Book Review: Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

After the surprise success of last Summer’s Camp Damascus, author Chuck Tingle returns with the Hollywood-set horror Bury Your Gays, and with it solidifies himself as a major force in the genre. Mixing scenes of highly imaginative terror with commentary on the risks of runaway technology, runaway capitalism, and the value of representation in media, he has crafted a tale that will resonate strongly with those who need it most.

Screenwriter Misha has been working in Hollywood for years, toiling away writing low budget fright flicks that earned him a small following but weren’t known for making massive amounts at the box office. Now though, he has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film and is the showrunner for a hit TV series in the vein of The X-Files. While he is out of the closet in Los Angeles, his friends and family back home don’t know that he’s gay and he struggles with the idea of telling them, having dealt with some fairly serious prejudice growing up.

Wishing that he had seen more characters like him in movies and TV when he was a teenager, he has been working towards having the 2 female leads of his show fall in love, but the studio informs him that they are only okay with that if they then die tragically. He refuses, only to find himself suddenly being haunted by some of the characters he brought to the screen over the years, all of whom seem intent on killing him and anyone else who gets in their way, including his best friend Tara and doting boyfriend Zeke. Unable to let them suffer, he races to figure out what is going on and how he can stop it.

While it does tackle several serious issues, and does so surprisingly well, this is a fun read and a love letter to horror. During a visit to his class reunion, Misha gives a speech to his friends about the ways that the genre is in fact “a celebration of life” that in it itself could be used to convince detractors of the value in being scared. That being said, the monsters in the book, while highly imaginative, could have been a bit scarier themselves, with much of the book’s most tense moments occurring in the flashbacks to Misha’s youth as he struggles with intolerance among his friends and family. Very few will have dealt with some of the more extreme situations he finds himself in, but most who have struggled to come to terms with their sexuality will find the core ideas very relatable and nerve-wracking.

Misha is a very likable character who Tingle does a good job of making feel real. Most of those in his periphery don’t get filled in as well, though they are all quirky or interesting enough to be memorable regardless. The central premise may wind up being one of the year’s more out-there ideas, but it does a good job of making the recent stand that Hollywood creatives took against AI feel tangible and real. Likewise, Tingle makes a very convincing argument for the value that comes with allowing LGBTQIA+ people to see themselves represented in media. Dealing with those feelings as a young person in an often-cruel world can be a very isolating experience, and to know that you are not alone in your struggle, and that one day things will get better can be lifesaving.

This isn’t a perfect book, but it is fun, thoughtful, and unexpectedly moving. Tingle has included enough thrills to keep the pages flying by and enough poignant moments to keep the book on readers’ minds after they’ve finished reading. His usual messaging about the importance of love and kindness rings true throughout, making the morbidly titled Bury Your Gays one of the year’s most optimistic and hopeful reads. Who knew horror could be so sweet? ★★★★