Queer Fear II: Gay Horror Fiction, Vol. 1 Book

For many years the genre of horror fiction has been almost exclusively written by heterosexuals for heterosexuals. These stories, typically involve a female victim and a male antagonist. However in this new millennium, when the line that separates gay from straight has become more and more ambiguous, art had begun to imitate life as we are now presented with an anthology of horror stories in which the protagonists as well as the victims are very clearly homosexual.

I first read Queer Fear (2000) in early 2001 after coming across it in a Bookstore I frequented. I read it from cover to cover a number of times, until I had portions of it committed to memory. So, I was extremely excited when I discovered that a second anthology had been compiled into Queer Fear II. Queer Fear II gets off to a great start with its first story, Bugcrush (which has since been made into a short film). It concerns a subject that anyone, gay or straight, can easily identify with, one's first crush. I instantly sympathized with Ben the high school student as he agonized over his own desire for Grant, the object of his crush. When Grant invites Ben over to his house one day, it seems that Ben's dream is about to come true only to have that dream descend into a nightmare of date rape and murder in a most gruesome manner.

David Coffey's On Being a Fetish, gives us a glimpse of the afterlife for Chuck, who died 20 years prior and wanders his hometown as a lonely spirit. A young man described as an Eminem wannabe draws Chuck's attention and interest after an erotic episode with a ouija board. The two begin an unlikely relationship using the ouija board in a most unusual way. The relationship goes to new levels as Chuck basically becomes a voyeur to a willing Eminem's nightly "bedtime" ritual. Other than invoking a sense of fear, the purpose of this story seems to be to disgust the reader with it's description of necrophilia; however, it also serves as a reminder that the need for love follows us even past the grave itself, and that (at least for Chuck)that search is no more easier in death than it is in life.

Other stories such as Gay Town by Robert Boyckuk, make little if any sense at all. Rather than a horror story, the author seems to be making a statement against remaining in the closet rather than living one's life openly. In the end the central mystery goes unexplained, and the reader is left without any sense of closure. Although a good story in and of itself Poppy Z. Brite's Bayou de la Mere, in no way can be considered horror by any definition of the word. Perhaps it's inclusion in Queer Fear II was meant to increase sales by drawing in the authors fans. Bayou de la Mere would likely be more comfortable in a book of gay erotica.

I really wanted to like this book, I really did. However, like many things in life, it simply does not stand up to the original. While it has a few exceptional stories, the mediocre/bad ones are more numerous. In the end, it simply is not worth the time, effort, or expense to weed through the drivel in order to get to the stories worthy of one's attention and interest.