Bury Your Gays

by Chuck Tingle

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Monsters aren't the only ones haunting the hills in this total hit from the author of Camp Damascus, where Hollywood glitz and glam collides with brutal horror.

The instant USA Today bestseller by Chuck Tingle about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

"Brilliantly bloody, wildly fun, and extremely scary, Bury Your Gays brings a sledgehammer down on tired tropes and makes a masterpiece of their guts."—Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep

Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell.

But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale.

Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles.

Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future—before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.

One of the Best Horror Books of 2024 by Esquire!

One of the Best Books of Summer 2024 by Paste, HuffPost, Esquire, and Publishers Weekly!

Also by Chuck Tingle

Camp Damascus

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250874665
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/17/2025
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	107,779
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

CHUCK TINGLE is the USA Today bestselling author of Camp Damascus. He is a mysterious force of energy behind sunglasses and a pink mask. He is also an anonymous author of romance, horror, and fantasy. Chuck was born in Home of Truth, Utah, and now splits time between Billings, Montana and Los Angeles, California. Chuck writes to prove love is real, because love is the most important tool we have when resisting the endless cosmic void. Not everything people say about Chuck is true, but the important parts are.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/15/2024

Tingle (Camp Damascus) cements his place in horror with this gory romp, which doubles as a love letter to every queer kid who wished for TV characters like themselves and a sharply pointed warning about the state of entertainment and the rise of AI. Misha Byrne is a gay screenwriter hoping to make a career helming the queer shows and movies he wanted to see when he was growing up. He knows how to tell a good story, and he’s got the Oscar nod and a successful ongoing show to prove it. So when his studio executives tell him their algorithm says he has to kill off his lesbian lead characters to boost viewership, Misha refuses, despite the threat of cancellation and the undeniable success of the studio’s new AI-driven movie. He’s stressed, but holding firm, until a series of increasingly terrifying encounters with stalkers dressed as horror movie monsters he created for past projects shake his conviction. Someone is trying to scare him to death—and it’s his own stories he now has to survive. Tingle’s vivid, visceral storytelling combines with prescient insight into the corporate dynamics that rule mainstream media. The result is smart, subtle, and a bloody good time. (July)

Publishers Weekly

An Indie Next and LibraryReads Pick • One of the Best Books of Summer 2024 by Esquire, Paste, HuffPost, and Publishers Weekly • A Best Horror Book of 2024 (Esquire)!

"Fast-paced and brimming with queer representation, it brings fictional monsters to life while exploring the real-life evils of homophobia. This book is Tingle’s declaration: Love is real, and so are monsters."

—Gabino Iglesias, The New York Times

"Bury Your Gays is many things at once: a toy box overstuffed with nightmares, a meta depiction of Hollywood, and an invective against the cynicism of 'rainbow capitalism.' It’s also just a joyous horror story, inventively told, and with a greater balance of heart, humor, and genuine scares than anything else written this year."

—Neil McRobert, Esquire

“Tingle cements his place in horror with this gory romp...[his] vivid, visceral storytelling combines with prescient insight into the corporate dynamics that rule mainstream media. The result is smart, subtle, and a bloody good time.”

—Publishers Weekly (STARRED review)

“Tingle burst onto the traditional publishing scene with one of the best books of 2023 (Camp Damascus), but his follow-up is even better ... taking readers on a highly entertaining, fast-paced ride, filled with thought-provoking satire, original monsters, and some of the most realistic characters they will encounter on any page, all to prove that love is real and horror itself is, at its core, a celebration of life.”

—Booklist (STARRED review)

“Tingle’s latest outing is another refreshingly original look at horror... His hallmark inventiveness with structure, trope, and genre come through clearly here and are balanced perfectly....Captivating and creative, Tingle continues breathing new life into old tropes with a gory examination of art and the lives that fuel it.”

—Library Journal, (STARRED review)

“Brilliantly bloody, wildly fun, and extremely scary, Bury Your Gays brings a sledgehammer down on tired tropes and makes a masterpiece of their guts. A profoundly smart and emotionally resonant novel that is sprinkled with cinema magic and a brutal Hollywood reckoning.”

—Rachel Harrison, national bestselling author of Black Sheep

“RIP gay clichés! Wickedly funny and hella entertaining, this takes great pride in digging up Hollywood's skeletons and gleefully pounding them to dust. I loved every eerie, nostalgic, blood-spattered, rainbow-flag-waving page.”

—Josh Winning, author of Burn the Negative and Heads Will Roll

"This triumph of a book effortlessly and cleverly upends cliche. One of the best novels ever about LA, the film industry, and horror movies, it delivers all the fandom, fear, and feels, and then some. Only Chuck Tingle can tell a story as masterfully as this, and he once again proves that love is so real."

—CJ Leede, author of Maeve Fly

“Gory and goosebump-inducing horror.”

—HUFFPOST

"Bury Your Gays is a horror of epic proportions."

—Reactor

"Bury Your Gays is Tingle's best work yet. It deserves to be the literary equivalent of a massive summer blockbuster.... If you were on the picket lines last year, if original stories are important to you, if you too believe that love is real(!), then this one is for you—even if you don’t think you like horror, you’re gonna devour this."

—Drew Broussard, LIT HUB

"Bury Your Gays, along with last year’s Camp Damascus, cements Tingle’s place as one of the best new novelists around, horror or otherwise."

—CrimeReads

Praise for Camp Damascus

An instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller!

A Bram Stoker Award Nominee and CALIBA Golden Poppy Award finalist!

A Best Book of 2023 (Vulture) and a Best Horror Book of 2023 (Esquire, Library Journal)!

An Indie Next Pick!

From the Publisher

★ 05/01/2024

Misha is a gay screenwriter working for a giant Hollywood conglomerate and celebrating his first Oscar nod, for a short film. When he refuses to kill off his queer characters to appease the corporation's profit algorithm, he becomes haunted—literally—by his movie monsters. As he's stalked by the creatures and the memories they represent, Misha must keep himself alive and his loved ones safe. Can he stay one step ahead of the algorithm to uncover and stop the source of the horrors? Tingle's (Camp Damascus) latest outing is another refreshingly original look at horror, this time mixed in with algorithmic art, commodification of identity, and coercive capitalism. His hallmark inventiveness with structure, trope, and genre come through clearly here and are balanced perfectly. Nods to fandoms that have experienced "buried gays" are sprinkled throughout the book, and love in all forms—platonic, romantic, and everything between—remains the way to beat evil. Terror comes as much from being forced into a stereotype as from being killed by a cinematic villain. VERDICT Captivating and creative, Tingle continues breathing new life into old tropes with a gory examination of art and the lives that fuel it.—Katherine Sleyko

Library Journal

Narrator André Santana skillfully performs a thrilling Hollywood horror novel. Screenwriter Misha Byrne has just received an ultimatum from the studio executives--their algorithm says to kill off his beloved queer TV characters, or else. Misha refuses, and Santana captures his initial anger, then his terror as he suddenly finds himself facing deadly characters from his horror films. Santana nails all the characters, who range from a raspy-voiced ghost threatening to steal Misha's bones to Misha's levelheaded boyfriend. He gives particularly moving performances of the sections that illuminate experiences from Misha's childhood that inspired his nightmarish characters, adding depth to the story. Scripts of certain mysterious scenes are performed by a full cast of real-life authors. Both a spine-tingling horror story and a moving exploration of queer identity, humanity, and storytelling. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

JULY 2024 - AudioFile