Dystopian Horror Made Real: We’ll Always Be Here is an anthology of LGBTQ+ horror stories of solidarity and strength

 

 

We’ll Always Be Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror

Edited by James G. Carlson

Gloom House Publishing, 2025

ISBN-13: 979-8286039685

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We are living in dangerous times. ICE has turned into a modern-day Gestapo, raiding homes and yanking immigrants out of their beds to cart them off to detention centers. Scientific organizations such as the National Institute of Mental Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have lost funding, putting a hold on research that could cure diseases and save lives. And a war criminal has been applauded upon his arrival to America.

 

But the most dangerous thing about living in our country right now is to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community. To be transsexual, homosexual, pansexual, etc. Because the government not only refuses to allow medical care for this marginalized group but it is also trying to erase this group entirely. People in our government don’t accept members of the LGBTQ+ community and they are trying to get rid of them. It is a disturbing and alarming stance the government has taken against the LGBTQ+ community and it has sparked fear, anger, outrage and rebellion among the many people who belong to it.

 

Meanwhile, we turn to literature for escape and possibly even for the imagined forms of revenge we would wish to exact on all the haters. And that’s exactly what readers of the anthology edited by James G. Carlson, We’ll Always Be Here: An Anthology of LGBTQ+ Horror, will find in these stories. From stories of the horrifying reality we have in store if Trump’s quest for power continues to go unchecked to those in the community who are fighting back against hate, these stories will entertain, empower, and delight fans of horror fiction.

 

This anthology starts off strong with “The Ghost Girls of Waterbury” by Rebecca Rowland. So many poor working conditions in the past have led to men and women coming down with a variety of ailments – cancer, mostly – and this story captures that in a dark, disturbing way. I love reading historical horror but this story was also a sad one. Those women were probably never compensated for the illness they all came down with as a result of where they worked.

 

“Night of the Living Fascists” by James G. Carlson was an epic story! With the addition of an alien to this story, I started to wonder if this was a nod to the many conspiracy theories that Trump is an alien. And there’s an intelligent cockroach named Bob! LOL I had to laugh over Musk being a zombie in this story and how one character noted that Musk is “on the dumb side.” The horror of Trump’s vision of how he wants to turn America into a country of blind Republican-worshiping followers was unnerving. That’s definitely an America I would hate to live in! I loved how the band members of the rock group Far Left joined the crusade to stop this alternate future from happening. They are likable characters. I loved how the alien tells the group members, “But you still have some serious struggles ahead. But with people like you in the world, I’m sure humanity will figure it out eventually.” I sure hope so. We can’t let this war of hate against the LGBTQ+ community win.

 

I also enjoyed reading “Mile-High” by Bridgett Nelson. This story is a very good example of how gender is fluid, but also a good reminder that we should never settle when it comes to love. Some people who are heterosexual transition to homosexuality even after their marriage. With me, I was heterosexual when I got married but now, after several years of marriage, I am asexual (I had to learn what this is after struggling with it for years!). Then there are some people who are homosexual and are in the closet and they feel like they should do what they are “supposed to do” and marry a person of the opposite sex just to make everybody happy or to fit in. But denying who they are is wrong and will only lead to a low sense of self-esteem and dejection. It could also create a loveless and poor marriage, as happens in this story. (And, yes, I know there are homosexuals who will marry the opposite sex JUST to have children with them then toss them to the curb with a divorce after those people have “served their purpose.”) So in this story, we see what that kind of suppression does. But I love how this story is written! And I loved the ending too. It’s a great story!

 

“Lackers” by Leo X. Robertson was such a bizarre story! What a weird term for people who are lacking parts of their bodies. But the story itself was so interesting to read! It really pulled me in and I was hooked until the horrifying ending!

 

I also loved the story “It’s Still Here” by Angellique Jordonna. It was so creepy! Her description of the monster is spot on and I was reading the escape scene with bated breath. I LOVED the surprise ending!

 

“Ethan is Following Me” by Michael R. Collins is another great story. It was SO creepy! I love reading ghost stories but this one was really scary. The ending left me surprised and speechless!

