Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism

by M.J. Lyons

Sexy, capitalism-defying adventures take you around the galaxy in this debut collection of five high-heat erotic short stories by MJ Lyons. A pack of werewolves tear through downtown Toronto to protest cruel treatment of workers, led by a werewolf & witch couple who are equally passionate about the cause and each other. From charnel landscapes to queer utopias, from the crepuscular cruising grounds of 19th century Paris to the urban werewolf hunting grounds of 21st century Toronto, from the tender to the consentacled, these tales of unapologetically queer, unabashedly smutty speculative fiction will thrill, titillate, and delight. A male/male erotic short story collection from Microcosm's Queering Consent series.

Genres: Queer, Short Stories, Romance, Fantasy, Erotica, LGBT, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published March 3, 2021

About the author

MJ Lyons (@queer_mikey) is a writer and game maker. He published his debut novel, Murder at the World's Fair, in 2019, as well as QUEER WEREWOLVES DESTROY CAPITALISM for Microcosm Publishing in 2021, the first in their Queer Consent series. He has written for dozens of publications, including a five-year-long column with a colleague on lesser known LGBT history, History Boys. His game writing includes two seasons of LongStory as well as Later Daters, a dating game set in a retirement community, for Bloom Digital Media, as well as The Last Taxi, a dystopian resource management VR game. He lives in Toronto.

Reviews

[Nairn · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are no reviews so I feel like it is my duty, just in case someone-unlike me- reads reviews before buying a book.
So: this is MALE EROTICA which I wish I had realized, but “Destroy Capitalism” pretty much had me hooked and there was no turning back. The title story is honestly pretty good, and definitely erotic. I’m not very into men and I’m definitely not into werewolves but like? It was good enough to make me not question either of those facts. Some of the stories were kinda hard to follow and/or dragged on, but honestly for a mistaken buy I’m impressed. The nice thing is this is SUPER QUEER and SUPER DIVERSE so it’s not just white man x white man which tbh is a huge compliment in this genre.

Edit: I have returned to this book twice and for that I have added more stars. Beautiful tales age like fine wine. And yes, I’m drunk on them.

Edit 2: I’m into werewolves now & I’ve bought every book in this series

[ash ☁️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVED this, especially the first short story hehe

[Taylor Bush · Rating 1 out of 5]

respect the unhingedness

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely unique and worth the price of admission for the title story alone. Unfortunately, the others are not so successful at blending sexy sex with a compelling setting, humor, and a foxy rebelliousness. But again, the title story is clever and cute and subversive, and we need more accessible smut featuring queer folks beyond the binary, so I'd fully recommend this one for your collections.

[Logan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Average rating: 2.88, rounded down to 2.75/5 stars

Typically, I would round a 2.75 rating up to a 3 on goodreads, but doing so for this collection would be an insult to all other books with a 3-star rating. Though the combined average of all the stories brings the collection close to a 3-star, that rating would not account for the repeated grammatical errors, the bad smut, nor my rage as I forced myself through this tiny book. Your published book should not have multiple instances of the wrong form of to/too or there/their/they’re. Once I could excuse as a careless typo missed by the author and editor(s). Multiple occurrences, though? Absolutely not. Be ashamed. Oh, and don’t forget the typo that misspelled a main character’s name!

As for the bad smut, I recognize that smut is subjective. Everyone has their own preferences. And we should encourage people to write bad smut! Write bad things in general! But you don’t need to publish it. I’m no prude by any stretch of the imagination, but this smut was bad, and even worse than bad, it was boring. If I had to read any iteration of the phrase “tongues dancing” one more time, I was going to lose my gourd. And the phrase “polishing my pole” with no sense of irony was terrible to read. Hated that. Just say cock. Say dick. Stop saying pole/member/whatever the fuck.

