I'm not sure that this book does what it promises on the cover. There's a couple of interesting sections where it talks about the difference between 'queer coding' and 'queerbaiting', which was more interesting for me than the focus on particular fandoms. I found it very interesting that, given the diversity of fandom, there was such a focus on a very small number of fandoms though I guess these are the heavy hitters of a few years back.

Where the book didn't quite work for me was the focus on the interpretation being placed on this by fans, while it would have been much more interesting to know what the thought processes were of the people on the production side of things. The deliberate decision-making to push a show in a particular direction (or not) can only be surmised from the fan side of things and that lack of an alternate point of view meant it felt very one-sided.

Technical points: There were some major issues with the formatting in the ebook version, with randomised capital letters in places, some of which made it very difficult to follow. A hyper-linked index, so you could go straight to the piece of writing you wanted, would have been a real help.

A comprehensive and academic view of the effects of queerbaiting on the relationship between viewers and writers, Queerbaiting and Fandom delves into a phenomena that has plagued fandom for years - media's attempts to "cash in" on lgbtq viewership without actually committing to representation. Consisting of a series of essays by different authors highlighting the issue, I was pleasantly surprised at the breadth of media covered - several of which I personally remember the queerbaiting controversy as it was playing out. This book does a great job of not only outlining the inherent issues with queerbaiting and what it means for the lgbtq representation, but also the ways that media has acknowledged those issues.

A special thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I knew I had to read this book as soon as I saw it on Netgalley. I’m a bisexual black woman active on social media sites like Twitter and I see and hear about queer baiting quite often.

There are several shows that do this kind of thing and when you’re looking for representation of who you identity with as a person it can be frustrating if not downright insufferable to see these occurrences.

I loved that this book went deep into this exact problem in society and discussed several recent instances of it. Although we are growing and learning everyday as people it is important that we realize the harm that can come from these practices.

This was a great, quick, and to the point read which highlighted these issues and hopefully as a society we can grow from it.

Thanks very much to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this ARC.

I was intrigued to read this as several of the fandoms discussed are ones that I would consider myself an active part of. In particular, I was surprised to see that Wincest was discussed as an aspect of Supernatural rather than the writer simply demonising it or solely focusing on Destiel, as usually happens when discussing ships, both canon and fanon, within Supernatural. There were interesting points made in this essay, especially in relation to Dean and bisexuality.

The Sherlock essay discussed the Johnlock ship from the pov of TJLC but overall, I felt there was more discussion of the 'shippers' that the alleged queerbaiting within the show itself.

Overall, this was an interesting read but it did revisit the same points repeatedly in some chapters and could have certainly been more concise. Essays on unfamiliar pairings or shows still held my attention.

It was an interesting read for me as a queer member of several fandoms.