Outlaw Reviews

GLBT Fiction, GLBT Interest

Rating: 8/10

Title: The Haunted Heart and Other Tales
Author: Jameson Currier
Genre: Dark fiction/horror, Single Author Anthology
URL: Amazon
Price: US$15.00

Summary (from the publisher): Haunted? Or blessed? Ghosts? Or guardian angels? Twelve new stories of gay men and the memories that haunt them. A circuit boy stays at a haunted hotel. An actor recounts a grisly murder in the English countryside. A gay parent unravels a mysterious souvenir. A journalist chases a story through the streets of Amsterdam. An artist grapples with his muse. A musician is inspired by the spirit of a sailor. Jameson Currier modernizes the traditional ghost story with gay lovers, loners, activists, and addicts, blending history and contemporary issues of the gay community with the unexpected of the supernatural.

My Review:

In the Closet, Under the Bed by Lee Thomas

22 Mar 2010 at 07:10

GLBT Fiction, GLBT Interest

Rating: 10/10
Title: In the Closet, Under the Bed
Author: Lee Thomas
Genre: Horror/Dark Fiction
URL: Amazon
Price: US$16.00
Other Information/warnings: Stoker Award Nominee, Lambda Literary Award Finalist

Summary (from the Publisher): A breathtaking collection of literary dark fiction that will force you to face the terror lurking…in the closet, under the bed… In this collection of fifteen tales, award-winning author Lee Thomas casts light on the shadows in our closets and explores the fear of boogeymen and beasts we sense lying in wait under our beds. Featuring nine original tales and six acclaimed short stories gathered together in one volume for the first time anywhere, In the Closet, Under the Bed reminds us that sometimes the most terrifying aspects of the human condition come from within.

My Review:

Mama Fish by Rio Youers

22 Mar 2010 at 05:05

Non-GLBT Fiction

Rating: 8.5/10
Title: Mama Fish
Author: Rio Youers
Genre: Dark Fiction (horror/speculative)
URL: Amazon
Price: $7.99 (note that this is a novella length work at 92 pages)

Summary (from the publisher): At Harlequin High School In 1986, Kelvin Fish was the oddball, the weird kid that no one would talk to, except for Patrick Beauchamp who was determined to learn more. When Patrick’s curiosity about Kelvin leads him into a bizarre and tragic series of events, Patrick gets much more than he bargained for.

My Review:

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite – review

28 Dec 2008 at 15:43

GLBT Fiction

Rating: 10/10

Title: Lost Souls
Author: Poppy Z. Brite
Genre: Contemporary horror, vampire, literary fiction
URL: Amazon
Price: US$7.99
Other Information/warnings: drug usage, incest, rape, domestic violence, violence, gore, explicit m/m sex
Summary [from the original edition]:
They are the children of the night, dressed in black, adrift without an anchor, looking for love, acceptance, a meaning in their lives.

Nothing discovers his true name on the handwritten note that was pinned to his baby blanket eighteen years earlier. It sings in his blood, telling him that all he believed himself to be is false. The discovery that he is a vampire, and the son of a vampire, seems the most natural thing in the world to him.

Ann finds herself drawn to one of the three pale, partying strangers who come to town. They drink wine that tastes almost like blood. And the small one, Zillah, has the most amazing green eyes.

Ghost has always had visions and sensations that come from beyond his small town, from beyond the world of the living. Now his powers lead him away from home to New Orleans in a desperate attempt to save Ann from her new companions, and to save Nothing from himself.

My review:

Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite – review

19 Nov 2008 at 11:30

GLBT Fiction

Rating: 10/10

Title: Drawing Blood
Author: Poppy Z. Brite
Genre: Gay contemporary horror
URL: Amazon
Price: US$7.99
Other Information/warnings: Explicit m/m sex, gore, violence, murder, drug use
Summary (from the original edition): Robert McGee is a man living under a dark cloud. Acclaimed cartoonist of the underground comic Birdland, he has moved his family from Texas to New Orleans and finally to Missing Mile, North Carolina. But Robert is unable to escape the drinking and violence that have become as natural to him as breathing. Soon after he and his family settle into a decrepit farmhouse, Robert kills his wife, his younger son, and then himself. Only his five-year-old son, Trevor, is left alive.

Twenty years later Trevor McGee, also a cartoonist, returns to Missing Mile to the house in which his family once lived. He has been running from the truth for years, and finally realizes he must face his demons. He fears that what happened to his father will happen to him. “But if it does,” Trevor thinks, “at least I won’t have anyone to kill.” Then he befriends Zachary Bosch, a computer hacker from New Orleans running from the law.

In the house, which Trevor calls Birdland, they must confront more than bad memories. For the house carries its own dark force, which threatens to envelope Trevor in the past and destroy him.