Hello and welcome to the August edition of the Queer Lit Review! This month, we have an immortal ghost hunter finding new friends, a grotesque mermaid helping a young high schooler after she loses her family, and a gay antique dealer falling for a closeted detective during a murder investigation.
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Happy Reading!
Title/Author: The Keeper of Lonely Spirits by E.M. Anderson
Reviewer: Lo
Summary: Cursed to wander far from home, immortal ghost hunter Peter Shaughnessy must choose between protecting his new friends in Harrington, OH, and confronting the heartbreak of staying with the found family he never expected.
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Genre/Sub-Genre: Cozy Fantasy
Book Format: eAudiobook
Length: 12 hours and 8 minutes
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Gay/ Bi
Content Warnings: PTSD, grief, mentions of death
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well-written
Would I Recommend?: ABSOLUTELY!
Personal thoughts: This story deals with a lot of heavy emotions, but it was so incredibly fulfilling. It deals with guilt, grief, PTSD, depression, and loss of loved ones in such a realistic but approachable way. The elements of found family, self-forgiveness, and moving forward are done with so much care. All the characters were so lovable and multifaceted that they felt so real. The queer elements are so intrinsic to the story and its characters that it feels like a warm hug. This is not the most eloquently put together review because this book touched my heart in such a way that, without going into every little detail, I cannot do it justice. My only real note is that I’d recommend the audiobook for it because the main character has a rich Irish accent; however, it does make one of the twists a little more obvious.
Title/Author: This Monster Wants to Eat Me, Vol 1 by Sai Naekawa
Reviewer: Dani
Summary: As the sole survivor of an accident that killed her close family members, high schooler Hinako is mired in grief and wants to die. Shiori, a grotesque mermaid who can take human form, promises to give Hinako the death she desires, but first, she implores her to live a joyful life so she can become the tastiest possible meal.
Series/Standalone: Series
Genre/Sub-Genre: Manga (Yuri, Horror)
Book Format: Digital on Comics Plus
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Lesbian
Content Warnings: Suicidal ideation, depression, death by car accident/drowning, blood
Would I Recommend?: Tentative yes
Personal thoughts: I started this manga because it looked like a potential read-alike for a recent favorite, The Summer Hikaru Died. More gay horror manga! But with girls this time! And to a certain point, the comparison holds up. Both are eerie stories that take place during the listless torpor of summer and use monstrosity to explore teen emotional intensity and desire.
This Monster Wants To Eat Me is at the more subdued, melancholy end of the horror spectrum and uses its seaside setting to evocatively dreary effect. Naekawa's illustrations of folklore-inspired creepy things are, in my opinion, the best parts, but they alone aren’t what makes the story work. Rather, the horror is offset by familiar school-story-standard plotlines dedicated to friendships, social outings, and school trips. These elements build a veneer of normalcy that is repeatedly disrupted as revelations about the characters and the secrets they’re hiding come to light. At the same time, the very human hijinks make the darker characters more endearing and add levity to a plot that could have easily wallowed in angst. I think that’s what I enjoyed the most: the mash-up of genre elements that could be at odds with each other but instead make the story feel pleasantly unexpected.
While the yuri vibes are obvious through plenty of romantic imagery, the relationship development is very much a slow burn, and as of volume 4, there's no direct discussion of queer identity or attraction beyond the desire to die at someone else's hands. I don't mind this, exactly, but I do feel like my overall impression of the series — as a queer series, at least — may change depending on where it ends up going. For now, though, it's off to an interesting start.
Title/Author: The Mystery of Nevermore by C.S. Poe
Reviewer: Jordan
Summary: Sebastian Snow just wants to rekindle his relationship with closeted detective Neil Millet when his antique store is broken into, and a heart is left under the floorboards. When Detective Calvin Winter arrives on the scene, Sebastian’s heart flutters back to life and guilt floods him for thinking about another man even while his relationship with Neil is on the fritz amid a murder investigation.
Series/Standalone: Snow & Winter #1
Genre/Sub-Genre: Mystery/MM Romance
Book Format: eBook
Length: 214 pages
LGBTQ+ Orientation: Gay
HEA/HFN: Yes
Content Warnings: PTSD, closeted gay men, explicit sex scenes, cheating, bloody murder scenes and a dead cat
Ratio of Sex/Plot: 30% sex
Well-Written/Editor Needed: Well-written
Would I Recommend it?: Yes
Personal Thoughts: I know, I know, I’m very late to the party on this one. Lo recommended it to me because of my love for the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon. Despite the fact that this is very much cookie-cutter Adrien English, complete with the disabled shop owner getting into trouble and falling for a closeted detective, I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
Sebastian has achromatopsia, which means he sees only in black, white, and grey, and has a severe sensitivity to bright lights. As a lot of people think being blind means you’re totally blind, it’s nice to see representation for other forms of blindness! I also thought this was well-handled.
The mystery was fun and engaging, though I do think it could have used a few more red herrings and antagonists to keep me guessing a little longer. If you’ve read Fatal Shadows, the first Adrien English book, already, then you’ll likely figure this one out pretty quickly.
My only major complaint is that, unlike Adrien English, the romance between Sebastian and Calvin happens too early, too fast, and is too easy for me. I needed more build-up to their HFN and more consequences for their early actions on their mutual attraction. I wanted them to get to know each other more throughout the case before they got together. While I am getting the feeling that Calvin is pretty devoted to Sebastian, (oddly devoted for someone in the closet who just met a guy as part of an investigation!) I’m concerned that he was willing to sleep with Sebastian while knowing he was still in another relationship. That’s very much a no-go for a lot of romance readers. The devotion here felt like we skipped ahead to the best parts about Adrien and Jake’s relationship and ignored the angst, hardship, and heartbreak that got us there. Sebastian and Calvin don’t need to take five books to get together in a permanent and devoted relationship like Adrien and Jake, but somewhere in the middle would have been better.
Overall, yes, I did enjoy this, and I’m looking forward to seeing where Sebastian and Calvin go from here and how they might turn into more of their own characters, rather than mimicking Adrien and Jake as much as they do in the first book. I’ve read some really great short stories by this author in a few anthologies I really liked: Footsteps in the Dark, Devil Take Me, and Once Upon a Time in the Weird West.
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