Scan barcode
A review by abandonedquests
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
3.0
Chuck Tingle’s first horror novel, Camp Damascus, was one of my favourites of 2023, so I was really excited to read Bury Your Gays.
Bury Your Gays is about a semi-closeted Hollywood horror screenwriter who is told by his producer to kill off the lesbian protagonists in his TV series.
When he refuses, monsters and villains from his own movies suddenly start following him in the real world. Are they human stalkers in costume? Some kind of supernatural nightmare?
I loved the creepiness of the monster encounters. There were scenes in the first half of the book that gave me real chills, particularly with the Smoker and Mrs. Why.
After that, unfortunately, the book got a bit more violent and less creepy. I liked the themes of creativity vs. money in the film world, but it never grabbed me the way Camp Damascus did. I found the characters a bit shallow — particularly the supporting characters, who didn’t have a lot of personality beyond “perfect boyfriend” or “loud best friend.”
I think this just isn’t my subgenre; Bury Your Gays is more of a satire than a horror novel, and it leans heavily on sci-fi action in the second half. There will definitely be readers who enjoy the tone more than I did, and I do recommend this to anyone interested in a horror-ish satire of Hollywood.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for my review copy of this book.
Bury Your Gays is about a semi-closeted Hollywood horror screenwriter who is told by his producer to kill off the lesbian protagonists in his TV series.
When he refuses, monsters and villains from his own movies suddenly start following him in the real world. Are they human stalkers in costume? Some kind of supernatural nightmare?
I loved the creepiness of the monster encounters. There were scenes in the first half of the book that gave me real chills, particularly with the Smoker and Mrs. Why.
After that, unfortunately, the book got a bit more violent and less creepy. I liked the themes of creativity vs. money in the film world, but it never grabbed me the way Camp Damascus did. I found the characters a bit shallow — particularly the supporting characters, who didn’t have a lot of personality beyond “perfect boyfriend” or “loud best friend.”
I think this just isn’t my subgenre; Bury Your Gays is more of a satire than a horror novel, and it leans heavily on sci-fi action in the second half. There will definitely be readers who enjoy the tone more than I did, and I do recommend this to anyone interested in a horror-ish satire of Hollywood.
Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for my review copy of this book.