Aside from the poor writing and bad smut, this collection fell victim to that type of intersectional queer allyship that’s so insistent, it loops back around to fetishization. There is diversity in these stories, yes. Love diversity! But not like this. Every character that wasn’t cis and white was defined by their non-white or non-cis demographic. You couldn’t possibly forget that the trans male characters were trans because their transness was mentioned every time the character was mentioned. The same applied to non-white characters. In the second story, one character was repeatedly called the mixed man/boy. And look, I get that writing same-gender stories necessitates coming up with identifiers other than names and pronouns, as repeated use of names is clunky and repeated use of pronouns gets confusing when they both/all use “he,” but the character’s marginalized demographic should not be the primary identifier. It feels icky and bad when you do that.

The small mercy is most of these stories were quite short. They were still rough to get through, but at least most of them were short. I read this collection after a surgery, which was a good choice, I think, because there was nothing titillating about these stories. Nothing to get me excited.

Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism
3/5 stars

Entirely middle of the road, this story was Fine, if a bit heavy-handed. There were werewolves and their knots, witches, fucking in a bank, fucking in the woods, fighting capitalism through the power of destruction (and fucking). This is one of the stories that featured a trans male character, and it wouldn’t let you forget that, because that was his primary identifying trait. My favorite aspect of this story was the focus on community, grassroots movements, and mutual support. Using werewolves and their pack instincts to play into the importance of community was a cool choice that I would love to see explored in a better story.

Obsidian Devil and the Dead Man’s Hand
2/5 stars

When looking at reviews for this collection, I was excited to see that the second story was a Western. I love a good Western, especially if it includes casual queerness or maybe some gruff cowboys that aren’t ready to admit their feelings for each other. I was a fool to think I would get anything so enjoyable from this story. The concept was actually pretty good. A former slave makes it his mission to free other slaves, including sex-trafficked women. And yet, the author managed to turn that concept into one of the most aggravating stories I’ve ever read. Plenty of what felt like racial fetishization, and the main character was insufferable. I don’t think he was supposed to be as unlikeable as he was, and yet. Also, lots of referring to male characters as “boys” and “youths,” which felt…icky. On top of that, the first half of the story is so bogged down by extensive use of Wild West slang that it’s practically unreadable. The best part of the story was the dramatic woman who owned one of the brothels in the queer haven town. Loved her.

Peril on Gargara-5
2.25/5 stars

How’d you make sci-fi smut boring!? I think that’s a crime actually. This was the story that made me flip to the front and back cover to ensure that it really does say “queering consent,” because I think the author and I have different definitions of consent. Sure, the sex with the tentacles was ultimately consensual, but being watched while the sex occurred was not. One of the characters used the tentacle goo as a manipulation tactic to get what he wanted, which already adds a level of dub-con. Then, he took pictures despite specifically saying earlier that he would not. That is not consent, my guy. That’s dub-con at best. I don’t even have a problem with dub-con in fiction, but I sure as hell do if a big advertising point of your book is consent. Half-baked concept, weird vibes, not 100% consensual. Bad.

Heir
3.25/5 stars

My favorite review of this collection is from a goodreads user named Aaron. All that reviewer wrote is “This made mpreg boring. Unforgiveable.” Mpreg does nothing for me. In fact, I would prefer not to read mpreg. But I do agree with that reviewer that this story completely desexed mpreg and made it boring as hell. Other than the boring mpreg and lackluster smut, this story was one of the better ones in the collection. There was some interesting worldbuilding, where, in a post-apocalypse world, the technology of the ancients is viewed as demon magic. The characterization for the main character felt a bit inconsistent at times, and there were some things in the story that were never fully explored or explained.

The Painting of the Empty Bed: An Apocryphal Tale of C. Auguste Dupin
3.25/5 stars

The mystery of this one was genuinely enjoyable, avoiding magical realism despite the initial suggestions of it. However, the sex was so egregious in the context of the source material, that I felt myself cringing as I read it. I support queering established characters of the English canon. I support writing freaky orgy sex. But, putting freaky orgy sex in a public park in the 1800s? I had a hard time suspending my disbelief. Also, not every character needs to be participating in an orgy. I don’t think it makes sense for every character. I’ve read one Dupin mystery, and it was during a peak depression period of my life, so I do not remember it well, but based on some searches I did for academic articles, interpreting Dupin as queer has textual merit and evidence, so I’m not going to criticize the author for that. It’s just how he queered Dupin that I didn’t like.

