Of Tragic Love and Hidden Passion: Bury Your Gays is an anthology of queer horror celebrating love and sacrifice

 

 

Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror

Edited by Sofia Ajram

Ghoulish Books, 2024

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-943720-94-1

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-943720-95-8

135 ppg., Ebook

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If you’re looking for a good collection of queer horror to read, then look no further than Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror. This anthology of queer horror was hard to put down! There were a couple of stories in this anthology which I didn’t read – only because they were written in second person POV – but I did read all of the other stories, no matter how bizarre, hard-to-understand or surreal they were.

 

Or frightening. Many of these stories were indeed frightening!

 

You don’t need to be a member of the queer community in order to enjoy reading these stories, though. That is just my opinion. If you love and accept people in the community, and you also love reading horror, then this is definitely one horror anthology to read!

 

For me, though, it’s not an issue. The sexual identity of a character is not a factor of whether or not I enjoy reading a story; it’s the story itself! I read a lot of gay fiction, as well as queer fiction, so I am not new to this subgenre of horror.

 

There were a couple of stories in this anthology that really stood out for me:

 

 “Summer Night” by Robbie Banfitch was a very sad story. And, yet, it was also eerily dystopian. Almost like a warning for what could happen if homophobia manages to take over our very lives in this country, which I used to think of as a “free” one. This story right here is an example of the hatred being shown towards homosexuals now, where in other countries, they are murdered. Having their heads bashed in with rocks, being thrown off of buildings or being hanged only because they love someone the same sex as them. It’s horrible that this happens and I fear it will start happening here if a certain President has his way.

 

I loved the story “American Gothic” by LC von Hessen. The ending was so sad but also so beautiful. It made me cry!

 

Many of the stories in the anthology Bury Your Gays also had undertones of sadness, and that's where the "tragic" part of the title comes in. A break away from the grisly horror that also takes place in the stories, some of them truly horrific to read. I loved how creative some of these stories were! I recommend this anthology of stories to anyone who enjoys reading queer horror, whether or not they are queer themselves.

 

 

 

Five stars

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Escaping a Cloud City to a City in Ruins: Sky High is a science-fiction dystopian novel of four teens risking it all for freedom

 

Sky High

Christy J. Breedlove

Fire & Ice Young Adult Books, 2024

ISBN: ISBN: 979-8-88653-279-1

Ebook, 260 ppg.

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Four teenagers – Toby, Justice, Remy and Maria – run away from their sky-high utopian world to the earth below, well aware that it lay in ruins. But the prospect of living with freedom instead of in a society governed by rules and cultures they no longer accepted was too tempting to pass up. When they touch down on Earth, where it lays in ruins on account of a devastating enormous earthquake that lay the planet in waste centuries ago, they discover that the paradise they thought they would escape to turns out to be hell, with savages, wild animals and barely anywhere for them to take shelter. Still, they press on, hoping to find somewhere to live. Meanwhile, they have security guards hot on their heels, determined to return the teens to their homes.

 

I realize that this is a science fiction dystopian novel, but reading about a futuristic Eugene (in Oregon, where I actually happen to live!) that is in shambles because of a record-breaking 9.9  earthquake and survivalist societies was giving me strong dystopian vibes. (I also had to laugh at the “yellow brick road” comment later in the story, because another name for Eugene is the Emerald City!)

 

They say that the biggest threat to the PNW (Pacific Northwest) is a tsunami, but an earthquake registering high on the Richter scale is not impossible. In truth, it could happen at any time. And coincidentally, while I was reading this novel, I came across an article highlighting the dangerous prospect of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that could occur in the Pacific Northwest in the next 50 years. (Here is the link to that article if you want to read it. Interestingly still, it also states that "Oregon has the potential for a 9.0+ magnitude earthquake caused by the Cascadia Subduction Zone and a resulting tsunami of up to 100 feet in height that will impact the coastal area.")

 

The earthquake that wreaked havoc in the West in this story made the city of Eugene no longer habitable. "If the quake hadn’t taken their lives, the thick, porridge-like atmosphere had strangled all life and starved the populace." (Page 109) The story takes place 800 years after the quake. I wondered why everybody decided all those years ago to go live up in the sky. I mean, maybe they could’ve set up a village on the ocean, or something?

 

But, anyway. That’s what happened in this story. And in this sky-high metropolis consisting of 6000 civilians, no one is allowed to leave, let alone to Earth. But these four teenagers do, and it sets them on the course of an adventure of their lifetime.

 

It was hard to read the parts of the story where the group killed wild dogs. I get it, the dogs are wild and it’s “kill or be killed,” but they’re DOGS! And I love dogs. Truthfully, I started skimming over those scenes. It got me upset.

