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A review by hissingpotatoes
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
4.0
I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
A solid adventure at the intersection of horror, queerness, social commentary, and storytelling.
The story mentions a lot of in-universe horror media and characters that really showcase the author's creativity and make the world feel like it has depth. The horror elements are done well and with variety, so not just endless gruesome descriptions or just anxious anticipation or just cosmic horror. It is a nice combination and homage to the horror genre. I had a very visceral, cringing reaction to the gruesome bits, so the author is successful in getting that imagery across in text.
The book explores a lot of themes with finesse: being queer, coming out, consumerism of stories (particularly queer stories, both in general and in horror), the unfettered capitalistic hellscape that commodifies everything, creativity as an outlet, art vs capitalism, and the ways these things interweave with each other.
Even though I knew by the end what purpose the scenes told in third person serve, at first they were really confusing and ultimately seem like a complicated and tangential method for getting to that story point. The audiobook full-cast narration with sound effects gives those scenes a lot of weight that didn't pan out into anything substantial story-wise. Otherwise the audiobook narration is very good.
The author uses the word "questioned" instead of "asked" for probably every single instance of those question dialogue tags, which sounds strange to my ear and jarred me out of the book a little every time. There is a lot of Misha referring to characters as "my boyfriend" or "my friend" in the narration, which also sounds strange and weakens the writing a bit.*
I got hooked into the story and characters pretty early. I read through the book fairly quickly because the momentum caught me up and I just had to know what happened next. The journey was worthwhile and satisfying and made me reflect on the themes mentioned above. If you're a horror fan this book fits the bill, and if you're not normally a horror fan (I'm not), this book is a good entryway into the genre.
You might like this if you like: The Newsflesh series by Mira Grant
*Edit: Chuck Tingle posted that characters referring to people by tags like "my boyfriend" and "my friend" reflects how many autistic people think. I learned something new and am glad of it.
A solid adventure at the intersection of horror, queerness, social commentary, and storytelling.
The story mentions a lot of in-universe horror media and characters that really showcase the author's creativity and make the world feel like it has depth. The horror elements are done well and with variety, so not just endless gruesome descriptions or just anxious anticipation or just cosmic horror. It is a nice combination and homage to the horror genre. I had a very visceral, cringing reaction to the gruesome bits, so the author is successful in getting that imagery across in text.
The book explores a lot of themes with finesse: being queer, coming out, consumerism of stories (particularly queer stories, both in general and in horror), the unfettered capitalistic hellscape that commodifies everything, creativity as an outlet, art vs capitalism, and the ways these things interweave with each other.
Even though I knew by the end what purpose the scenes told in third person serve, at first they were really confusing and ultimately seem like a complicated and tangential method for getting to that story point. The audiobook full-cast narration with sound effects gives those scenes a lot of weight that didn't pan out into anything substantial story-wise. Otherwise the audiobook narration is very good.
The author uses the word "questioned" instead of "asked" for probably every single instance of those question dialogue tags, which sounds strange to my ear and jarred me out of the book a little every time. There is a lot of Misha referring to characters as "my boyfriend" or "my friend" in the narration, which also sounds strange and weakens the writing a bit.*
I got hooked into the story and characters pretty early. I read through the book fairly quickly because the momentum caught me up and I just had to know what happened next. The journey was worthwhile and satisfying and made me reflect on the themes mentioned above. If you're a horror fan this book fits the bill, and if you're not normally a horror fan (I'm not), this book is a good entryway into the genre.
You might like this if you like: The Newsflesh series by Mira Grant
*Edit: Chuck Tingle posted that characters referring to people by tags like "my boyfriend" and "my friend" reflects how many autistic people think. I learned something new and am glad of it.