Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood book
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 16, 2021
The book Nightmare Queers Destroy Horror contains various short stories: “Golden Hair, Red Lips”, “Alien Jane”, “The Lord of Corrosion”, “Rats Live on No Evil Star”, etc. There were aspects of this book that I liked and some that I did not. To start with the positives, I liked how the author took a chance on a topic that is sensitive and many would be hesitant to approach. In my opinion, none of these stories crossed a line to offend anyone who identifies as queer. I liked following the queer main characters. These stories made me understand a little bit about the stuggle that comes with identifying as a queer in today’s society. Although the stories are centered around queers, stereotypes of queers were not present. This is a positive aspect to the story for me because stereotypes can be very offensive to anyone. Most of the stereotypes that come to mind for gay people have a negative connotation, so this was a good thing to leave out. Next, I will transition into discussion about some of the things I did not enjoy reading the stories. First, I did not get the unsettled feeling I get when reading other horror stories. I feel like there was too much of a focus around the queer nature of story, and not enough focus on the hoorror aspect yof the genre. Very few times throughout the reading did I actually feel suspense. Although I wanted to read on to finish the stories, I would have preferred more suspense in the stories because that is how I get scared. Additionally, I was left very confused after reading a few of the pieces. It took some research and outside sources for me to understand some of the stories. A lot of the stories had backstories that would have been beneficial to know about before reading the piece. At times I wish I knew the story before reading it just so that I could understand it. Although some of the Q&A helped with my understanding of the stories, I wish I knew more background of the stories before starting them.
