Book Review: BURY YOUR GAYS by Chuck Tingle

BURY YOUR GAYS by Chuck Tingle (Tor Nightfire, July  2024) Hardcover, 304 pages. ISBN # 9781250874658 

Synopsis on the Goodreads website . . . . .

From Chuck Tingle, author of the USA Today bestselling Camp Damascus, comes a new heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he's pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale―"for the algorithm"―Misha discovers that it's not that simple.

As he is haunted by his past, and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what's right―before it's too late.

My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Although it might seem to straddle several genres, BURY YOUR GAYS is first and foremost a horror novel, and a very clever and symbolic one - - and different enough from traditional horror novels to make this fresh in comparison. 

In the beginning chapters it seemed as if this was delving into black comedy, but that notion is quickly dispersed as the horrific elements ramp up and things get much more serious and frightening. Weird, strange and quirky, the video horror characters created by screenwriter Misha seemingly come to life and torment him as he considers a decision whether to cave into studio demands and rewrite the finale of a television script featuring gay characters that he created.

Things become all too real in the middle and final chapters, as the blood and gore are front and center, before Tingle puts another spin on the storyline and ventures into the realm of science fiction and artificial intelligence. 

I've got some criticisms of the storyline, but to detail them would only serve to spoil things so I'll save them in the hidden spoilers with The Spoiler Alert Book Club, with whom I participated in a group read of this novel. 

The root of this novel is the acceptance and/or rejection of gay themes in modern movies, as well as the underlying threat of artificial intelligence to screenwriters. Very symbolic, BURY YOUR GAYS has a lot to say and provides underlying commentary/observations on Hollywood culture and large movie studios that cater to special interest groups whenever they see a monetary opportunity. To tilt things one way or the other is too extreme, as the novel highlights. Moderation is the key.