Misha is a not quite out of the closet Hollywood screenwriter who finds himself up against more than your average corporate monsters when he refuses to adhere to the "bury your gays" trope for the season finale of his TV show.

This is my first Chuck Tingle book, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I think that's why it kind of took me a bit to get into it. But once I did, I really enjoyed it. I loved the increasing weirdness and creepiness as the book went along mixed with the painful memories that were the origins of Misha's monsters. The book didn't flinch when it came to brutality, physically or figuratively. The commentary on how the queer community is used, abused, portrayed, and erased, the use of AI, and capitalism is brilliantly woven throughout an engaging, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes gross story.

It's a really great read.

I enjoyed this book. Misha, the main character, his boyfriend, and friend has some terrifying things happen to them. Misha is a successful, but still rising screenwriter in the film industry who is told to turn his gay characters straight or else. He refuses and let’s say the monsters come out.

Great pacing with the storytelling, plot, and the creepiness over time. It takes a good look into the film industry and you know these are real issues that are going on, even though the characters and story is functional, with the AI, forced changes with screenwriting, people off the rails or human monsters, and more. Great twists, turns, and character development. I will indeed recommend this book, especially to someone who enjoys reading about the film industry.

Thank You, Tor Publishing Group, for my copy of Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle. I am happy I received an early copy of this novel because Chuck Tingle is one of my favorite authors. I enjoy his other books, and I know for sure that I will enjoy this one, too. Thank you again.

I oughtn't be surprised given how good Camp Damascus was but I'll be honest: I'm still shocked at the caliber of Chuck Tingle's horror writing! Creepy and Very Real in turns, this is a must read for fans of queer horror. Don't be like me and do not underestimate Tingle's prose skills!

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle was a fantastic tale, genuinely creepy, and fun to read. I'm ready to gush about it, but no spoilers! Just read the book and thank Chuck later.

Thanks to NetGalley and the book publisher for the advanced reading copy.

This book is GREAT! I love the premise, and although I have grown weary of the newest trend of cursed cinema horror the setting of Hollywood did not ruin this book for me.
This is my first time with Chuck, and I have to admit I didn't know what to expect. He has a reputation, at least as I understood it, for racy LGBT exotica with zany/ political premises. This does sound intriguing, but I'm not into romance as a genre really at all so I just never got around to him. After "Bury Your Gays," I feel like I should read more of his work.
Is this is first non-exotica book? Like first time trying to occupy a space not shocking conservatives and titillating more open-minded folks? Either way he hits it out of the park. The creepy is creepy, the heartfelt is heartfelt, and the funny is funny. What more do you want, read it already!

This was such an entertaining read. The LGBTQIA rep was spectacular. The story was unpredictable and enthralling. I couldn’t put it down. I loved the main character Misha. This is a must read for lovers of queer horror

The tl;dr: Tingle is back with another queer horror novel, this time exploring the lack of queer representation in media. Through the lens of main character Misha, a gay screenwriter, Tingle confronts the dangers of stockholders and algorithms that force all media to conform to the mass majority. While at times the satire is a bit too on the nose, Bury Your Gays nevertheless is the perfect summer horror read as Misha gets haunted by monsters from his previous works. Whip out the beach chair and pour yourself a glass of something cold and binge through this compulsively readable, fast-paced, and twisty horror book. You won't regret it!

I think of horror books of being of two types - autumn horror and summer horror. Autumn horror is moody and creepy; it is the kind of horror you like to read on a cold, dark night while snuggled in a blanket. Summer horror is pure fun - they are the horror you like to read out on the beach with a drink in your hand. Bury Your Gays is pure, nearly unadulterated summer fun. It is a quick, straight-forward read with some fun developments, endearing characters, and witty satire. Is it the best or scariest horror book I've ever read - no. But did I have a whole heck of a lot of fun with it? Heck yes.

Bury Your Gays tells the story of Misha, a gay horror screenwriter currently showrunning a modern take on The X-Files. He has building up the season finale when the two female leads finally realize their romantic love for one another....when the studio head tells him he has to kill off his lesbian leads because the "numbers" just aren't there. Misha refuses, and then is haunted by all of the different horror villains from his show and past films.

While Bury Your Gays is quite a political book (and more on that in a moment), go into it expecting to have a lot of fun. The monsters are cool with just genuinely creepy scenes, the pacing of the book never leaves a dull moment, and the twists and turns are genuinely exciting. There may be no better book to put on your summer reading list because this book just screams breezy, though never mindless, fun.

Amidst the horrors and twists, Bury Your Gays is actually a deeply emotional book that looks at the traumas of growing up queer. Through flashbacks and alternative in-universe television scripts, Tingle gets at the heart of what makes Misha "tick". Tingle efficiently and effectively peels back all of these layers, and quite beautifully connects everything that is happening in the present day with the past. Any queer person who grew up in the 1990s/early 2000s will so readily relate to Misha's backstory and really "get" what Tingle is trying to say here.