 

“Making America Straight Again” by Chisto Healy was such a good story. Warning to readers: There is transphobia in this story. It is a bunch of garbage spouted by MAGA (then again, what else do these supporters of our lying, delusional, racist, rapist, homophobic, transphobic, narcissist thieving president ever spout?). Chisto Healy is one of my favorite writers and this story was another one of his excellent works. As much as the transphobia and the MAGA characters grated my nerves and angered me, I really loved this story. Hopefully this story would make people THINK (although I realize that is too much to ask of MAGA), and just hopefully get people to understand that even if we love someone who is the same sex or even no sex, we’re all human beings who feel and care and want to be accepted.

 

And now for something completely different! That’s what readers are in for when they move on to the next story: “Kimmy Gibbler: Glamour Shot of a Switchblade Romance” by Phrique. I loved reading this script! It was hilarious in addition to horrifying. I loved watching Full House when I was younger (never watched Fuller House), so it was an interesting read. Although I gotta admit that I exclaimed “NOO! Not Michelle!” when I got to that part of the story. Still, the story was funny, surprising, and a uproarious blast to the past! The ending was surprising (though not really, if you paid much attention to the TV show) and I loved how it all came together. The spoofs of the characters were off-the-wall, farcical, and absolutely hysterical, especially the one about Aunt Becky. If only this was something we could watch on the screen! (Except for the part with Michelle. Have mercy!)

 

“Taken Away” by Denver Wheeler was another awesome story! So dark and disturbing. (Can you tell that’s my kinda story to read?) Not only do the characters in this story get lost but they end up WAY off the map where people who are “not infected” should not even be exploring. I get it that they were trying to get to a hospital, but it was like they ended up in some other kind of other dimension when they were at a hospital that just seemed so unusual. Like Mel, I was worried about what would happen to her baby. What a horrifying twist it takes at the end!

 

We’ll Always Be Here is an anthology of LGBTQ+ horror fiction that sends a powerful message to the world, a message that says, “We’re here, we’ve always been here, and we’ll always be here no matter what you try to do to erase us.” We will fight back. We will stand strong. And we’ll continue to write our stories, share our experiences, and create our art whether or not our society or our country will accept it.  

 

 

Five stars

 

 

 

Disclaimer: This review is entirely voluntary. I purchased a Kindle edition of this book and was not asked to review it by anyone involved in this book’s writing or publication. All opinions and ideas expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Talking Plants and Lethal Eagles: Semiosis is a profound science fiction novel of adaptation and survival

 

 

Semiosis

Sue Burke

Tor Books, 2019

Ebook, 333 ppg.

ISBN-10: ‎0765391368

ISBN-13: ‎978-0765391360

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If there was another planet for people of Earth to escape to when our own planet is no longer habitable, would we choose to go there? Some people chose to in Semiosis, a science fiction novel by Sue Burke, and while they do manage to survive on this other planet, which they name Pax, they face new world problems, such as trying to grow food in soil that is not so compatible with their seeds and living alongside animals they name “fippokats” that take getting used to. There are also creatures on this planet which they call “eagles” but they do not sound like Earth eagles by the way they are described. Plus, they eat people, making these creatures their mortal enemies.

 

I picked up this book to read after I learned that it was about a group of colonizers from Earth living on a planet alongside aliens, because that’s the kind of book I was looking for to read at that time. However, the aliens in this story do not reveal themselves until Part Three, and they are certainly not what you would expect. They are not your typical aliens. It was very interesting to read a story where the aliens were this type of life form! Also, there’s another kind of alien living on this planet, but they do not enter the story until much later.

 

Up until then, though, readers are only offered vague clues on who, or what, the aliens could be.

 

In the original city that the colonizers live in, life is really tough. Not only do they struggle to have food but there are also frequent hurricanes. Then one of their children, Sylvia, discovers another city and wants them to move there. She faces ardent refusal from the elder colonizers, and discovers that they had kept so many secrets and information from her generation. At some point, though, she does lead a group to live in the newly-discovered city, which they name Rainbow City.

