Reviews - It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror

1.82k reviews for:

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror

Joe Vallese

4.15 AVERAGE

g_reads98's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

elderlingfool's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 25%

This was not what I expected. I thought these were essays about queer media, but turns out it reads more like a memoir where authors I am not familiar with write about some part of their lives and try to make a connection between that and a certain movie. It was just not my thing, especially because I don't know these authors (except for one) so I have no connection to them and therefore no interest in their lives.

backlogbooks's review

General disclaimer: this is less of a review and more of my notes so i can describe the book in the future.

This essay collection focuses on queer perspectives on horror, often including memoir-elements. Fave essays were the ones about Jaws, Jennifer's Body, Us, and In My Skin

would be fun to read/reread the essays after watching the movies
as always I wish horror fiction were more a part of this kind of conversation
intersectional
most of the audiobook was great--one narrator way overperformed and made those two essays really hard for me to read
but I like having many narrators--it made more of a divide between essays for me instead of them running together

korishalmy's review against another edition

4.0

as a queer lover of horror, looooved this. don’t get me wrong, each chapter could be boiled down to “[insert horror movie character] was really…….just like me” but hey i ate it up every goddamn time. there are a lot of different queer voices in here too! all with their own expressions of queerness, which was really cool to read

the essays that wowed me, in order of appearance:
- both ways by carmen maria machado [jennifer’s body]
- the girl, the well, the ring by zefyr lisowski [the ring / pet semetary]
- indescribable by carrow narby [the blob / society]
- three men on a boat by jen corrigan [jaws]
- the wolf man’s daughter by tosha r. taylor [the wolf man]
- centered and seen by sumiko saulson [candyman]
- black body snatchers by samuel autman [get out]

for the most part i liked the whole thing. some essays were GREAT, some were good, a few were meh. there was only one that i was not a fan of and it was the essay on the chucky movie child’s play. the writing itself was fine but i felt like i was being told private things abt the author’s son that i shouldn’t have been told. or at least i would’ve liked an explicit mention that the son gave permission for the details to be used in the essay. it made me feel icky :/

doggearredreadss's review

4.0

challenging informative fast-paced

irmitcrab's review against another edition

4.0

dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

jamaisvoo's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

meredithnudo's review against another edition

4.25

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

Content Warnings

singasongshelby's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

booksandteatime's review against another edition

4.0

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

had a ton of fun with this one!

my favorite essays from the collection:
- A Demon-Girl's Guide to Life by S. Trimble
- Both Ways by Carmen Maria Machado (CMM writing an essay about Jennifer's Body = life changing)
- Three Men on a Boat by Jen Corrigan
- Centered and Seen by Sumiko Saulson
- The Trail of His Flames by Tucker Libberman
- The Me in the Screen by Steffan Triplett

Content Warnings

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