Tingle, Chuck. Bury Your Gays. New York: Tor Nightfire, 2024.
ISBN-13: 978-1250874658 | $26.99 USD | 304 pages | Horror
Blurb
Bury Your Gays is a heart-pounding new novel from USA Today bestselling author Chuck Tingle about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.
An Indie Next and LibraryReads Pick!
“Brilliantly bloody, wildly fun, and extremely scary, Bury Your Gays brings a sledgehammer down on tired tropes and makes a masterpiece of their guts.”—RACHEL HARRISON, national bestselling author of Black Sheep
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.
But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, “for the algorithm,” in the upcoming season finale.
Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.
Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future—before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.
Review
4 stars
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
Chuck Tingle continues his foray into the world of horror with Bury Your Gays. While Camp Damascus explored more serious territory with commentary on evangelical Christianity and conversion therapy, this book takes a more campy and self-aware turn, diving into the world of Hollywood and its complex history with LGBTQ+ representation, including the common trope of killing off queer characters. I love the way the story sometimes used the screenplay format for scene-setting, tying in perfectly with the protagonist, Misha, and his work as a screenwriter. This, and the additional references to both film and gay culture were a lot of fun, and felt very Tingle-esque without being too on-the-nose.
Misha is an easy character to empathize with, as he grapples with the decision to appease his bosses for the sake of surviving in a capitalist hellscape, and it’s hard not to empathize, especially as we’ve now seen what how little power and respect writers in Hollywood have due to the recent writers’ strike. This present narrative is further juxtaposed with well-placed flashbacks highlighting his self-discovery about himself and his sexuality, which makes his choices in the face of adversity feel all the more affirming.
Narratively, the story was fast-paced and hard to put down. Tingle balances the horror, the personal, and the meta in a beautiful way.
Chuck Tingle has once again delivered a solid full-length horror novel, and I’d recommend it to readers of the genre interested in a book with queer representation, meta film references, and social commentary.
Author Bio
CHUCK TINGLE is the USA Today bestselling author of Camp Damascus. He is a mysterious force of energy behind sunglasses and a pink mask. He is also an anonymous author of romance, horror, and fantasy. Chuck was born in Home of Truth, Utah, and now splits time between Billings, Montana and Los Angeles, California. Chuck writes to prove love is real, because love is the most important tool we have when resisting the endless cosmic void. Not everything people say about Chuck is true, but the important parts are.
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