itstheesilvie's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

If you’re gay and a fan of analyzing films, this book is perfect. Bringing multiple queer, trans, and POC perspectives “it came from the closet” reviews and dissects at least one (if not all) of your favorite horror/thriller films. 

Most importantly it allowed me as a reader to connect with each essay. Feeling heard and seen for finding comfort, entertainment, representation and inspiration in the genre is prominent in these essays. 

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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.75


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mallory10100's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0


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overbooked207's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.75

📖 It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese Book Review 📖

6th book of January 2023 and 6th of the year:

I love the fact that I’m getting really into nonfiction books over the past few years! Being a queer person who loves the horror genre, this immediately caught my attention, with it being a nonfiction book by queer authors that talks about the queerness, whether seen explicitly in the text, in subtext, and/or through the audience’s interpretation, in horror media throughout the years and how the representation affects and is affected by the world around it! I enjoyed some of the stories a lot more than others, with some of my favorites being ‘The Girl, the Well, the Ring,’ ‘Three Men on a Boat,’ ‘Loving Annie Hayworth,’ ‘Centered and Seen,’ Sight Unseen,’ and ‘Black Body Snatchers,’ but I recommend it as a whole and want to read more things like it! I also love the cover and the title! TWs for ableism, abortion, abuse, bigotry, blood, body horror, death, drugs, gore, grief, homophobia, medical content/trauma, mental illness, miscarriage, murder, pedophilia, pregnancy, racism, rape, self-harm, sexual content, transphobia, violence, and vomit.📚🧟‍♂️🎃☠️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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toffishay's review

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challenging emotional funny informative reflective fast-paced

4.25

An awesome collection. I learned a lot and felt a lot with all of these essays. As someone who isn't big on horror, I've come out on the other side with a new appreciation and a new lens. I enjoyed all of the essays, but my favorites were "Both Ways" by Carmen Maria Machado, "Indescribable" by Carrow Narby, and "The Trail of His Flames" by Tucker Lieberman.

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aliciawhatsthestory's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

4.0

Book 37 of 2022: It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As someone who has always been fascinated by horror movies, the premise of this book appealed to me immediately. It is a collection of essays from 25 different authors that reflect on horror in a memoir style. Though film theory is certainly discussed, this book is an interesting and accessible hybrid between social theory, film theory, and self-reflection. 

That said, it comes with all the difficult content one might expect from a book written by a large group of marginalized people reflecting on how fictional horrors reflect their own lives experience. Some of these essays are hard to read.

However, I found them all to be insightful, interesting, and (for the majority) very well written and readable, even if you are not familiar with the films they address. Due to the wide array of experience represented in this anthology, it is highly likely that no reader will connect with every single essay, just as no horror fan loves every single horror movie. 

However, for any fan of horror, or any person interested in how queer people have been represented in horror movies, this is definitely a worthwhile read.

Please be aware that this book discusses at least 20 different horror movies, and the content/trigger warnings from each movie should apply, including but not limited to: body horror, vomit, blood, murder, harm by fire, abuse, and captivity. Other triggers may also be present in the authors’ commentary on their own lives, including homophobia, transphobia, racism, slurs, sexism, lesbophobia, divorce, and other potential triggers.

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