Queer Werewolves Destroy the Oligarchy
3.5/5 stars

Returning to the world and characters from the first story in this collection, this story is almost purely smut. The main character gets fucked by a big invisible demon from another plane and like, curses a building of bigotry or something?? I don’t know, but the demon fucking was fun!


Now that I’ve finished this infuriating collection, I’ll pass it on to someone else. Sisterhood of the traveling horrible werewolf smut.

Overall, a collection with some good concepts that are brought down by being rife with bad writing, bad smut, and fetishization.  

[Dominic Ashen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now, that title of this book may seem a bit on the nose, but it is one the book wears with pride. The book is a collection of six short stories connected by theme but not plot. And of course there is a steamy and erotic romance at the core of each one.

The stories within the book span multiple genres. The title shows off the obvious supernatural, but there’s also sci-fi, fantasy, and even western in here too. Short as they may be, MJ Lyons does a brilliant job detailing each of these settings, spelling out just enough of the world to keep you wanting more. Each of these stories is fully realized, with plot lines running parallel to any sexy shenanigans. None of the writing ever feels out of place.

Similarly, each story’s protagonist is equally eclectic. We have tops, bottoms, and even trans-men getting the spotlight, letting us see the story and sex through a variety of different eyes. The same holds true for their partners, of which several times there are more than one, and it was really nice to read about such a diverse group of characters.

Some of these tales feature relationships that have already been established, old lovers enjoying a little afternoon delight. Others detail new romances, blossoming and developing against the backdrop of the plot and setting. All are treated with the same level of respect and given equal weight.

The sex scenes are very well written, and with the differing protagonists, no two scenes feel the same. And while I would not necessarily qualify this as a kinky book, there are a surprisingly pleasant amount of kinks on display. Did I expect to read about a space explorer, bondage, and tentacle porn? No. But did I enjoy it? Hell yes.

If you’re in the market for a book of short stories, and you like any of the things I’ve written about above, then I would highly recommend you pick up this book. I had a really great time reading it and think you would too. It appears to be the first in a series called “Queering Consent,” though I cannot find any follow up books yet. But when MJ Lyons decides to release another one, I will certainly be picking it up.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

This made mpreg boring. Unforgivable.

[J.L. Thornton · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 for me rounded up to 3 because I always round up and also the title alone deserves half a star.

An ok collection of queer short fiction all with a spicy and fantastical twist. I did appreciate the broad range of settings and concepts for only five stories, and there were some compelling moments and ideas throughout. I would have liked more variety in narration since I'm not a big first-person reader, and none of the stories really stood out to me in any profound way. Some had interest settings or worldbuilding, others interesting characters, others good smutty scenes, but it seemed like none of these at the same time, unfortunately. And there was a real lack in depth or complexity to most of the relationships, which I guess is to be expected in short fiction but did lead to sex scenes that fell sort of flat to me. But I'm a romantic and not that into reading hookups between strangers and with prostitutes, so that's entirely a matter of taste and preference. Also, I recognize that this is nitpicking, but I was taken out of the story ever time there was a comma-splice run-on sentence, which happened way too frequently. Overall, probably wouldn't recommend this to others unless they were big fans of the stuff I described above (first person, hook ups, etc), but it was still fun and unique to read a collection like this!

