phoenix13's reviews
747 reviews

I have such a love hate relationship with Riley Sager. Sager usually has really interesting plots with absolutely horrendous characters. I am deeply curious about why he chooses to almost exclusively write women (in what I've read so far), he's not very good at it. Sager's female characters are basically all unreliable horror narrator Mary Sue's. 

This one follows Emma as she travels back to her old summer camp to teach art.  Emma's first time at the camp is super traumatic and ends with all of her bunkmates mysteriously disappearing never to be seen again. I was super into this plot until the end, the reveal was such a flop that it hurt my feelings. 

Am I going to read more Riley Sager books? Yes, yes I am. 

I just can't with Tessa Bailey, this is the second DNF for me so I think it's time to accept defeat. Bailey's characters are just not for me. At all. 

I absolutely loved Camp Damascus so I had very high expectations for Bury Your Gays and despite these very high expectations, I was not disappointed. I was actually blown away. 

Bury Your Gays follows a gay and semi-closeted horror screenwriter in Hollywood, his boyfriend Zeke, and his best friend Tara (thank you for this amazing ACE representation).  The reader joins Misha as he battles against the order to kill off two of his characters if he brings them out of the closet. Gradually Misha realizes he is becoming haunted by his horrific creations and that the only way he can escape his monsters is by keeping his gays alive. 

Tingle is a fantastic writer, funny with amazing characters, and a real talent for description and setting without getting too wordy. Going into a Tingle novel you know there is a great chance the queer characters you fall in love with are going to survive. The queer characters are the heroes in a Chuck Tingle book, you aren’t going to be punished here. Bury Your Gays is the big warm hug that the queer kids exhausted by shows like Supernatural need. 

There are so many things I love about this novel but, at the top of my list, is Tingle’s expert exploration of queer trauma through horror. Horror is a powerful tool of catharsis and Tingle gets this. Bury Your Gays tackles how detrimental and painful queer baiting actually is, the heaviness of the obligation to be queer and PROUD, and the eternal dichotomy of being too gay and not quite gay enough all at the same time. If all of that sounds just too sad, the heart of the novel reminds us that there is incredible strength and love in the community and the family you make for yourself and that there is incredible strength and love in walking your most true path.  And remember, Tingle doesn’t bury his gays. 



Get your hands on the audiobook for this one if you can, the acting is fantastic and the production is amazing. This one is a real treat on audio. 


*I was provided with an ARC of the audiobook by the publisher in exchange for my honest review*