Blurb:

The instant USA Today bestseller by Chuck Tingle about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead. Named one of the Best Horror Books of 2024 by Esquire and Library Journal!

"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.

A CALIBA Golden Poppy Award finalist!
A GoodReads Choice Award finalist for Best Horror!
One of the Best Books of Summer 2024 by Paste, HuffPost, Esquire, and Publishers Weekly!

Review:

2024 has been the year of cinema horror novels. Unfortunately for me, I haven’t had much luck with these horror releases. While scanning through the horror category of the 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards, Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle caught my eye. The juxtaposition of a bloody sledgehammer next to a vibrant title on the cover made me quickly request this book from my local library. I, like many readers, have thoughts about the Goodreads Choice Awards (along with some suggestions to improve). However, I am glad it put this book on my radar because this was a fun, bloody social commentary on queer identity and Hollywood. 

Before reading this, I had no idea about “the bury your gays” trope, yet once identified I could easily recall stories from current and past media where LQBTQIA+ characters tend to have tragic deaths. In Tingle's newest novel, Misha, an accomplished screenwriter, is asked to kill his queer characters off or make them straight so they stay alive. He quickly decides to defy this request, however, he has no idea standing up for his convictions can lead to some deadly consequences. 

This book pulls no punches with its heavy themes. Picking this up you should instantly know this is a social commentary. At the same time, Tingle crafts a fast-paced and terrifying story, which makes this hard to put down. On its own, it’s an incredible story of a screenwriter whose fictional monsters are trying to kill him. What I found so memorable about the horror scenes in this novel is how they would occur in public or the daytime. There is also one scene where you realize Misha’s monsters can affect bystanders, which makes everywhere feel dangerous. I loved how Tingle played on some common horror tropes and twisted them. Because of this, it felt fresh and unique to other horror books I have read.

The character work was also dynamic and made you invested in Misha’s story. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn how Misha is coming to terms with his sexuality, even as a successful Hollywood screenwriter. These scenes added more depth to his character and showed how his trauma has shaped the stories he writes. I found them touching and masterfully captured the challenges of being different and trying to blend in when you are young. It's also cleverly written to show Misha’s inspiration for his monsters in film and TV. Plus, they are a fantastic literary device to show a man overcoming his trauma.

Besides themes of queer representation in media, I loved how Tingle tackles AI and corporate greed. What better place to set these themes than in Hollywood? Throughout the book, we see how the “algorithm's” primary goal is profit, and art is thrown to the wayside. As a result, the stories Hollywood produces follow a profit-driven playbook. Tingle makes a great case of how stories are losing their heart and are just seen as cash grabs. 

This was my first Chuck Tingle book, and I am hooked! I don’t always prefer to be hit with social commentary, but this author convinced me how it can be done right. Bury Your Gays is an emotionally terrifying tale with a lot to say. Tingle calls out Hollywood on AI, queer representation, and how great stories can go to the wayside if they aren't seen as profitable. I would highly recommend this if you were looking for a campy yet powerful horror novel that will keep you entertained from page 1.