[Jerome Dizon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has everything. Gay Sex. Monsterfucking. Omegaverse. Blowjobs. Knotting. Orgies. Sex so good you destroy capitalist institutions in the process. Polyamory. Food health code violations (I know yall are not washing those hands when you're serving that wolfbane tea Morgan. Also not in front of the clients.). Teasing. Sex outdoors. Werewolf climaxes so powerful you break magic condom seals. The Wild West. Guns. Gay communes. A lesbian posse of sharpshooters. A 19th century drag bar/strip club. Public exhibitionism. Voyeurism. Threesomes. Sci-fi. Queer people in STEM. The chase. Sex with a Tentacle alien symbiote. Sex with your nemesis whom you are chasing throughout the galaxy. Having sex with your nemesis and the tentacle alien symbiote at the same time. Being gay and doing crimes. An AI assistant that exposes your kinks in front of your enemies. Unintentional live cam footage. Live Slug reaction. Bondage. Humiliation kinks. A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. A detective holding in the nut so he can have enough brain cells to solve a mystery. Nude paintings that are essentially the equivlance to 19th century porn. Bathouses. Orgies in the park at the dead of night. Hot upcoming artists. Post-apocalypse Romeo and Juliet Romance. A journey in the wild. A post-apocalypse fertility clinic. Kidfic. Writing anti-capitalist slogans with your partner's cum. Getting it in the back. Getting it in the front. Getting it in the mouth. Getting it in the mouth and back at the same time. Getting it with a demon. Edging. Nibbling. Biting. Fingering, My Neck. My Back. Lick my boy pussy and my crack. Talented. Brilliant. Incredible. Amazing. Show Stopping. Spectacular. Never the Same. Totally Unique. Completely not ever been done before. Unafraid to Reference or not Reference. Put in a blender. Shit on it. Vomit on it. Eat it. Give Birth to it.

[Nic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at an indie bookstore, mostly because of the title and cover. I mean QUEER WEREWOLVES…. DESTROYING CAPITALISM…??? Sign me up.
What I hadn’t noticed was that is is not just smutty stories, it’s actually erotica. But these stories are hot, well written and so diverse.

[GhouliaLou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun indie bookstore find. This was a truly a wild ride and I love that this has a spot on my bookshelf now based on the title and cover alone.

[W. Stephen Breedlove · Rating 5 out of 5]

“UNAPOLOGETICALLY QUEER, UNABASHEDLY SMUTTY SPECULATIVE FICTION”

Right after I heard about Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism by MJ Lyons, I went to Giovanni’s Room in Philadelphia and ordered it. They were as taken by the title as I was, so they ordered several copies for the store. The next time I’m in the store, I’ll have to remember to ask them how the book sold.

The blurb on the back cover of the book says, “these tales of unapologetically queer, unabashedly smutty speculative fiction will thrill, titillate, and delight.” I will add to this: And how! “Unapologetically queer” is an understatement. The provocative cover illustration and the colorful drawings on the inside front and back covers wonderfully contribute to the queerness of the book.

The subtitle of the book is “Five Smutty Queer Stories,” but the table of contents includes six entries. I assume the sixth story, “Queer Werewolves Destroy the Oligarchy,” is a continuation of, a bookend to, the first story, “Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism: A Precarious Revenge Fantasy.” So, five queer smutty stories. But these stories are so much more than smut; they aren’t just male/male erotica.

MJ Lyons knows how to tell a gripping story. As I said earlier, And how! Each of the five stories is unique in time period, and in geographic, and non-geographic, setting. The titular story takes place in contemporary Toronto. The narrator transforms into a werewolf at night and joins his pack of colleagues on missions: “Our prey is a temple of glass and metal. Of electricity and plastic. The human temple of wealth . . . We tear devices out of the walls . . . A klaxon blares into the night, but I start up a howl and together we drown it out.” After their actions, they have hot werewolf pack sex.

The second story, “Obsidian Devil and the Dead Man’s Hand,” takes place in New Mexico Territory in 1859. This is a Western story like no other Western story you’ve ever read. The narrator is a black man, “a sole free man,” who quotes Walt Whitman. The conventions of the American Western are turned upside down in this story. Need I say, there’s also lots of smut in this story?

