A review by youfelinedevil
Night Shadows: Queer Horror by Carol Rosenfeld, Greg Herren, Victoria A. Brownworth, Steve Berman, Michael Rowe, Lisa Girolami, Jeffrey Ricker, Jewelle L. Gómez, Vince A. Liaguno, J.M. Redmann, 'Nathan Burgoine, Carsen Taite, Lee Thomas, Felice Picano

4.0

This was a really enjoyable and eclectic selection of stories, but none of them prepared me for the pure nightmare fuel of the last story. (Disclaimer: it's by no means perfect, there's a part in which our heroine has a disturbing adventure in Chinatown that feels a little too Lovecraftian in its racism and xenophobia.) I started reading it thinking, OK, this is good, this is really creepy, and found myself gradually asking why wasn't I warned, how much worse it was going to get, whether I should stop reading. I read the last like 50+ pages all in one go, travelling across the living room in an attempt to find something approaching comfort. At one point I wanted to beg it to stop, and then I just wanted to scream at it. It is brutal, but it contains a core of truth from which I couldn't turn away. A truth about horror, human nature, voyeurism, and reality. And throughout this, throughout everything, it doesn't feel gloating in the manner of so much horror. It doesn't feel like it's laughing at the reader. It seems almost sympathetic in the way it shows us our worst fears. It helps that the main character is very likable, very earnest in her desire to expose the unthinkable, to point the finger at the very worst humanity has to offer. I didn't mean to write an entire review about one story, but, Jesus.