specifically for me: the legends of a group of British street kids who are also immortal fey; queer(er) revisions of Peter Pan and The Tempest; a love/hate letter to the metacomics of Grant Morrison; a western in which Cain, Satan, Judas, and the resurrected Christ challenge God to an OK Corral-style showdown, and what can only be described as Twilight revenge fic in which Jacob is gay and a secret agent tasked with killing Edward before he kills Bella.
I could go on. It's that good. Read this book.
I could go on. It's that good. Read this book.
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
I really needed to read something boldly and fantastically queer today, and this was exactly that. Either I was all-in with these stories or I wasn't, there didn't seem to be much in between. Of all of them, it was "The Origin of the Fiend" that left me breathless.
tregina's review
3.0
I really needed to read something boldly and fantastically queer today, and this was exactly that. Either I was all-in with these stories or I wasn't, there didn't seem to be much in between. Of all of them, it was "The Origin of the Fiend" that left me breathless.
gerhard's review
5.0
I remember trying Vellum many years ago, and it drove me to distraction. I must confess I never finished it. I was much younger then; you probably have to be ready to read certain books.
Suffice it to say I enjoyed Scruffians! so much that I will return to Duncan’s longer works again. It almost feels like a totally different writer: the dazzling word play and erudition are still there in abundance, especially in a few delectable Delanyesque pieces about semiotics and art theory (one of the best stories in the collection, ‘The Shoulder of Pelops’, is original to this collection).
But there is such feeling here, such love, brio and mischief, that the reader cannot help but fall in love. Of the 15 stories, only nine deal with the titular Scruffians, which is a reworking of the Peter Pan mythos. My favourite of this bunch is ‘The Disappearance of James H–’, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous and heart-rendingly sad Peter Pan origin story. I defy anyone to be dry-eyed at the exquisite ending of this luminous story of love and loss.
Then there are such delectable gems as a story about gay comic book heroes, and a bona fide Wild West gunslinger tale. And then there is ‘Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill!’, perhaps the ultimate werewolf/vampire (erotic) fantasia, that puts paid to the twinks of Twilight in the most transcendent and sexually visceral way possible.
Wow. What a magnificent compilation, bounteous testament to the imagination and humanity of Hal Duncan, scribe extraordinaire of the New Sodom. Long may he write and dream.
Suffice it to say I enjoyed Scruffians! so much that I will return to Duncan’s longer works again. It almost feels like a totally different writer: the dazzling word play and erudition are still there in abundance, especially in a few delectable Delanyesque pieces about semiotics and art theory (one of the best stories in the collection, ‘The Shoulder of Pelops’, is original to this collection).
But there is such feeling here, such love, brio and mischief, that the reader cannot help but fall in love. Of the 15 stories, only nine deal with the titular Scruffians, which is a reworking of the Peter Pan mythos. My favourite of this bunch is ‘The Disappearance of James H–’, a jaw-droppingly gorgeous and heart-rendingly sad Peter Pan origin story. I defy anyone to be dry-eyed at the exquisite ending of this luminous story of love and loss.
Then there are such delectable gems as a story about gay comic book heroes, and a bona fide Wild West gunslinger tale. And then there is ‘Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill!’, perhaps the ultimate werewolf/vampire (erotic) fantasia, that puts paid to the twinks of Twilight in the most transcendent and sexually visceral way possible.
Wow. What a magnificent compilation, bounteous testament to the imagination and humanity of Hal Duncan, scribe extraordinaire of the New Sodom. Long may he write and dream.
kjcharles's review
A fairly weird story collection. The first few stories are about a group of mostly queer ragamuffins, the Scruffians, who have been 'Fixed' so they don't age and regenerate injury. They're like highly sexed spliff-smoking Borribles, basically, with a mythos that touches on Greek stories, the Fisher King, Peter Pan, Osiris, Dickens and much more, and a backstory that's all about exploitation and cruelty and the persecution and resilience of queer youth. It feels like the stories are coming together to make a bigger story arc, but they don't: it's a collection of multiple stories so we fade out of the Scruffians world without realising, almost, and into others. I was sorry about that, I felt a unifying thread arc could really have worked and the world was compelling.
I couldn't grasp a couple of the other stories (the Pelops and Cubism ones) at all, found them incomprehensible. The werewolf story is tremendous--queer vampire hunters, one of whom is a werewolf who operates exactly like a dog, hilariously, and a spectacularly good vampire concept--and I rather wish the author would write less experimentally more often because he's bloody good. People who like experimental writing will doubtless disagree.
All in all very interesting as a story collection, if ultimately leaving me wanting lots of other things from it.
I couldn't grasp a couple of the other stories (the Pelops and Cubism ones) at all, found them incomprehensible. The werewolf story is tremendous--queer vampire hunters, one of whom is a werewolf who operates exactly like a dog, hilariously, and a spectacularly good vampire concept--and I rather wish the author would write less experimentally more often because he's bloody good. People who like experimental writing will doubtless disagree.
All in all very interesting as a story collection, if ultimately leaving me wanting lots of other things from it.
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