“Peril on Gargara-5” takes us to outer space. This over-the-top story is wild. The first sentence sets the scene: “The substance is a mirror of onyx, a pool of unfathomable, undisturbed darkness.” This black, alien substance attacks—seduces, actually—the narrator, who, at one point in this insane story, says, “I suppose it’s not often a crew of horny degenerates gets to watch a cute trans guy get fucked by an alien of unknown origins.” When I read this, I was reminded of one of the epigraphs at the front of the book: “Sitting pretty in the prime of life / I’m so tasty and the price is right / Stewing in the black dope / I’m filthy and I love it.” These are lines from “Take a Slice,” a song by the band Glass Animals.

“Heir” is the longest story in the collection; it’s almost a novella. Hyun, the narrator, is from the Kingdom of the Sacred Mountains, and Ji-min with his demon-possessed armor, is from the Warlord Lands. It takes a while to realize what these two young men from enemy kingdoms are up to. Lyons gives us absolutely beautiful descriptions in this story, such as, “Lights shone from my helmet, revealing gray-green shapes on all sides of us, the bases of ancient towers, the yawning maws of submerged dwellings, the infinite abysses where the ancient city had collapsed in on itself.”

The fifth story, “The Painting of the Empty Bed: An Apocryphal Tale of C. Auguste Dupin,” takes place in nineteenth-century Paris. The character of Auguste Dupin was originally created by Edgar Allan Poe and was the first detective in literature. The story also has echoes of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. The subject of a portrait of a gorgeous nude young man titled “Hyacinth” supposedly walks out of the frame of the painting and disappears. The search for “Hyacinth” takes the narrator and Monsieur Dupin to bathhouses of a certain orientation and to the Tuileries, where “Neither rain nor raids of morality squads could stop the sodomites, ephebes and catamites of Paris from their nocturnal assignations.”

From the American West to outer space, from a dystopia to nineteenth-century Paris, bookended by contemporary Toronto, MJ Lyons takes the reader on unforgettable queer journeys in this fabulously designed small paperback. My only quibble with the book is that it contains quite a few distracting copy editing errors.

Lyons seamlessly integrates the erotica—excuse me, the smut—in his stories which actually could stand on their own without it. They are so rich in many other ways. But the smut adds an extra, exciting layer to the stories that keeps the reader turning the pages.

We could use many packs of queer werewolves like those in this book to help us dismantle the rotten oligarchy and their oppressive capitalist system. C’mon, queer werewolves! We need you right now!

[Ripple · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would enjoy this more if I liked M/M erotica even a little bit, but it's simply not my cup of tea.

[Salicard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a local witchy shop because the title hooked me immediately. I didn't realize it was male/male erotica when I bought it, but the stories were well written and diverse and hot!

[Dylan]

Given that this has only a single review, I feel compelled to write something. So: You should read Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism. [Unless you don't wanna read sex scenes; there are quite a few sex scenes.]

This slim collection of short stories spans a variety of genres and features some really good writing and some really bad writing (and a few obvious grammatical errors that made me wince) - but honestly, I was pleasantly surprised to find these stories genuinely compelling.

My only complaint was that maybe Heirs was slightly too long - or maybe I just wasn't feeling it while reading it.

Basically, I can't imagine someone choosing to read this and not enjoying it because it's a very particular type of book - why would you choose to read this unless you were interested in it?

One warning is that it's a collection of short stories - not all of them are about queer werewolves, so don't expect the entire thing to be about werewolves.

[Myffanwy Geronazzo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obsidian Devil and Heir were two really good stories, but the rest were...drab and droll. Also this is so obviously geared towards queer trans folk, with a huge emphasis on PC language in queer settings (eg: the emphasis on "consent" on the cover and back), yet no TW's for incestuous language, magical mpreg and racism? Like, if you're going to write a book this self righteous, and holier than thou, you should probably add potential TW's in your book.
Maybe I'm being pedantic, since normally I would not really care about that, but it felt like the author was trying to show the world how much better they were by being anti-capitalist and how much diversity they can fit into their book, but omit something so basic, that we even expect from 14 year olds on AO3 😂

[Max Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm technically giving this 4.5 but rounding it up to 5 stars. Reasoning at the end as to why I've knocked off half a star.

