Folklorist Roger Crenshaw is invited to dinner by a charming Yale professor who shares his taste for vampire stories–among other queer predilections. That night, as a frigid storm breaks over New Haven, an even colder welcome awaits him at Professor Reed’s gothic townhouse, but Roger’s blood runs too hot to be put off. A series of turn-of-the-century monster/occult themed erotica, following the adventures of folklorist Roger Crenshaw as he travels the world in search of the unknown and untamed.
Warnings: Monsterfucking, Dubcon, Noncon in book 3, Misgendering in book3
Category: M/M
Roger Crenshaw is a series of short novellas featuring titular character Roger Crenshaw, who is a professor of folklore. In each novella he has a sexual encounter with some sort of supernatural entity or monster. It is a stunningly steamy series of stories and one of my absolute favourites at the moment- I had been waiting for a decent amount of them to be out in order to write a full review of the series, and now that there are four installments I figured it was as good a time as any. The first three are written and illustrated by Taylor Titmouse but the fourth is merely illustrated by Titmouse and is written by R/L Monroe.
WRITING
The writing in this series of stories is very lush and beautiful. Although the plots are quite simple- Roger meets a monster, and then has sex with them- there is a lot of build up that makes the characters come alive, feels atmospheric, and despite the short length of these novellas, never rushed. The pacing is beautifully handled, as short story form smut in my experience can often feel like its lacking in real character connection and good amount of story establishment. But in the case of Roger Crenshaw, it never feels like it rushes too directly into the sex, and instead takes its time weaving a believable character and life for its principle protagonist. It’s also a beautifully queer series featuring a trans man and stunning illustrations showcasing diverse cast and body types. Titmouse’s artwork is every bit as stunning as his prose, and adds a lush quality to these books.
EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT
One would think that with short smut stories you wouldn’t get a whole lot of character development or emotional engagement. However these shorts manage to bring Roger to live in a stunning way, from his personality to little hints about his backstory. It’s never info-dumpy, rather the details are inferred or gradually revealed in small pieces, organically, as they come up. Roger himself is an absolute darling of a lead character for a series like this- he’s earnest, he’s curious, he’s voraciously sexual, and he’s not ashamed of it. Willing to get down and dirty with, as he puts it, “most anyone who asks”, he’s charming and witty and just wonderful submissive representation. Each of the monsterous beings he encounters also have their own distinctive personalities and flavours from the prim and proper sadism of the vampires, to the wild rough domination of the werewolves, the possessive overpowering ghost or the mindbreaking dogs of midnight. And each is a joy to watch him interact with.
WORLDBUILDING
The world of the Roger Crenshaw series is an intriguing one, as it is essentially a playing field for monster smut. Which means of course that anything could presumably exist in this world and Roger might have studied it and definitely might have fucked it. His job and his background with his father all contribute to a sense of the world, the scope and feel of it. It’s really quite impressive the amount of lore and worldbuilding we manage to get out of this series since again, these are short stories whose plots consist mainly of “meet monster, fuck monster” and yet they manage to feel so immersive and so natural that you hardly notice you’re reading porn stories because there is so much more richness to them than just the smut.
STEAMINESS
The smut itself of course is front and centre, so it is a good thing that it is incredible. I’ve rarely read such steamy content that hit all of my buttons and then some and is all (mostly) con. There are a lot of power exchange and kink dynamics going on in these stories, and Roger is a bottom that is well willing to let anyone top him, be they human or monster. Some of these have softer dynamics than others but they’re all written with such care and attention to the emotional and experiential detail that you cannot help but feel connected to Roger as the scenes unfold. Hands down some of the hottest smut out here especially for queer and trans and kink representation. This one’s for the monsterfuckers and it is some real good shit.
I cannot recommend the Roger Crenshaw books enough. They are superb in every aspect from worldbuilding, to character, to extremely hot sex. If you haven’t read them yet, you are missing out.
Have you read Roger Crenshaw? Let me know what YOU thought by leaving me a comment!
Roses And Thorns 