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Title: Queer Fear: Gay Horror Fiction
Score:
Author: Michael Rowe
Rating: Not available
Hits: 135

Review of Queer Fear: Gay Horror Fiction

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Comments for Queer Fear: Gay Horror Fiction

• Posted on 2002-11-27
  Great stories, well-chosen
  
  One of the best horror anthologies I have ever come across. Really well-chosen, well-written stories. Starts off with a bang with NIGHTGUARD and keeps getting better. HEY, FAIRY! is a great story. Real imagination here, all through the book. Can't wait for the sequel!
  
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• Posted on 2001-12-01
  A Superb Achievement!
  
  I loved this book! The stories were first-rate, including work by some of the best-known and accomplished horror writers in the field, including Michael Marano, Douglas Clegg, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and Brian Hodge. The stories ran the gamut from vampires and werewolves and ghosts, to more eclectic supernatural slitherings. The advantage of being the first book of this kind ever ("Bending The Landscape" is also good, though it came later than "Queer Fear") is that it breaks the ground and claims it as its own. This book, after all, was a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards and a Spectrum Award. On the downside, there's something about a book like this that seems to exacerbate homophobia and jealousy in some readers, some of whom have reviewed it online (proving that if you can't write or edit yourself--or are a bigot--you can always diss a book online). I advise readers to that (...) and get to "Queer Fear," post-haste. I only wish editor Michael Rowe (who also edited the vampire books "Sons of Darkness" and "Brothers of the Night") had contributed some of his own work. I've read his non-fiction in "Fangoria" and "Rue Morgue," and his fiction in the "Northern Frights" series. It rocks! Oh, well...maybe next time...hope there's a sequel!
  
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• Posted on 2001-05-10
  Bursts of excellence
  
  After reading some of the other reviews I felt compelled to throw in my 2 cents. The various reviewers are all over the map from "LOVED IT ALL" to "IT SUCKED" - which is to be expected in any collection of short stories, and while there were some that I thought should have been omitted, there are others that more than make up for it. I am a fan of the horror genre, and gay which of course means I'm the core audience for this book and probably a little biased - that said, I truly enjoyed most of the stories in this collection... Notably - Genus Loci, Bear Shirt, The Spark and Piercing Men. I also enjoyed The Goodbye, though it was far from Queer Fear and many would argue should not have been included, it was a nice "palatte cleanser" in the mix.
  
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• Posted on 2001-04-13
  A great read
  
  I really liked this book, even though I'm not a big fan of the horror genre. It's an elaborate, wide-ranging collection of stories, many of which use their "queerness" as a metaphor for their estrangement from mainstream society -- hence, the "fear." Even if you're not a horror fan per se, it's a great and often fascinating read.
  
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• Posted on 2001-03-20
  Disappointing, but not a total loss
  
  What disappointed me the most about Queer Fear was that the editor seems to think that "gay" and "queer" should mean "gay male." All but one of these stories are about men, and most are of the carelessly-written sort that one expects to find in anthologies of "gay fiction." There's very little that's frightening (or even interesting) here, more a preoccupation with sex than writing good stories. However, Caitlin Kiernan's "Spindleshanks," the ONLY story in the book about lesbians, is, curiously, also the only story in Queer Fear that transcends the pulply, hackneyed tone of the anthology to deliver something of literary merit. I would have given the book one star, but Kiernan's lush prose and skillful characterization are worth a couple more.
  
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