I rarely give 5 stars as often there is something more I want from stories, and especially anthologies/collections, even if that's simply "more"! And whilst I would love more of this (and I'll be checking out Lyons' other stuff), the stories all felt very complete and well-rounded. I, perhaps cynically, had also not expected the appearance of trans male characters in an M/M collection, so that was a pleasant and welcome surprise!

That isn't to say there aren't a few things I think could have been done better, which I'll get to at the end. But overall, the >almost< 5 stars here is based on 2 things - the fantastic stories, and the fact that I would gladly pick this up and read it again (and again).

Some spoilers ahead for the stories (though not major ones that would mire enjoyment)

I almost didn't pick this one up as, from the cover and the title, I was expecting something overtly political, but other than Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism and Queer Werewolves Destroy The Oligarchy, both fun little stories, the politics aren't in your face. Whilst, of course, the anti-capitalist sentiment is there, it is more abstractly addressed in the rest of the stories.

Both Queer Werewolves stories, especially the first as the second is more of an epilogue, are set in a modern world with supernatural elements which are nicely weaved in, giving us a setting and group of characters that draw you into the politics and have you rooting for them and their handling of the situation. An enjoyable and smutty read, and especially will appear to trans/monster enjoyers :)

Obsidian Devil and The Dead Man's Hand is a great queer Western, and again the world building here and the depth of characters is really well done, it felt really immersive for such a short story and leaves the reader satisfied with the end.

Peril on Gargara is pretty much pure sci-fi smut, and it's great! Again there is a lot of detail to the characters and situation that takes this past gratuitous (not that there's anything wrong with gratuitous smut) and into a story that holds meaning for the characters. Another trans masc character here, which is a nice bonus!

Heir is my absolute favourite of all the stories in this volume, probably one of my favourite stories in recent memory. If it wasn't obvious by now, I'm a sucker for good worldbuilding, and this story has that in spades. I LOVE this world. I love the characters and the story. I could read a longer version of this where more of the world is explored on their journey, I could watch a film or TV show of this. Just pour it all straight into my skull. There is a particular heavy-handedness that often comes with stories set in a low tech future with a high tech past, and often an awful lot of info dumping - Heir doesn't have that at all. The history of the people and the planet itself are very deftly woven through the narrative in a way that makes sense and doesn't overwhelm. The story itself is lovely and the ending is just so hopeful and warm.

The Painting of the Empty Bed is my second favourite - an interesting historical and excessively queer take on a locked room mystery. I love that it is an epistolary (never enough of those), I love the characters and how they are all viewed through the narrator (as well as how he sees himself and the world around them - again incredibly rich!!). And I love the resolution of this story, not just the well deserved sex, but to the mystery itself. I do love a good mystery, and especially ones where I'm not entirely sure how they did the thing, and this one kept me guessing for quite a while and had an absolutely brilliant end.

Overall, you can say I very much enjoyed this book. But to the minuses-

Some of the stories, including Heir, could have done with a bit more of an edit to ensure they flowed and made sense. There were a few sentences here and there that seemed skipped over and could have done with more work.

In regards to the flow, I also personally found the order of the stories quite jarring. Whilst I understood the desire to lead with the titular Queer Werewolves, the jumping from modern (though supernatural) around historical and science fiction broke the flow of the stories. Perhaps it would be better to read them chronologically - historical, modern then sci-fi?

Lastly, and this may not be everyone's preference as I am aware that there are readers who are opposed to trigger/content warnings or notes, but personally I feel that this collection could have done with them. From the title the politics and anarchy are implied and so perhaps a level of violence and of course monster fuckery. Which is all good, however I think warnings related to the treatment of race/racism might not go amiss. And certainly, as a trans guy, I am aware that many trans and non-binary folk would appreciate a content note at least around what language is being used to describe anatomy and what sex acts take place involving trans characters so they can avoid it if it's something that would be uncomfortable or dysphoric for them. Whilst I'm personally okay with pretty much any language used, I'm knocking off a half a star as I can see this being a potentially uncomfortable read for any trans or non-binary folk going into it not knowing what to expect. So whilst I would absolutely recommend this volume to trans and non-binary readers, I would also preface my recommendation with content notes.

