Books:The Road Back to Me and Queer Little Nightmares

The Road Back to Me: Six Sacred Tools for Queer Healing through Shadow, Breath, and Truth
By Peter Cervantes

I am professionally qualified to review this book.

I went to college for psychology, focusing on trauma, cognition, and therapeutic support for clients. I spent about 7 years in the field of social work, most of them helping foster youth manage their traumas. Near the tail end, before burning out and leaving the field, I worked with adults in San Diego who struggle with profound mental illness and taking care of themselves. In both of these positions, I learned how to teach others the skills necessary to identify, work with, and heal from the traumas.

I left the field long ago (the system will break you before you can fix it), and I have been alarmed with all the poor tips, over-eager diagnosis, and outright misinformation regarding healing and mental health I’ve come across in mainstream media.

So when I tell you that Peter Cervantes’ book The Road Back to Me: Six Sacred Tools for Queer Healing through Shadow, Breath, and Truth provides scientifically sound methods for taking control of one’s care, progress, and recovery, I know exactly what I’m saying.

Cervantes uses the personal details of his own life to share how he found himself on the do-or-die road to healing. Working with professionals as well as on his own, Cervantes did the work to bring him back to the person he had abandoned in his pursuit of feeling loved and accepted.

“The pattern ends when someone finally says ‘enough’ and does the messy, uncomfortable work of becoming something different than what they were taught to be.”

I was pleasantly surprised to find many of the same approaches to healing and grounding in Cervantes’ book were ones I had taught to clients for many years – from children to adults. I found myself nodding along as he outlined different breathing techniques and speaking on how they can help change the way a person is feeling. 

The book also does a great job of emphasizing the balance between what healing work can be done as a person works alone, and what aspects are better led by a professional (the lines he draws are clear and accurate). As he introduces each aspect of healing, from shadow work to breath work to journaling, Cervantes walks readers through the parts of his life that led him to needing the help he pursued. What was important to him while writing this book was that the tools he shares can be universally applied. So when he learns about generational trauma, he applies the lesson both to himself and also speaks on his broad impact. The self-reflection journal prompts he provides for interested readers are questions I wish my therapist had pushed in therapy – they’re insightful and thought-provoking.

This is a really cool book. It’s delivered to its audience with vulnerability, accountability, and sincerity. The tools provided are explained clearly and are accurate to what professionals would advise and teach. For anyone seeking to grow into or return to their authentic selves, this is a great book for you.

The Road Back to Me is available at online bookstores.

Queer Little Nightmares
By Various Authors

Why limit yourself to one spooky story when you can gasp and shiver through thirty three different horrors?

Queer Little Nightmares was an absolute thrill to read. Medusa is reimagined as trans and Indigenous. A gay cop who busted bathhouses in the 90’s is given his just deserts. Lesbian werewolves reveal themselves to each other. A trans man is trapped in a buck hunter video game. A vampire bottoms for the invisible man.

“I am nameless. I am monstrous. I am dead. I am found.”

In all honesty, I was skeptical about horror-poems being part of this anthology. I do enjoy poetry from time to time, but horror is a very particular genre. Oh, but do these authors deliver! Poignant, chilling, concise, you are left perfectly unnerved as poems pop up after gruesome short stories. 

Most of these stories have a happy ending, if you can look at them from the right angle. Some endings would classify as a mixed status, such as the protagonist resigned to their fate and changes, moving forward. But the trope of queer people dying as throwaways or cautionary tales, for that vicious wrath of punishment for being exactly who we are, is delightfully absent in this collection.

There are only two copies of Queer Little Nightmares at our San Diego Public Libraries, so consider purchasing a copy to savor all of this spooky season.