 

Life in Rainbow City is supposed to be better, and for the most part, it is. But the people living there, the descendants of the original colonizers of Pax, face the same troubles, such as eagles that could attack and kill them, sickness and disease, as well as death. Alas, no one can ever escape death, even from disease. And after a character in part three dies from an illness that they do not yet understand, the father spends some time bemoaning how she could have been saved with Earth technology that they don’t have. The other character that he is telling this to, Sylvia, agrees, and notes that they could have saved her by “the Earth way.” But then she notes that they will have to learn how to survive “the Pax way.”

 

“The Pax way,” she repeated. “The parents didn’t even tell us everything about the Earth way. Religion. Ideologies. Economics. War. Just words to us! They didn’t trust us with those things. They’re dead and gone, and they still decide how we live and how much we can know, because they thought they knew better than us, and they left us impaired, and worst of all we know we’re impaired. All those books we copied from the computers before they failed, that’s a tiny fraction of what there is to know, a very tiny fraction. I once saw a mention of a library on Earth with a million books.”

 

I tried to keep track of who everyone was as I read each chapter, but by the time I got to the chapter with Nye, I was lost. In a previous chapter, Nye is recognized as “a baker” but there’s no information about who he is the son of, not even in the chapter told from his point-of-view. Neither in the following chapters, with the other characters. So I just stopped trying to keep track of them all.

 

The thing that I find really interesting about this story is the fact that the plants on Pax are sentient. They’re not walking about the planet doing things, but they are intelligent and can communicate with each other and the largest of them all, named Stevland, communicates with the humans. I say Stevland is “large” but not in a sense that it towers over everyone. Stevland is large in that it is able to have roots in different locations, “seeing” things in its own way as well as hearing and feeling things. As one character says, “There are lots of Stevland.” The main Stevland, though, is in the greenhouse. This is where many of the people normally go to communicate with it (another place is called the Meeting House). Stevland is VERY intelligent, even for a sentient plant, and also has an air of arrogance towards others. In fact, it considers the tulips to be stupid, and at one point, it tells a human, “Don’t be a tulip.” Stevland may be a plant but it acts like a human. In fact, at one point it tells a human, “You cannot tell me what to do.” I thought that was kind of an interesting statement coming from a plant.

 

So when I first heard about this book, someone said, “It’s about humans living alongside aliens.” And I thought the aliens were the plants. Seriously, I did! I mean, they’re sentient plants. They can think and talk. They have a desire to stay alive. They feel pain! But, no, the aliens, apparently, are the Glassmakers. And for a while, yes, the humans live alongside the Glassmakers, but it goes wrong. So wrong. I guess that saying that “this book is about humans living alongside aliens” is not the correct way to summarize this book. I would say that Semiosis is about a colony of humans trying to survive on a planet that includes hostile aliens.

 

But, ultimately, it’s a story about survival. The humans were forced to leave Earth because Earth was no longer habitable, but in living on another planet, they faced dangers that threatened their lives there as well. They adapt, though, and they adjust. They develop laws and rules. They decide on a system that works for them. At one point, they even develop a greeting to give to others when they meet (“water and sunshine”).

 

This novel is also a study in what humans can expect to endure should they need to live on another planet. Hopefully, that won’t happen for several thousands of years from now, even though the decline of Earth is gradually increasing and we are faced with worsening climate change issues.

 

Semiosis is an engrossing, unforgettable novel about adapting to unusual living conditions on another planet. While it is a long novel, the stories readers are treated to in the many years in which this story takes place are all entertaining, educational, captivating and profound. There are many moments of betrayal, loss, and struggle, but there are also moments of love, compassion, and a plea for cohabitation. Could this novel serve as a guide to the humans of today who ponder living on other planets? Certainly not, but it is a good starting point, and it gives readers a lot to think about and prepare for should that goal ever become a reality.

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I purchased a digital edition of this book online. This review is entirely voluntary and I receive nothing in exchange for posting this review.