The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories is a mixed bag. I love Nolan's other books in the Lesbian Career Girls series, but this is a much less satisfying read. While it offers some amusing parodies, it is hampered by repetition and narrow-mindedness.



The tongue-in-cheek attitude to storytelling that I love so much in the LCG series is still there, although it is perhaps more noticeable in the short story format. What is different about these stories is that they also parody the moralistic tone that many novels aimed at adolescents used to specialise in – the LCG books don’t do this, unless to demonstrate that a character is extremely naive (such as Lois in Lois Lenz, Lesbian Secretary, who repeats anti-communist rhetoric like a trained parrot). I really enjoyed this aspect of Nolan’s writing.



What was jarring about this book was the obvious biphobia in one of the stories, and the hinted-at transphobia in another. I did not appreciate reading a story that repeated the ‘bisexuals are promiscuous drug users who can’t be trusted and will do you harm’ trope, and included the line “she doesn’t need you – your, your blow, or your bag of bisexual tricks!” This is narrow-minded and harmful, and I hope that the author has since changed her views on the B and T members of the LGBT community – as this book was initially published in 2002.



I also felt that the stories were too repetitive. The collection could have done with half the number of short stories, each one fleshed out a little more.



Overall this was a disappointing read, but I would recommend Nolan’s other works, which are more polished.