by Chuck Tingle
Tor Nightfire, 2024. 295 pages. Horror.
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.
I'll be the first to admit that horror isn't my first go-to genre. But I've been trying to appreciate the genre more. Tingle strikes a good chord here with a clever storyline that evoked discomfort with its gory, graphic, upsetting descriptions of body horror. I was surprised by the undertones (or overtones?) that spoke to corporate greed and queer erasure in media, and I didn't expect to be that deeply touched by this work. Plus, these topics are handled in a way that doesn't come across as heavy-handed or pedantic, nor does it detract from the storytelling. While the pacing lagged a touch in the middle, I was strangely uplifted by the value of honoring all parts of yourself and refusing to hide your identity. It's fair to say that I didn't expect any of this, given Tingle's enormous self-published body of work which largely comprises satire and what one might call performance art in prose (and what is technically gay monster erotica).