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chloeburton's reviews
151 reviews
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror by Joe Vallese
5.0
Queer horror is a special interest for me, and this book was even better than I hoped. The essays do not just speak on queerness in relationships (familial, romantic, societal) but use queerness and horror as an intersection to explore topics like race, disability, abuse, and more. Reading about how these films have shaped people’s lives was relatable, cathartic, and eye opening. A couple entries are a miss for me but that’s to be expected.
Favorites: A Demon-Girl’s Guide to Life (S. Trimble), Both Ways (Carmen Maria Machado), The Girl, the Well, the Ring (Zefyr Lisowski), The Wolf Man’s Daughter (Tosha R. Taylor), The Trail of His Flames (Tucker Lieberman), The Healed Body (Jude Ellison S. Doyle)
Favorites: A Demon-Girl’s Guide to Life (S. Trimble), Both Ways (Carmen Maria Machado), The Girl, the Well, the Ring (Zefyr Lisowski), The Wolf Man’s Daughter (Tosha R. Taylor), The Trail of His Flames (Tucker Lieberman), The Healed Body (Jude Ellison S. Doyle)
Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus by Taylor Mac
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
Gross, uncomfortable, hilarious, a bit emotionally stirring at points. There’s some really interesting reflection about the events and characters of Titus Andronicus. I love the structure of this play. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars for me is just the need to *see* it, there’s a lot of crazy things in the staging that I can’t fully imagine.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Excrement, and Vomit
Moderate: Rape, Cannibalism, and War
Minor: Child death and Grief
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Third Series by William Shakespeare
3.5
Still not my favorite but this edition illuminated a lot and gave me deeper appreciation for the text. Really amazing tool for study, I wish I had known about the Arden series sooner.
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
Not my favorite of Murata’s work, but still really enjoyable. I like how ambiguous a lot of the stories are, Murata seems to offer these strange concepts for the reader to think about on their own. Favorite stories were A Magnificent Spread, Poochie, Body Magic, and most of all — Hatchling.
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
3.0
So, I love horror movies but I’ve never seen Hellraiser. When I was really little someone in a Pinhead costume jumped out at me on Halloween and gave me nightmares for years, so as you can imagine I haven’t exactly gravitated toward it. Anyways, I’m planning on watching it now so I decided to read the book first. It was very different than I expected. I think there’s a lot of good passages here, but overall I didn’t totally vibe with the writing style. Honestly, I really just wanted more Cenobites. I could read about them all day. Really enjoyed the ending & the gore was disgusting, properly so, and that’s where the writing really impressed me. Ick.