In addition to just being a fun adventure, Bury Your Gays is a condemnation of the current state of Hollywood media companies. In our current state of the financial failings of movie theaters and streaming services, mergers and consolidations, and the impending doom of "traditional" media companies in favor of tech giants, media companies are making a lot of mistakes. They are decreasing the amount of diversity in our media to appeal to wider audiences, relying on AI to cut costs, and disappearing movies and shows to save on taxes and residuals. We are in the darkest of media timelines for those of us who care about diverse stories and media preservation.

Tingle attacks all of these issues head on, and the real horror of Bury Your Gays is how Tingle gets at the heart of some real truths among all of the silliness. A lot of this book is Misha just being confounded by the absurdity of what is going on around him...and that absurdity is not overly fictionalized if you look at our current media landscape.

The one aspect of Bury Your Gays that didn't quite work for me was how utterly DIRECT Tingle was in his satire and critique. There are a lot of discussions in Bury Your Gays about how horror works best when it has an underlying social message, but those messages are not so underlying in this book. Characters will literally narrate their messages as it is thrown in your face. I absolutely agree with everything Tingle has to say about queer representation in media....but the directness makes for some very awkward dialogue and character interactions. This has the effect of making NOTHING in the book feel real or genuine, especially the core three characters who are supposed to be the "straight" (not sexually, but you know what I mean) people while the scary craziness goes on around them. This took me out of the horror elements of the book a bit, and the book could have worked perfectly well if the presentation of the book's themes were just slightly toned down.

If the overly-direct social critiques don't scare you away, Bury Your Gays is a truly exciting and fun summer horror read. I promise you will burn this book and demand even more Chuck Tingle horror (and if you haven't yet, check out his previous book Camp Damascus!). Summer-style horror doesn't get much better than this one, so pick up a copy as you plan your next hot, lazy summer day!

Camp Damascus was one of my favorite reads of 2023, so I was very excited to receive an ARC for this one (thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley)!

Bury Your Gays did not disappoint. I loved the narrative as a whole, and loved the queer representation (especially Tara, the ace character). Tingle does a great job of pulling you in. I did not want to put this book down.

I would say the characters felt a bit underdeveloped. I really enjoyed Zeke and Tara and wanted so much more of them!

Overall, this was a great read that I would recommend to a friend.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC! Chuck Tingle is fast becoming one of my favorite authors, and his ability to write horror novels that combine anxiety-inducing terrors and bizarre humor is what keeps me coming back.

In Bury Your Gays, Misha is a screenwriter who is figuring out his place in Hollywood as a queer writer who is still not very open about his sexuality, especially to his public and hometown community. Misha has reached a level of success with some indie horror films, a writing gig for a longstanding sci fi/monster of the week type show and has recently been nominated for an Oscar for a short film. But when the studio execs tell him that he needs to kill off his two queer lead characters in the series he's written for years and he refuses, suddenly characters from his past begin to haunt him, and they won't stop at scaring him either. They are out for blood!

This novel touches on so many issues: how an artist's work is used and often mistreated in a capitalist Hollywood machine, the homophobia of Hollywood, the way that AI exploits the intellectual property of artists and actors, past traumas, fears of intimacy and much more, but at no point did this slow down the story. There were some truly terrifying and claustrophobic moments (without spoilers, I'm thinking of the airplane scene) and there were also some moments that reflected on what it really means to be an artist and put yourself, your feelings, your experiences and identities as a creator on the page that I appreciated as a writer. What I love most about Chuck Tingle's work is that his work is completely unpredictable; it never goes where you expect it to and that is half the fun!

I can't wait for the next book in the Tingleverse!

I was so thrilled to receive an ARC from NetGalley for Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle because I had enjoyed his novel Camp Damascus. Bury Your Gays did not disappoint! It was so many things; fast-paced, scary, heart-warming, unputdownable.

Misha is a horror writer from Montana who has found success with a studio in Los Angeles. Soon after he protests changes the studio wants to make to his popular gay characters, it seems as though his previous scary characters have come off the page to haunt him. Following Misha, his boyfriend, and his best friend while they race the clock to figure out what is happening was a thrill-ride.

Chuck Tingle writes an interesting story with Bury Your Gays but at the same time tries to juggle different genres, themes and even the story as he writes one masterful look at LGBTQIA+ and the Entertainment industry and a very normal thriller story.

This book right here kicked ass! It will keep you guessing through. Such a cool concept. Check out his other book as well. Camp damascus

Bury Your Gays by master horror author Chuck Tingle is one of those books that is both responsive to current events and possibly prescient about where those events might be taking us as a culture.

Misha Byrne is a commercially successful horror film screenwriter working for a studio whose latest innovation is bringing a deceased A-list actor back to life via AI. As Misha is on the brink of winning an Academy Award for one of his short films, people who seem to be cosplaying some of his more terrifying characters begin stalking him. When those "characters" begin harming his friends in ways similar to his films, he's horrified to realize they're not just crazed fans but the monsters actually brought to life. Desperate to save his friends and prevent his own end at the hands of a curse he created for one of his most popular films, Misha discovers the studio hasn't been dabbling in just low-grade AI—they've managed to harness that basic intelligence to a technology with far greater power, one that's poised to upend the movie business, and society in general, in dramatically destructive ways.

