Book Review - Night Shadows; Queer Horror

Title: Night Shadows: Queer Horror

Editors: Greg Herren and J.M. Redmann

Genre: Horror

Page #s: 295
Publication Date: 2012
Location in Series: Stand alone anthology

Summary: An anthology of horror stories all staring gay, lesbian or bisexual protagonists.

Good Points:

• Mix of horror genres from the slightly paranormal to stygian real life stories and one with a Lovecraftian bent.
• All very well written!
• Almost every story ends happily.

Bad Points:

• Struggles with the concept of ‘horror’. Some stories would fit more as paranormal.
• I feel like it has to pound in every story how queer it’s characters are and it detracts from the stories.
• Last story includes flashbacks that are told in a different font than the present timeline, such a style wasn’t utilized in the rest of the novel and is jarring.
• The opening makes mention of transgender issues but only minor characters feature.

Triggers:

• Murder
• Suicide
• Rape
• Threats of rape
• Cannibalism
• Abuse
• Pedophilia
• Stalking

The Hollow is Filled with Beautiful Monsters – Lee Thomas

• Least Horrific, in my opinion, featuring monsters that are difficult to imagine.
• Horror starts late and catharsis never happens

The Zealous Advocate­ Carsen Taite

• Good twists, good turns!
• Thought she was a werewolf at first, pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise.

Room Nine – Felice Picano

• Features threats of gang rape
• Liked the ending however, very creepy.
• Straight main character.

The Price – J.M. Redmann

• This story is a bit ‘eternal damnation for lesbians!!!’ but it’s also a story about betrayal and paying the price.
• Tragic ending.
• I am jaded about zombie sex but FYI this has zombie sex.

Matinee – Vince A. Liaguno

• Abuse victim turns into abuser
• Lonely man who enjoys horror movies murders teenage male who snubs him.

Capturing Jove Lunge – Steve Berman

• Man sleeps with underage male (they’re set up to be a Batman/Robin style thing unsure of younger male’s actual age but most likely underage)
• Bit with the pitcher plant is neat.

A Letter to my Brother, relating Recent Events with Unintended Consequences – Carol Rosenfeld

• Comically done, not terribly horrific at all. Possibly meant to be tongue in cheek.

All the Pretty Boys – Michael Rowe

• No sex but skeevy dealings lead to death of young drifter.

The Roommate – Lisa Girolami

• I find ghosts communicating with people to be incredibly creepy.
• CREEPY.
• But turns out to be a good ghost.
• Little predictable but still enjoyable.

Filth – Nathan Burgoine

• Warning – BUGS LOTS OF BUGS
• Bugs inside of a person
• Was not expecting the end, liked it.

Saint Louis 1990 – Jewelle Gomez

• Felt like, and is I believe, part of a bigger work/world

Blackout – Jeffrey Ricker

• Creepy homophobic ghost attempts to kill two boyfriends who have moved into his old house, succeeds in killing one.
• Sad.

Crazy in the Night – Greg Herren

• Ghost or monster turns out the lights to drive new apartment inhabitant mad.

Ordinary Mayhem – Victoria A. Brownworth

• Suicidal ideation!
• Lots of gore.
• Cannibalistic serial killer, rapes, mutilates, and murders women, takes pictures of it that his granddaughter finds. She is haunted by him the entire story. She goes on to take pictures of extreme circumstances.
• Creepy things in jars.
• Jarring formatting but well written.

Rating: 3/5