PIHM Book Review: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Genre: Horror
Age: Adult
Format: Paperback

Get this book. Look, whether you’re a long time DHR reader or just here for Pride Month, the fact you’re here at all tells me you’d be pretty damn likely to really get a kick out of this. As a horror novel, it satisfies on so many levels.

We all know Chuck Tingle is a great writer. This is an author who, no matter what genre he is writing in, consistently proves love is real. Camp Damascus was excellent. Bury Your Gays is just as good. Misha is a scriptwriter who seemingly has everything laid out perfectly; his long running show is going well, and he’s been nominated for his first Oscar for a live short. He’s made his name in queer horror, even if he isn’t fully out of the closet.

But the board have run the numbers and having the two leads on his show out and proud won’t be profitable, so they ask that he kill off a gay character in the season finale. Misha is well aware of the usual treatment for queer characters, and pushes back. But when his own creations appear to torment him, Misha has to reckon with his past and his present, and his own status as a queer writer, to stop his monsters before it’s too late.

There’s a certain level of humour to Tingle’s work that always works so well, no matter what horrific events are taking place around the characters. He utilises a particular Hollywood weirdness here, contrasting the glitz and glamour with Misha’s inner turmoil. It really shines a spotlight on Hollywood and the treatment not just of queer characters, but anyone working for a studio, with a strong commentary on recent developments that feel like they prioritise ‘tech bros’ over creatives, and algorithms over actual real humans.

Without going into spoiler territory, I need to comment on something towards the end of the book – there is a chapter near the end which essentially would be recognisable to anyone who has attended a Pride event and felt it has gone down a too corporate route. It’s a point where things feel so deeply disturbing, even more than the events before it, and it reflects very real issues in how the ‘mainstream’ view queer creators, characters and even the ‘aesthetic’ of being queer. Like most things Tingle does, it’s incredibly clever, and yeah, exhausting – as a queer reader, you’re likely to feel as tired and exasperated by it as Misha does.

Bury Your Gays is due to hit shelves next month, and I think it’s really going to be one of the stand out books of the summer. When it is, it’ll be extremely well deserved.

Order From:
Waterstones
Amazon UK
Bookshop UK

Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
www.elleturpittediting.com

I received this paperback from Titan Books for review consideration.