Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > Bury Your Gays

Q: What was your favorite television show as a kid?

If you’re one of those people who’s ever been completely incensed when a television show has been working for seasons towards putting a queer couple together only to have one (or both!) of those characters killed off or suddenly being magically straight as a plank, then you might completely identify with Misha, the protagonist of Chuck Tingle’s speculative fiction novel Bury Your Gays.

Yes, you read that correctly: speculative fiction novel. This novel is marketed as both horror and science fiction, but that’s a spectacular indicator a book is likely to end up in that nebulous category called speculative fiction. When you throw genre fiction into a blender and add a dash of, “What if we add in this variable here?”, then I consider that to be speculative fiction. I hate pigeonholing books like this further because I believe it lessens their appeal and reach. If you like body horror, over-the-top violence, poorly-veiled Hollywood references that were likely written that way on purpose, a protagonist who starts out the book righteously angry and just keeps on getting more justifiably angry, mysterious Hollywood execs who are only worried about money to an inhuman degree, Hollywood caricatures and stereotypes, coming out stories, award show shenanigans, horror villain origin stories, seeing the true damage of AI on the environment and on Hollywood manifested, and love an easter egg, then you’ll dig this.

Did I like it as much as Camp Damascus? No. I find Camp Damascus to be the better of the two novels, but that’s not down to Tingle’s talent as a writer. That’s all about my tastes as a reader. I have a harder time with books that have male protagonists just in general, and I also had expectations this book would lean further into body horror than it did. Combine that with me correctly guessing a good chunk of what happens in the back half early on and it just affected my overall enjoyment. Tingle is a really effective story plotter and has a great sense of energy, imagery, and atmosphere.

It’s a great novel and a lot of fun. You’ll enjoy getting to be as mad at Hollywood as Misha is and cheer him on as he fights to write what he wants.

TWs for: Child abuse/neglect, homophobia, hate speech, gore, very violent deaths, blood

I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: Body Horror/Horror/LGBTQ Horror/LGBTQ Fiction/Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction