Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
This is the first queer anthology I've written (and first horror anthology). I've been trying to get into more things like it and I'm glad I started with It Came From the Closet. It welcomed me with experiences that I was familiar with, but it also introduced experiences that I never would have known because of a difference in culture or just generally how we want to live our lives. (I literally cried when reading Vallese's reflection on Grace and his and his husband's experience with trying for a child).
There's something so cathartic about horror. In the way it gets under your skin, sneaks up behind you, but doesn't necessarily jump scare you. It whispers in your ear as a hand caresses your shoulder and ensures you that everything will be okay. And then it's gone. You look around and you can't be sure something was there, but you swear you heard it. Horror is creeping and it can leave you unsure of what is real and what is fake, but one thing is for sure, it makes sure you know it's there.
There's something so cathartic about horror. In the way it gets under your skin, sneaks up behind you, but doesn't necessarily jump scare you. It whispers in your ear as a hand caresses your shoulder and ensures you that everything will be okay. And then it's gone. You look around and you can't be sure something was there, but you swear you heard it. Horror is creeping and it can leave you unsure of what is real and what is fake, but one thing is for sure, it makes sure you know it's there.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I love how through reading this book I was able to view so many different horror movies through different lenses that made me love those movies even more
This started so strong for me I truly thought for a hot second that this would be a 4 star collection, which is rare for me. It’s really difficult to get above 3 stars when a collection is made up of multiple authors since inevitably there will be stories (or in this case, essays) that you hate and some that you love and the writing style/themes/etc will be all over the place and not always hit you right. But I think this was an overall still pretty strong collection.
I guess my main issue is that the title says “queer reflections on horror” and a lot of the essays ended up being “using horror as a way to reflect on queerness/personal stories” which might seem like a nitpick but is a big difference for me. Almost all essays were more memoir/autobiographical than I expected and I didn’t mind that so much (it was often really interesting) the best ones were the one that still *talked about horror/horror movies*, that mixed the personal with layers of film history and genre analysis and general queer theory. A fair share of the essays did this in various form, but to many, in my opinion, didn’t (or didn’t enough). In short, I wanted more horror talk.
That said, I think I found something interesting in all of the essays, even the ones I disliked (perhaps interesting BECAUSE I disliked them). I don’t read a lot of non fiction and even less queer theory, film theory or horror analysis (even though I love the genre) and whatnot so I suspect that maybe this would be too much surface level for people who read a lot about it in general (outside of fiction), but I enjoyed it.
I guess my main issue is that the title says “queer reflections on horror” and a lot of the essays ended up being “using horror as a way to reflect on queerness/personal stories” which might seem like a nitpick but is a big difference for me. Almost all essays were more memoir/autobiographical than I expected and I didn’t mind that so much (it was often really interesting) the best ones were the one that still *talked about horror/horror movies*, that mixed the personal with layers of film history and genre analysis and general queer theory. A fair share of the essays did this in various form, but to many, in my opinion, didn’t (or didn’t enough). In short, I wanted more horror talk.
That said, I think I found something interesting in all of the essays, even the ones I disliked (perhaps interesting BECAUSE I disliked them). I don’t read a lot of non fiction and even less queer theory, film theory or horror analysis (even though I love the genre) and whatnot so I suspect that maybe this would be too much surface level for people who read a lot about it in general (outside of fiction), but I enjoyed it.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
I have not watched half of the movies mentioned and I still found this valuable and insightful. The audiobook version is solid.
I loved this anthology so much. Each essay offers the reader a different perspective and connection that the LGBTQI+ authors have with horror films from Sleepaway Camp, Get Out, The Birds, Halloween, etc. There are spoilers abound for the films discussed (as they do warn at the beginning), so if that is something that bothers you I recommend watching the films ahead of time.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced