vanmeers's reviews
491 reviews

right, so this wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be but it’s still incredibly gross and not something you can really recommend to just anybody. 

if you’re into necrophilia and cannibalism or thinks a serbian film is the best film ever this book is most likely for you OR if you’re just into cringecore incel extreme horror for shock value, then it’s also a perfect match for you. 

very short, but clearly incredibly personal story about self harm. can’t say it spoke to me personally, but the writing was really poetic and beautiful despite the subject (or maybe because of the personal subject). 

camp damascus has been sitting on my bookshelves since august last year, but with finishing bury your gays i knew i had to finally read it — it didn’t it as hard as bury your gays, but that one just hit all the right spots for me tbh, but it was still a really good book and i loved rose, saul and willow 🫶 

camp damascus is a queer story and i love that the heroes of it is an autistic woman, her girlfriend and a gay man. i also love that despite there obviously being sad moments, it’s very obviously not a tragic queer story. 

chuck tingle is such an important author who brings a whole range of diversity in his books and seeing that in mainstream publishing is amazing 💛

exactly what you’d expect 👁️👁️

love IS real and chuck tingle proves it yet again with what’s literally the book of the year imo!!! 

bury your gays is everything you could wish for in a book about a queer screenwriter fighting for representation in a capitalist hellscape (hollywood) 💛

it may be fiction, but there’s clearly real and honest feelings behind this and it’s easy to relate to several moments in this as a queer person. misha’s story of growing up wanting to be represented, but it only being through queer baiting or queer tragic stories is way too real. i could so easily see myself in this and it’s rare feeling SO seen in a book published by such a huge and mainstream publisher. but chuck did it!!! i love it. 

but also the general story was great!! it was weird, kinda bordering on horror at times and it had a great cautionary tale of capitalism and [spoiler]. it also had a great aroace character, tara, and i would lay down my life for her actually 🫶🫶🫶 

anyway, five stars baby! this is by far my most fave read of 2024 and i think a lot of it is (obviously) chuck tingle’s ability as a writer but it also hits all the right spots for me, when it comes to what i love in fiction — to me it’s basically a ‘what if kiss kiss bang bang met john dies at the end but it was infinitely more queer’. which is to say, actually, if you love john dies at the end and you’re gay, you’ll absolutely love this! 

// thank you to titan books, chuck tingle and netgalley for this arc 🥲🫶

the cover so perfectly captures the essence of these stories: beautiful and grotesque. 

welcome to your body is full of gruesome, disgusting and sad tales covering the whole body. top to toe. it’s also a perfect mix of genres, making it an enjoyable collection for almost everyone. 

it’s pretty gross at times though, so it’s probably not for the faint of heart and i even had to stop for a second cos i felt ILL. which was great! 

// arc courtesy of the publisher and booksirens. 

having read universal harvester prior to this one it’s so clear john darnielle has a lot of great ideas and really wants to push his readers to THINK. 

while universal harvester wanted us to think about our assumptions and ideas of people. devil house is all about how we consume true crime, the repercussions of true crime and how we sensational tragedy — not to mention, again, that sometimes we shouldn’t accept something as truth as blindly as we do. 

i listened to the audiobook narrated by darnielle and i still think he’s an exceptional narrator. it’s so easy and comfortable listening to him. i liked most parts of the book, felt it all mattered to the narrative, but the old english lore parts did bore me a bit. although i’m sure it’s easier to listen to than read. 

overall i liked how the story is told through gage’s eyes and then through the victims and perpetrators eyes — and i liked the twist and reversal of narrative at the end. can’t wait to read more by him in the future! 

went into this one completely blind and i honestly think that’s the best way to read it! 

it’s a short disturbing story of a war veteran returning from the falklands after being dishonourably discharged. he returns with more than he bargained for, the traumatic experience and something…. else. 

think final destination meets any war film but make it gross, disturbing and super british! 

ear worms is definitely worth the read for anyone who loves their horror to be gross and it’s perfectly short and can be read in no time! 

// Thank you to the author for a physical copy! 

hanya yanagihara, you’re so so terrible for this </3 

on one hand, this is absolutely feels like trauma porn™️, but on the other hand, it’s also just such painfully beautiful book. it’s impossible to not feel both pain and hope, despite knowing there’s so little hope, and the ending is sooooooo. it’s expected, but it’s so sad still. 

i wasn’t sure whether i felt this was a five star read before finishing it. i read to paradise first, which is absolutely a masterpiece. truly a work of art. this isn’t exactly that, but it feels very personal and impossible to not feel so entwined with the story and characters. that by the end of the book, whether it’s truly a five star read or not, it’s impacted me enough to become one.