I really, really enjoyed this little anthology! It had a bit of everything - stories of grief, sadness, heartbreak, joy, love, strength, anger, desperation, and fear. Some stories were so sweet that I smiled and felt the love the characters were experiencing. Several stories were so creepy, unsettling, horrifying, and gripping that I said "what the f***" through wide eyes. It was wonderful! This book made me feel a wide variety of emotions and pushed me to listen to stories I maybe wouldn't have chosen on my own (like romance and fantasy). I think this anthology has a story for everyone, but may not be a cover-to-cover read for those who aren't fans of horror. Many of the stories discuss universally human struggles and emotions - we can find traces of ourselves in many of them.

Like other readers, I did find the audiobook format a little difficult to follow, with there being so many stories in the collection. I did really enjoy the narrator's voice and style! Would listen to a title voiced by them again. I was able to download an e-book copy which made it easier to follow along. I would definitely recommend both versions for a richer experience! (I think having both copies significantly impacted my 5-star review).

I could write so much about my favorites, but that would probably be boring. Here are my favorites in themes (from my subjective perspective):

Stories with love and/or heartbreak: Wooly Bully, The Vetala's Song, Nature's Mistake, Gruesome My Love (also very funny), Strange Case, The Call

Stories that were unique and/or futuristic: Insert Coin, Glamour-Us

Stories that made me WTF (in the best way): And the Moon Spun Round Like a Top, In Our Own Image, Like Me, Gruesome My Love,

Stories that were so good and made me want more: #WWMD?, In Our Own Image

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC. Thank you to the authors/contributors for your labor!

Favorites:

Minotaur and Theseus (and other bullshit): Told by the minotaur himself, in a modern-day setting. This time, it seems not only Ariadne was seduced by Theseus, but her “monstrous” half-brother, as well. Sadly, it does not go nearly as well as the game “Hades” might have you hoping.

Glamour-Us: In a world where humans can create synthetic bodies on the cheap and wear holograms that allow them to alter their appearance in seconds, what even is “transition”? A genderfluid narrator comes up against new forms of gender euphoria and transphobia.

And the Moon Spun Round Like a Top: The one that will most stick with me, though I least want it to! A spinster woman thinks her irregular menopausal periods are starting to get a little weird. And then her blood clots start to make noise.



Many of these stories are in fact little poems, and go by quite fast. Which makes it hard to remember much, but the one where Mark Ruffalo is a naga is…interesting….

As with any anthology, a few misses, a few hits, but overall, this gets my five stars!

Advanced audiobook provided by the publisher.

In Queer Little Nightmares, creatures of myth and folklore seek belonging and intimate connection, cryptids challenge their outcast status, and classic movie monsters explore the experience of coming into queerness.
Anthologies are hard because even if some stories/poems knock it out of the park, others tend to pull down the overall rating. Which is more the reason to love them I guess? There's something for everyone.
I loved this look at queer/monster and how our society villainizes and others queer youth.

An enjoyable collection of stories that were easy to digest via audio!

I thought the flow of the essays and poems went together well. I might end up picking up s physical copy.

This was very well done. The stories were very interesting. My only problem with shorts and anthologies is that I want to get to know the characters more and we don't get that with this kind of book. Other then that it was soooo good.

This book was ok. Not sure audio is the best medium for this anthology as it felt like one story meshed into the next one.

Queer Little Nightmares is a collection of short stories reflecting upon the monsters we create and those lurking in the dark.

The collection will give you The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock vibes, which I greatly enjoyed, but if given the opportunity, I would have preferred the ebook instead of the audiobook. I don't feel the narration gives the collection the depth it deserves.

I enjoyed several of the stories but had a hard time following a few of the others but I’m hoping that mostly has to do with the audio format. The concepts for most of the stories were interesting but didn’t fully grasp my attention. I’m planning on reading a physical copy to compare.

A solid collection of queer horror that's at times funny and at times totally disturbing. Very worth checking out.

Listened to the audio; narrator was fantastic! Some of the stories I loved so much, some I just did not like at all. The Wooly Booly short story was my favorite. That story could be fleshed out to be a novella.

This was really weird, really gross, really fun queer monster stories and poems. A bunch of the authors are from Canada, so Canadian cities are a pretty big part of this. That was really fun for me. 😊

I think I would have enjoyed the poetry more in written form, personally. I was occasionally confused about the gender of the pov character in a story, but that’s about my only minor complaint. The narrator was great!

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Some of these stories were really really good, but unfortunately I am not one for Body Horror or Animal cruelty. I also wasn’t a fan of there being just one narrator. Each story after a while seemed to blend into the next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advanced Listening Copy.

I don't normally read anthologies filled with standalone short stories and poetry. I prefer to stick with ones that have stories that elaborate on bigger ones I already know, but... I was intrigued by the description, "... re-imagine(ed) monsters old and new through a queer lens, subverting the horror gaze to celebrate ideas and identities canonically feared in monster lit." It was also the audio book version, which I felt would help me with a style I don't normally read.
The narrator, Danielle Verayo, is what made this book work for me. I loved their voice and how they delivered the material. Their voice carried me through poems and short stories I might have skipped over had I just been reading it myself. That being said, the book was as advertised. Some of the stories kept my interest and, for the ones that didn't, I was able to work through the rest thanks to a fabulous narrator.
The stories that I enjoyed the most were:
Woolly Bully
Insert Coin
The Minotaur & Theseus & Other Bullshit
Ghosts of Pride Past
The Call
Like Me
It did it's job as a collection of queer monster poems and stories. Not all the stories and poems worked for me, but I think that's too subjective to rate since it's an anthology. I will definitely be researching more literature from the authors of the previously stated stories and the narrator.

DNF at 4%

I’m really sorry, but I can’t understand a lot of the audio. I looked at an available free sample of the book, and I think some of the formatting of the stories just doesn’t translate well to audio for me. I’ll be reading a print copy as soon as I can though!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher

I enjoyed the audio - and the stories. I would have loved to have few a bit longer. So enticing.
I loved the concept of this book - brining out to light fantasy and horror forced to hide in the shadows, just like monsters.
Great read, great diversity and great focus.

A wildly fascinating concept—nearly overflowing with potential—killed by poor execution. The majority of these selected works are vapid and leave much to be desired. What could have been a great collection of intersectional queer narratives fell victim to lacklustre, half-baked, and often unbearable narrators, plots, and metaphors.

Is it the worst anthology in the world? No. But there are better queer narratives to read.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with the audiobook.

I probably should have known this story collection wasn't for me. I feel like there's some solid concepts in some of the short stories that I'd love to see expanded on, however the time allotted to these stories weren't enough for any of them to blow me away. There was some downright disgusting imagery that i can applaud since it is a horror collection. Personally a tad grossed out because alot of the graphic horror came out of no where with hardly any explanation as to what was going on. Overall i can see why others would like it but it's personally not for me.

This is clever, and creepy, sometimes silly, dolefully heartbreaking, and occasionally stomach churning - I never expected something so innocuous as “the inside of the car smelled like grilled hot dogs,” to be one of the most unsettling lines I’d ever read.

The audiobook was 5/5 as well! Flawless narration.

Queer Little Nightmares is an innovative and fresh collection of short stories and poetry edited by David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli. Through a queer lens, this collection reimagines monsters from folklore, horror, and pop culture as queer icons and subverts the typical horror gaze. The authors explore themes of identity, belonging, and acceptance through creatures that have been traditionally feared and reviled in popular culture.

This was a fun lesson on queer horror. I enjoyed most of the stories and it was a good time. I enjoyed the audio narration, the voice was perfect for the stories.