 

Still, this is only a reminder of how harsh life and what little civilization there is left in that area of land is like at that point in time. “Kill or be killed” is the law of the land, and when an animal attacks, the only response is to kill it or be killed. This much I understood.

 

And it gets worse later on, after the group of teens get captured by a savage clan. I had to admire Toby’s restraint as he tried to reason with the leaders and speak to them in a way they would understand. Toby is the most level-headed of the group. The savage clan really is savage, living in a way that is barbaric as well as in a society where the women are assigned to harems. The group of teens are treated brutally by these people, making them wonder if it was worth escaping from Cloud’s Rest in the first place.

 

And that’s the thing. As I read this story, I kept asking myself, Why did they run away? What made where they came from so bad? These teens do share that information towards the end of the story, and I totally understood then and there why they escaped.

 

Sky High was an intelligent, captivating story of adventure, excitement and, overall, hope. You want to cheer the four teens on, but at the same time send them back home because of the dangerous world they venture into. But these teens are not giving up on their quest for freedom, and in making their journey, they grow into mature young adults capable of taking on whatever life throws at them.

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Living among the Undead: Redhead Town is a dystopian horror story of a society coping with an influx of vampires

 

Redhead Town

Deborah Sheldon

PsychoToxin Press, 2024

162 ppg., Ebook

ISBN: 9798865868330

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We all know what vampires are, right? Yeah, bloodsuckers. And pretty much undead. As in, no longer alive. Unalive. Now take everything you know about vampires and imagine that is someone you have to work with.

 

That’s the situation for Mark Murphy in Deborah Sheldon’s new novella, Redhead Town. Except the vampires in Sheldon’s story are not IMMEDIATELY vampires once they’ve been bitten. They go through a process first, slowly transforming into bloodsuckers.

 

Except, you can’t call them a bloodsucker. Or a vampire. Or even the popular term, “redhead,” as it is a derogatory term for vampires in this story.

 

In this dystopian world where vampires live and walk among mere mortals, Mark Murphy is scared shitless. He is not only scared of the redheads, which he loathes with a fierceness, but he is also scared for his wife and son’s safety. He’s scared of the kind of world his son must grow up in, where he is forced to live alongside vampires, forced to work with them, and may even get attacked by them despite all precautions that are taken, such as armed guards looking out for the civilians, and anti-bite collars people can wear and the ankle alarms some vampires who work with mortals must wear.

 

For Mark Murphy, it’s just not enough. He does not feel, as the county does, that vampires deserve a place in society. If he had it his way, they’d all get a bullet in the head. But he cannot have it his way and he feels trapped.

 

That is, until someone he meets provides a way out: A rebellious group called The Refusal.

 

And as I continued to read this story, I asked myself the same question the author poses in the book’s blurb: Will he risk it all and fight back?

 

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is SUCH a unique story! Accept vampires as productive members of society? Allow them to wander the streets and mingle with the people? Oh, no. God, no. But YES. That’s exactly what happens in this story.

 

And I kept asking: WHY?? Are you insane??

 

Apparently, the vampires in this story are not the same as the vampires popularly depicted in movies and TV shows. Maybe that is why they are allowed to co-exist with people? And even have jobs?

I admit that I totally understood the way Mark felt about vampires. I mean, no matter what stage they are in or how they act, they ARE still vampires! I mean, at some point, they’ll get to the stage where they start attacking people. Is it really worth the risk?

 

I mean, personally, I think the best solution is to lock them up in a kennel and shoot them when they go full vampire, just like in Old Yeller!

 

But that’s not what happens here, and that’s part of the thing that kept me reading the story. On one hand, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and watch this whole very-thought-out and well-planned system of having vampires co-existing with humans all go to pot. On the other, I wanted to know if that’s really what happens. Does the whole structure really collapse? Or does it actually work?

 

And as a parent, I also understood Mark and Bernie’s concerns about raising a child in this kind of society. Was their child going to be safe? Will their kid live to adulthood? Mark and his wife, Bernie, are unable to move out of the town that was established specifically for vampires to live among humans (thus the title, Redhead Town), so they make the best of things. But it’s hard. And it’s scary.

 

This and all of the silly rules, weird society norms and a secret voice of rebellion is what awaits readers of this book. I read this story and kept wondering if there was any chance to get away from all the Designated Areas, the bulging population of redheads and the governmental restrictions making life unbearable. It’s the kind of story that made me think, made me worry, but ultimately made me ask myself how much of this was fiction…until it became reality?

 

 

Five stars.

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.