Tingle has pounced on the existential anxiety around AI and its current use and tied it seamlessly to the changing landscape of filmmaking and creative art in general to produce a story that feels like a mix of both sci-fi thriller and classic horror in all the best ways. This is a book that will get your brain churning over all the ramifications of AI and technology on entertainment only to switch suddenly to delicious, heart-pounding fright within the same scene. Add in shades of a poignant coming-out scenario and the glamour of Hollywood and Bury Your Gays becomes a must-have for an entertaining vacation read that will leave you thinking about it long after you return home.

Review posted on GoodReads: I was given a copy of this book pre-release from NetGalley. This story answers the question: What lengths would a *redacted* major studio production company go to in order to protect their bottom line in the age of AI? Reminiscent of Black Mirror through a queer lens, this raucous, horrific, and touchingly original book is a triumph that only a storyteller like Chuck Tingle could manage.

Chuck Tingle’s latest takes the “bury your gays” trope and gives it their trademark treatment, resulting in a story that is fresh and also moving, frightening, and fascinating.

This compulsively readable story involves the movie industry (especially horror), out of control AI, effects of trauma, and the visibility of LGBTQ+ people both onscreen and off. The main character and his found family are a treat, and the supporting cast is excellent, too. Messages about greed, hypocrisy, & discrimination are interwoven in a way that leave the reader thinking about it long after the last page is turned. I can totally see this book as a movie or series!!! More people should read Chuck Tingle’s work. LOVE IS REAL.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the digital ARC!

Chuck Tingle takes on Hollywood in Bury Your Gays, a horror novel with razor-wire wit. TV writer Misha Byrne has just been given an ultimatum: straighten out his main characters, or let them be queer...and kill them off immediately. Misha refuses, and the ghosts of his own horror-movie past come to haunt him, like a cynical Hollywood executive's idea of Scrooge's three spirits. Only these monsters aren't here to help him--they're here to make sure he does what he's been told to do, or they'll end his career...and his life. Now Misha has to protect himself, his boyfriend Zeke, and his best friend Tara, all while figuring out how to give his characters the happy ever after they deserve. Oh, and he might have to write an Oscars acceptance speech, too. The dry wit and satire give this fast-paced horror novel an added angle of commentary on Hollywood's obsession with trends and the skin-deep rainbow-washing that can hide a rotten core. Highly recommended for any horror fan, and anyone who's ever rooted for two queer-coded TV characters to "just kiss already!"

4.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of this title!

This book is about the stories we tell, and what we will go through to ensure those stories are heard. I enjoyed Tingle's second officially published novel (no offense intended towards Space Raptor Butt Invasion). He was able to masterfully evoke my emotions, leaving me alternatively biting my nails and jumping out of my seat with excitement.

Misha is a screenplay writer who is given an ultimatum to kill off the queer protagonists of his TV show. As a half-in-half-out of the closet gay man, he initially doesn't want to go along with it. Things change when the villains of his previous works begin leaving the screen and following him in real life. Misha will have to decide which story he will tell, both for his TV show and his own personal life.

With the recent SAG-AFTRA strike, the rise of AI in creative spaces, and the continued struggle for minority authors to be heard, this book could not have come at a better time. It is a horror novel, but it is also a satire on the movie business as a whole, calling out profit-over-art practices and performatory allyship. I think any readers who have felt underrepresented in media, or worse, poorly represented, will deeply resonate with this book.

Misha is an incredibly fleshed-out character, so I was disappointed many of the other characters were so one-dimensional. A lot of them sounded really cool, and I wanted to learn more about them. I also struggled to understand some of the explanation of the monsters (though that might just be me misunderstanding). While I mostly enjoyed the commentary on the movie industry, sometimes I felt it got in the way of the story itself.

I would recommend this book for any diehard fans of horror movies, and anyone who is looking for a story about stories. And of course any queer people looking to finally see themselves represented outside of purely tragedies.

This book is the validation many of us needed after years of queerbaiting in media and bury/cancel your gays style finales. I loved everything about this. I read it so fast. If your looking for a fun queer horror story with a lot of nuance and a happy ending, check this one out.

This has solidified Tingle as a top horror author. The creativity alone is unmatched. Add on the excellent writing/complex characters and it’s undeniable.

Misha took us on a deep dive into the horrors of Hollywood. Corporate greed isn’t a new concept, but of course Tingle put his own spin on it that made it 100x more interesting. Horror novels that combine horrors of the real world with monsters are scary on a whole new level.

I had to force myself to set this one down several times so that I was able to savor it. It’s an immersive, evocative experience and I can’t wait for more.

Also, the nods to Camp Damascus were an incredible touch.