Beau and the Beast, by Kay Simone

[Ulysses]

Beau and the Beast
By Kay Simone
Published by the author, 2017
Four stars

Although I’ll post it in my usual places, I’m doing this review specifically for a FB group I am involved with, called “This Gay Book I Loved.” https://www.facebook.com/groups/46318... This group is designed to discuss books by, about, or for gay/bi men that fall outside the standard M/M market, and that embrace a variety of genres where it’s not all about the relationship. I’m posting this review here because it should have been a perfect fit our “This Gay Book I Loved.” Instead, it is a near miss, and I’ll explain why I think so.

I HAD to read this book. I love re-casting classic stories, whether Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” or any well-known myth or fairytale. So, “Beau and the Beast” by Kay Simone was a must-read. Simone is a good writer—and at times a wonderful writer. The tricky part of writing a new take on a classic is that it has to be simultaneously (1) fresh and (2) familiar. This can lead to some pretty contrived narrative, and Simone falls into this trap now and then in the course of this very long book. Her plot drags in places, but on the whole I really liked it. I especially enjoyed the very “now” twist she gives to the end of the tale, although the epilogue felt both a little wordy while being oddly perfunctory.

Simone works very hard to delve into the personalities of both Beau and Wolfram. She wants us to know them and understand them inside and out. From Beau’s younger brother Noah, physically different because of a cataclysmic event that happened when they were young; to Wolfram’s own murky childhood in the shadow of his father Isidore, we gradually come to know what makes these two men tick. It is a long way from Disney’s films, because there’s a philosophical bent to this story that makes it more thoughtful than most fables. On the other hand, it’s not as stylized or symbolist as Jean Cocteau’s famous 1946 film “La Belle et la Bete” (in which the beast was played by Cocteau’s gorgeous boyfriend).

From this end, I give it four stars.

However, I also wanted to take away a star, giving it three (which is not bad for me, but not a rave, either), because the author has chosen to place this great idea for a gay spin on a classic fable squarely into the gooey heart of throbbing gay romance. I know this is supposed to be about Beau falling in love with the beast (no spoiler here, but stop reading now, because spoilers follow). But there is a huge amount of sex between Beau and Wolfram, and it is covered in great, many-paged, sometimes tedious detail. Even the very first scene between these two made me squidgy, because, IT’S A FAIRY TALE and discussions of pretty little strong-spirited Beau and Wolfram’s massive, uh, junk, just don’t fit into my vision of what a gay version of this story should be. Plus, to be honest, I kept having uncomfortable images of Dorothy getting intimate with the Cowardly Lion, and, just, ew.

Personally, I would have cut 90% of the sex from this book, and just left the love, because that’s where the story and the author shine. To me, this is a book that could have a wider audience in a world where gay men in love is gradually becoming less frightening than a cursed beast. By choosing the path she does, Simone automatically limits the audience to hardcore m/m fans who demand lots of on-page heat. And that’s too bad, because it’s a great idea.