Compound Fracture and Bury Your Gays

By Vaughn Frantz Miller

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

We have got coast-to-coast, all-American horror this month! With this recommendation, we are starting in the East, in a small (fictional) mining town called Twist Creek. When I say all-American, I mean it. This book has unions, guns, a century-long blood feud, and the undying willingness to stand up and do what is right.

The author’s note at the beginning of the book promises a happy ending, so I do not mind sharing the same spoiler in this article. I will be honest though, even in the last few dozen pages of the book I was not exactly sure what that ending would look like.

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White starts with a teenager sending an email to his parents coming out as transgender, so the reader knows this is a book for our community straight away. I really appreciate books which highlight transgender identities without making the focus on their transition, and this book does exactly that. More pressing than his gender identity, the protagonist Miles struggles to survive and keep quiet about his part in the long-standing blood feud between his family and the Sheriff’s.

The origin of the blood feud began when the Sheriff’s family murdered Miles’s great-great grandfather, Saint Abernathy – “a union man, a mean son of a bitch who did everything he could to make things better for his people, even if it didn’t really work out in the end.” Everyone in town knows who was responsible Saint Abernathy’s murder years ago, just like everyone knows who is responsible for Mrs. O’Brien being burned to death a few years ago. In Twist Creek, the Sheriff can waltz into your home and take a helping of your breakfast, smiling so you would think he has no idea that his son nearly murdered your child. But he knows. And you know. And you still have to let him clear the breakfast out of your house. But that is not even the scariest part.

Compound Fracture is a really good book and an enjoyable read. Its has some pretty gory sections, so be forewarned. But I am not a fan of gore and I still had trouble putting this book down.

The author lets Miles keep some of his Southern accent on the page, so it feels like you are hearing someone tell you a story. A terrifying story, but one you stay seated for to find out what happens next. The book touches on modern issues such as the struggle of preserving LGBTQ history, especially from long ago. The book was published in 2024 (though seems to take place closer to 2019 or 2020), and gives the reader a good perspective of someone who is trapped in a generally conservative area but who still loves his home too much to ever leave. It maps the political landscape honestly and with as much reasonable hope as can be found. 

As always, you can order Compound Fracture from your local bookstore. Otherwise San Diego Public Libraries have three copies available to borrow.

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Queer horror fans, this one is for you! Chuck Tingle’s Bury Your Gays brings us the terrors of a screenwriter’s work coming to life. The main character, Misha, is trying to survive the monsters he created as he is fighting with the new board of executives over whether or not to kill off his budding gay characters in the hit sci-fi series he writes. Misha starts this book fighting for the fictional happy ending for his characters, but too quickly realizes it is his own life which may not have a happy ending.

What’s going on? Is it some whacko stalker, fan gone foul? Is he loosing his mind? Is it just a weird practical joke? Misha will have to wade through a lot of blood to find the answer.

Bury Your Gays is a gruesome book, no doubt about it. The author explores the homophobic childhood Misha had to navigate and the semi-closeted life he pursues as a consequence. The book fluctuates well between stalking terrors and relevant literary commentary about why gay characters are constantly killed off in stories because our deaths and tragedies sell but our love and victories do not. I will not spoil the ending but the book is worth the read.

Bury Your Gays is available at multiple San Diego Public Library locations.