Friday, June 18, 2021

Four good books filled with “bad” gays

P. J. Vernon was born in South Carolina. Called a "rising star thriller writer" by Library Journal, Vernon's debut, When You Find Me, was both an Audible Plus #1 Listen and Associated Press Top Ten U.S. Audiobook.

[The Page 69 Test: When You Find MeWriters Read: P. J. Vernon (November 2018)My Book, The Movie: When You Find MeCoffee with a Canine: P. J. Vernon & Chauncey and Mikko.]

His new novel is Bath Haus, praised as "a nightmarish white-knuckler by O, The Oprah Magazine.

Vernon lives in Calgary with his husband and two wily dogs.

At CrimeReads he shared a list of "good books filled with 'bad' (i.e. 'real') gays," including:
When grieving your soulmate means opening their old wounds:
After Elias, Eddy Boudel Tan

As an exceedingly anxious person, my brain love cultivating unmerited fears, new insecurities, and worst-case scenarios that keep getting, well, worse. Greatest among them: the loss of a partner. Piling on, was the desperate fear that family support during life-shattering tragedies like death, divorce, or dangerous relationships may not come. If they don’t accept us when things are grreat, how can they accept our pain when things aren’t? In Eddy Boudel Tan’s gripping debut After Elias (Dundurn), Coen awaits the arrival of his fiancé, airline pilot Elias, at the Mexican resort where they’ll soon be wed—only to learn Elias’s flight has crashed. In a horrifying reveal mirroring the real-life Germanwings tragedy, it appears Elias may have taken the aircraft down on purpose.

Do queer folks grieve differently? We sure don’t. In Boudel Tan’s stunning heartbreaker, secrets are surfaced and layers peeled back as Coen demands answers as messily (read: realistically) as any person would. His quest for truth and absolution is relentless and experiencing this through a queer lens is nothing shy of empowering.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue