I’m doing things a little differently this month; my review is for Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror edited by Sofia Ajram. Short fiction is my usual fare when reading for pleasure, so it was only a matter of time before some of it ended up here in Malevolent Dark. I initially picked this book up for two reasons: 1) I love queer horror; and 2) it’s got a story by Gretchen Felker-Martin, whose latest novel Black Flame led to my introduction to writing reviews. Spoiler alert: she did not disappoint, but more on that later.
First things first, the title: This is the second book I’ve read in the past 12 months with this title (the first was a novel by Chuck Tingle whose latest novel Lucky Day I recently reviewed here.) This shouldn’t be that surprising, given how much the trope is discussed these days. For those who are unaware, Bury Your Gays is a common movie trope where the gay characters always get killed for an emotional punch. Explaining it in detail would require a whole other article, but the gist is that back when movies were still getting popular, the Hays Code only allowed gay characters who got killed off, and a lot of the community felt like even that was better than having no gay characters at all. These days those old standards are being taken to task, and media is better off for it. But I wonder if commenting on the cliché is becoming cliché? Then again, I also wonder how many books there are called Jumping the Shark?
Your Honor, I’d Like to Put You in the Shoes of One of Dr. Morehouse’s Thirty Proven Clients by M.V. Pine.
An absolute banger of a story and a hell of a way to open the anthology. Second-person horror is always more unnerving, forcing the reader to think of themselves as the (often) unfortunate protagonist. This is particularly unsettling because there are no supernatural elements, and any student of queer history could tell you that the entire story might very well be true. I actually did a quick search just to check, but it turns out there are a lot of Dr. Morehouses, not to mention the famous Morehouse School of Medicine.
Cleodora by August Clark
This is a mostly seafaring adventure about finding your own path to love-ish. I know very little about ships and sailing, but the author certainly seems to know their stuff. This story did call a question to mind though: is it just me or are selkies (seal-like creatures that can shed their skin and are beautiful women underneath) kind of having a moment right now?
Sardines by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Followers of my articles know I love Felker-Martin’s work. I was expecting her story, Sardines, to be my favorite in this collection. While it is a wonderful take on a horror classic, the sleepover gone awry, which really leans into the body horror she’s known for, it left me with the feeling that her ideas lend themselves more to the long form. Which is to say, I hope she turns this idea into a full novel.
Bad Axe by Ed Kurtz
This is a meditation on grief unlike any I’ve ever read. After reading it, I was struck by how many of the stories in this collection focus on grief surrounding the death of a loved one, which I suppose shouldn’t be too surprising given that it’s a queer horror anthology, but still.
American Gothic by LC von Hessen
In my humble opinion, this is the gem of the collection. A perfect blend of high-concept, elevated horror which still satisfies my more prurient needs that lead me to be a horror reader to begin with. For my movie fans out there, think Ari Aster meets early James Wan.
Other Notable Mentions
I also want to give a shout out to the debut authors in this collection, M.F. Rose, November Rush, and Violet, for their works: Zero Tolerance Policy, Blackhole, and Love Like Ours (respectively).
The first is a fantastic story about what happens when school bullying (and punishments) goes perhaps a bit too far, leaving the reader unsure about who, if anyone, to feel sorry for.
It’s fair to say that Blackhole is a love story unlike any I have ever read. When ageless entities filled with eons of love and lust find themselves in fragile human bodies.
The final story I’ll mention here, Love Like Ours, hearkens back to the first in the collection in that everything about it is so believable. While I doubt it’s “ripped from the headlines,” I fully believe that approximate versions have happened and will happen again.
All in all, I heartily recommend this collection, released by Ghoulish Books way back in 2024, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find