[Taylor G · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's queer, it's anti capitalist, it's smutty. The cover does the book justice. There are werewolves, tentacle alien creatures, cowboys, smugglers, and more!

Read this in about an hour and a half. Delightful quick read, what I like to refer to as a snack read.

[Jesse Stclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was everything

[Kirsty Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't lie the title got me.

4.5 but rounded down.

Queer Werewolves is a compilation of queer m/m short stories written by M.J. Lyons- erotic in nature and of vast different genres.

We have paranormal erotica, historical western, a victorian dapper detective and scifi- all varied on length.

And it was so fun!

Our first story contains the titular werewolves- and for me personally I think one of the weaker shorts for the world building that M.J is clearly very good at- though it's not badly written at all- for me though the paranormal elements mixed in with the modern urban setting needed a bit more building up- I would like to see a full length novel maybe from this world.

Second story is an historic western- and probably one of my favourites for the action, the gritty world and the slapped together found family (or town in this case). Also loved the fun casual sex romps- though age was a bit........unclear on a couple of the characters so do be warned.

Third was a dabble into the scifi- a nice little short- also space pirates- though not much was used with that but they are there in all but name.

Fourth is more scifi and also goes down a more apocalypse post world- this was the most interesting and the world building unfortunately fell through a little- perhaps it needed more space to really grow into it- however I loved the hopeful message this one contained.

Fifth is the dapper Victorian detective story told in the style of an openly queer Sherlock Holmes style- but with really low stakes and I think this was another favourite of mine- and I hope the author gives them their own series.

The sixth and final one is a return to our capitalist destroying werewolves and their witchy boyfriend protesting in parliament in a........interesting fashion- but it does warm my monster lover heart.

If any of these sound like a fun time and you are up for some detailed erotica then pick this book up. I certainly will be keeping an eye out for more of M.J. Lyons to see what comes out next from them.

[Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first and last stories with a completely nameless werewolf POVish character and boyfriend who is just me 8 years in the future, and the sci-fi one with the telepathic sex goo were my favorites. It's fun and wild, and I gasped a couple of times while reading it. Read with your friends to unlock new kinks XD (He's literally completely nameless. it's great)

Each story is drastically different, and all have such interesting writing quirks. Sometimes, I feel like the standards of more traditionally written books are kinda taken for granted? If that makes sense. Once in a while, I do want to read a cowboy story where the dialogue is so cowboy-y that it's actually hard to follow. I want more "yes ands"

Again, I liked reading it with other people, I think that's the best way to experience this book. I read it myself and then forced my people to read it immediately because I couldn't hold in how odd some of the fantasy/sci-fi stuff was but couldn't explain how good and normal it felt at the same time. I don't have time to be squeamish about my own body and queerness because the queer aspects are the most normal part of the book! Like I'm more full speed ahead, happy for all my transition goals, than ever, and watching my friends also go "Wow, that's hot" about trans characters makes me feel more confident too.

Idk if that's all because of the book itself, but that's the experience I had because of it, so I'm giving it 5 stars. It was cool, and I'm going to be reading more collections like these :)

[Moth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Average story rating: 3.75/5 stars

Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism is a collection of queer, erotic short stories.
The first two stories were so strong and had so much depth, but I found the rest to be boring. I did enjoy that most of the stories had aspects of nonmonagamy.

General CW: sexual content (again, erotica)

Mini-reviews for each story:
Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism: 5/5; this was beautifully written, one of the most perfect short stories ever, somehow the author wrote really good werewolf smut while also writing meaningful political commentary.
CW: xenophobia

Obsidian Devil & Dead Man’s Hand: 4.5/5; the way this was written in such a visceral cowboy drawl😌; I had so much fun with the gay cowboy criminals.
CW: violence/killing; slavery; injury

Peril on Gargara-5: 3/5; I was so excited for this story but I found it super boring.

