Night of the Living Queers by Alex Brown, Ayida Shonibar, Em X. Liu, Kalynn Bayron, Kosoko Jackson, Maya Gittelman, Rebecca Kim Wells, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Shelly Page, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, Vanessa Montalban ISBN: 9781250892973
Published by St. Martin's Publishing Group on August 29, 2023
Genres: Anthology, Horror, LGBTQIA, Paranormal, Short Story, Young Adult
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
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Night of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible, exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.
No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation. NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story is told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever. Creative, creepy, and queer, this collection brings fresh terror, heart, and humor to young adult literature.Contributors include editors Alex Brown and Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells.
As usual for short story collections, I’m skipping the CAWPILE method and doing more of a recap/overall impression. I actually finished this one Sept 30th, but all of the short stories are united under the concept of a blue moon happening on Halloween, which is about as rare as a Friday the 13th happening in October, so it felt appropriate to post the review today, instead.
Right off the bat, I was impressed by these YA stories. They feature BIPOC LGBTQIA+ main characters, which is great for representation because (as the editor points out in the introduction) that’s so rarely shown in horror. Diverse representation only shown in contemporary fiction is better than nothing, but it isn’t actual diverse representation- give us BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ main characters in all the genres (I’m still waiting for those historical fictions with diverse MCs that aren’t just victims of colonization).
The first 12 stories are well-written YA with mostly great pacing. Some take a ‘less is more’ approach to spookiness (my personal favorite), others are explicitly gory. The full range of things that go bump in the night is here, as well. And there’s a lot of diversity in the overall vibe and endings, too. Some are more allegorical, some are tragic, most involve character development even though they’re short stories for a YA audience. I was charmed by the range of these authors and stories.
Only one (the last one) disappointed me, which may be a new record for “number of YA short stories in an anthology that I enjoyed”. The final one just felt phoned in (poor writing, poor plot, poor pacing).
If you like creepy short stories with a teen MC and realistic representation (aside from the paranormal stuff, of course), you’ll probably enjoy this collection.
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