[Book Review] The Book of Queer Saints Volume II (2023)

Queer horror has always been lurking in the shadows of pop culture. Within the past several decades, it's moved into the light. In 2022, editor (and Ghouls Magazine writer!) Mae Murray released an anthology of horror stories entitled The Book of Queer Saints, featuring a diverse array of characters and frightening tales. Happily, her new anthology The Book of Queer Saints Volume II is being released this October. With this new collection, queer horror takes center stage. 

Ria Hill's lurid mystery Ambrosia is told by a queer detective, who interviews Stevie (another queer woman) about how a threesome she was involved in went horribly awry. Stevie describes the night in question, when she was dazzled by a mysterious woman – the titular Ambrosia. After the two women share a brief flirtation and a kiss, Ambrosia proposes they invite a man into the equation. As Stevie says, "When Ambrosia grabbed my hand I was helpless to say anything but yes. Or maybe something like 'God I hope so.'"

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But Ambrosia quickly turns into something neither the detective nor Stevie can name; she's dangerous, and she's impossible to stop. The detective becomes obsessed with finding Ambrosia and solving her mystery. In this sense, Ambrosia is an allegory. The story is about a bewitching queer woman with frightening abilities, but it could also be read as the story of how intoxicating the rush of attraction between two women is. It's a force as unstoppable as Ambrosia herself.  

Z.K. Abraham's story Resurrectionist also portrays the strength of a relationship between two queer women. Dina and Lyla meet cute in a library. ("Their fingers brushed as they reached for the same book in the section on Canaanite mythology.") They're heavily interested in science, and fascinated by mysticism, folklore and metaphysical phenomenon. 

After Lyla vanishes from Dina's life, Dina is heartbroken, and she becomes obsessed with bringing occultist Katherine Xanadu back to life.

"Dina had to raise the undead because she had nothing left now. Lyla was long gone. She and Lyla had bonded, fused, basically become two halves of a whole. How was it possible that it could be over? It wasn't. She still felt Lyla, like a phantom limb. Dina would bring her back by performing a miracle."

Although raising the dead may seem like a melodramatic response to a breakup, few people have been spared the kind of aloneness and pain that Dina describes; her anguish is extreme, but understandable. The end of her first queer relationship has caused her to go to great lengths to find something to soothe her pain – and impress her ex. 

One of the collection's most memorable stories is LC von Hessen's Transmasc of the Red Death. Jack o’Diamonds is a kind of transmasc queer folk hero, described sumptuously by von Hessen:

"Jack's encased in head-to-toe black leather. Biker cap, moto jacket, skintight pants, riding boots, fingerless gloves, tool belt. It’s all very Tom of Finland: he’s ripped, all right, but without the extreme caricatured muscularity or the dated pornstache, not that one can see under the red bandana cloaking the lower half of his face."

Jack performs at hedonistic secret parties hosted by the closeted billionaire Rex. At one of these parties, Jack engages in a violent sex act. Rob, another transmasc guy who is catering the event, is intrigued – and aroused. As Jack and Rob grow closer, they begin to plot an act of revenge against Rex. To say anything more would give away the well-earned shocks of Transmasc of the Red Death, but this story's interpretation of S&M and queer liberation is one-of-a-kind and not to be missed.

While many stories in The Book of Queer Saints Volume II veer into supernatural or sci-fi territory, some of the most horrifying are those that examine the fraught relationships between two people. The collection's closing story, Amanda M. Blake's Caregiver, focuses on a queer adult returning home to tend to their abusive father in his final days. In the chillingly well-written tale, Blake slowly unravels the threads that bind the grown child to their father. The true evil at the center of the story shifts deftly: Is it aging? Is it the health-care system? Is it the patriarchy? Is it the parent? Is it the child? Blake does not provide any easy answers here, and readers are left with a harrowing ending.

Cyrus Amelia Fisher's Hemorrhage also delves into familial relationships, this time examining the ties of obligation, guilt and commitment that bind two siblings. It's one of the saddest stories in the collection. After meeting a mysterious woman named Nameh in an alley, Kara wakes for the first time in a long time without a hangover. 

"I can't remember opening my eyes without feeling the walls of my mind falling in, cultivating hangovers because they're less toxic than the thoughts that swarm over the inside of my skull like greasy black cockroaches. My family inheritance, passed down for generations. We eat roach poison. We don't call the exterminator."

Kara has often betrayed her brother Michael due to her substance use, and now, she attempts to fight back against an addiction that's plagued her and her family. Nameh promises a quick but dangerous fix to her pain. As Kara starts to lose more and more of what she truly values, she falls deeper into Nameh's clutches. 

From cannibals to demons to strangely frightening flowers and plants, The Book of Queer Saints Volume II features an eclectic group of scary stories with complex LGBTQIA+ characters. Every story in this book is unique; Murray has put together a queer horror anthology that stuns, entertains and even slyly educates. Just like her first collection, The Book of Queer Saints Volume II has something for everyone.

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