Heir: 3.5/5 stars; this was such an intense fantasy world that I wish it was its own story instead of a part of the collection.
CW: war/violence; death; medical content (basic terms)

The Painting of the Empty Bed: 3/5 stars; this tried so hard to be Portrait of Dorian Grey but ultimately I ended up skimming most of it.

Queer Werewolves Destroy the Oligarchy: 4/5 stars; I wanted a little more because it was so short compared to the Capitalism story.
CW: mention of religious bigotry

[natrosette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Queer Werewolves Destroy Capitalism was a fun little pickup at a queer bookstore recently, gay erotica short stories from werewolves to western to sentient space goop. Typically I go to the generous well of fanfiction for my smut, so I wasn't sure how I'd get on with these and the answer is... quite variedly? There were a couple stories I found incredibly boring, some where I can see where it was going but wasn't personally invested, and then maybe two, particularly the shorter ones, where it really was just plain fun. The editing was rather atrocious so far as misspelled words, which isn't the biggest deal but does force me to wonder how much effort was put in. Probably wouldn't go out of my way to pick up something from this author again, but I'm not mad to have tried it.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

M.J. Lyons, I....just WOW!
If you are into some super spicy werewolf stories about a wolfpack, a werewolf and a sorcerer in Canada, go to town.
This is a collection of short stories and they are 5-pepper spicy.
The whole werewolf thing wasn't really doing it for me, so to each their own, but Lyons definitely knows how to write some spice. WOW!
Principal Characters: about a 4
Spice Level: HIGH
Setting: not relevant IMO
Plot: Extremely fast-paced (they are short stories after all), but if it isn't about the Queer werewolves destroying capitalism, there's something spicy going on, which Lyons does do a good job with of melding the two;
Overall 3.5 stars out of 5

[JMarie]

I have no problem with this book - if you're thinking about reading it, please don't let my DNF tag dissuade you - but the writing and the style of the erotica are not my jam. Erotica is always a Your-Mileage-May-vary situation, and this author isn't for me. I read the first two stories in the collection (one the titular queer werewolves, one a historical western without any paranormal/magical elements) and I struggled to get through both. I will absolutely be passing my copy of this book along to a friend in the hopes it finds the right reader, but I'm giving myself permission not to read the rest of the stories when I already know they're not for me.

[ProxyGecko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love the werwolf short stories, they were queer and sexy and if werewolves were real I feel like this kind of representation would be pretty accurate. As far as the other stories go I’ll say that they’re all drastically different while sharing a queer element. Even if one of the stories doesn’t sound quite as interesting to you I’d still suggest reading them all. All of them have their own dash of spice and have satisfying endings.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how I didn't realize this was a collection of short stories, I mean, it's right there on the cover: "Smutty Stories by MJ Lyons". I think the title story was my favorite, and I wish I had more from this big-membered werewolf and his trans witch boyfriend. I appreciate how the writing style changed a bit for each story; it helped me get into each world, and it shows the breadth of Lyons' writing abilities. I will definitely read more from this author.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mainly read this book because it was able to fill a summer reading bingo square for me. It also helped that a friend was able to loan it to me immediately.
This book was fine, I didn't go into it thinking it would be a masterpiece. The biggest surprise was that most of the short stories did not include werewolves like the title led me to believe. It was a fun break from the books I normally read, but I wouldn't want to own this book.

[Amy Bartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to let the pendulum swing alllllll the way back after a shockingly right-wing read and what a hell if a way to do it! 😂

This was wild and just straight up fun. I think the author did a damn good job at creating believable worlds in less than 30 pages on top of just all the sex, haha! At some point I’m gonna need a full novel of these werewolves just beating the snot out of the wealthy elite.

[Alexis Meuche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this book because duh read the title but honestly didn’t expect much. I was so pleasantly surprised. The short stories are erotic af, well written and very fun. It’s like all the best fanfic tropes but with OCs you actually care about. Despite loving werewolves I think the Cowboy story was my fav, but I legit enjoyed them all. Would recommend to all the freaks (affectionate) out there!