Robin and Her Misfits

A Queer Retelling of the Classic

Kelly Ann Jacobson, Three Rooms Press (APR 25) Softcover $14 (224pp) 978-1-953103-31-4, LGBTQ+

Kelly Ann Jacobson’s novel Robin and Her Misfits is a fresh take on Robin Hood, trading medieval outlaws for a band of queer women who pull off heists and seek safety and home with one another.

Teenage Robin and Little John are best friends. They grew up together, introduced to criminal life by a Boston crime lord, Uncle Frank. When they leave Frank, they assemble a crew, made up of Skillet, a getaway driver; White Rabbit, a techie; and Daisy Chain, an enigmatic girl who speaks in Shakespeare quotes. They inhabit a trailer park, Nottingham, which becomes a safe haven for rebellious girls like themselves. But when Uncle Frank asks them to do one last job for him, the crew risks their lives, their secrets, and the destruction of their camaraderie.

Narrated by the girls of the crew, the novel skips through time to address the complex group’s bonds and flaws. Robin struggles with the consequences of leading her girls into danger, though her charisma unites them all. Little John views Robin as both her best friend and her rival, while Daisy Chain plays a long game of revenge, adapting and discarding identities under a vapid mask. A theme of found family emerges: the girls, some of whom are orphans by circumstance and others by choice, support each other throughout a variety of adventures. Yet as one heist leads to another, the group struggles to maintain its cohesion: as outcasts, they have all already learned that if they don’t have each other’s backs, no one will.

Robin and Her Misfits revisits a classic story about breaking the law, turning it into a poignant, exciting novel about queer love, homecomings, and hope.