At Dark, I Become Loathsome

This unsubtle outing from LaRocca (Everything the Darkness Eats) follows in the growing trend of queer horror in which the characters’ queerness directly contributes to the manifestation of the horror element. In this case, widower Ashley Lutin, a self-proclaimed “self-loathing bisexual,” is haunted by the disappearance of his eight-year-old son, Bailey, whom he is afraid he drove away by calling a slur in response to perceived feminine behaviors. As a way of coping with his depression, Ashley renders a strange service to those contemplating suicide: he buries clients alive for 30 minutes, then digs them back up. As Ashley learns more of what may have happened to his son, however, the purity of his rituals becomes harder to maintain. The narrative’s graphic and violent sex scenes illustrate Ashley and other characters’ depravity, but there’s disappointingly little substance among all the shock value. Frequent clichés and few genuine scares don’t help. As an extended metaphor for the destruction caused by denying one’s sexuality, this falls flat. Agent: Priya Doraswamy, Lotus Lane Literary. (Jan.)