Bad Seed: Stories

by Gabriel Carle, Heather Houde (Translator)

A vibrant debut short story collection depicting the disillusionment that comes with being young and queer in Puerto Rico.
The visceral, wildly imaginative stories in Bad Seed flick through working-class scenes of contemporary Puerto Rico, where friends and lovers melt into and defy their surroundings—night clubs, ruined streets, cramped rooms with cockroaches moving in the walls. A horny high schooler spends his summer break in front of the TV; a queer love triangle unravels on the emblematic theater steps of the University of Puerto Rico; a group of friends get high and watch San Juan burn from atop a clocktower; an HIV positive college student works the night shift at a local bathhouse. At turns playful and heartbreaking, Bad Seed is the long overdue English-language debut of one of Puerto Rico’s most exciting up-and-coming writers.  

Genres: Short Stories, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, Adult, Queer Lit

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 7, 2024

Reviews

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...but this is Puerto Rico: time flows differently in the Caribbean, where summer never ends and the months melt together into one long hot day."

Thank you to Feminist Press for the advanced reading copy via Edelweiss. This short story collection comes out May 9th, 2024. Several short stories explore themes of queerness, loneliness, drug use, and being a youth in Puerto Rico. The stories range from dreamy, vibrant, drug-induced mayhem through the city streets, to a teen's devastating, raw, testimonial of living out their days isolated and unloved for being queer.
My heart just ached through some of these...confessions; the tortured lamenting of a soul that doesn't belong anywhere and seeking comfort in any way that feels like acceptance.
And other stories are just horny as fuck! Hahah
I enjoyed my time with Gabriel Carle, walking around with them, taking in the sights and smells and vibes of Puerto Rico. Very transportive and vibrating with life--a stong voice.

"There's something in the water or in the air or in the heat that makes us dig our own graves, then climb into them and wait for hurricane season, for water to cleanse us, submerge us, drown us. Then stagnate."

[giada · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tales in Bad Seed paint a bleak picture of Puerto Rico’s gay youths and their lives: homophobia, the disconnect with one’s family and the constant fear of getting a positive result on an HIV test are some of the constants of these short stories. But among the bad there’s the community, both in internet subcultures (tumblr is mentioned multiple times, it’s the first time I see that name in a book, but so is twitter’s nsfw scene) and in extremely messy friendship groups.

The majority of the protagonists are in high school or university, and I was afraid the target would make it so that the language of the book would be sanitised like the typical YA or NY we get in publishing at the moment — but luckily for us, Puerto Rico shows its independence from the United States by using a colloquial and crude tone, one that you’d expect from a kid in that age range when not supervised. It kind of reminded me of british cult series Skins, in a way (I only watched the first season, and the similarities as far as I can guess are only in the portrayal of young people that have to fend for themselves in a society that doesn’t want them).

One of the short stories puts itself in reference to Larry Kramer’s Faggot which made me want to read that novel as well, but from the plot synopsis I can see how it could be a blueprint for the collection itself.

I would like to see what else Gabriel Carle has to say, and whether a novel with a more substantial plot is in the works. For now this book sits at 3.5 stars.

Thank you Edelweiss and The Feminist Press for giving me access to the review copy!

[Oma · Rating 4 out of 5]

La verdad, quedé sorprendido.
Fue una recomendación de una amigx y se
la agradezco.
Mi experiencia con literatura de Puerto Rico es una agridulce, aprecio mucho sus características mágico-tropicales pero hay algo en la voz narrativa puertorriqueña que siempre me expulsa de la lectura.
"Mala Leche", no fue el caso.
Gabriel Carle en su mayoría logra escapar ese elemento (del que yo mismo en mis escrituras padezco). Es lúdica y creativa su voz narrativa.
En esta colección de cuentos se encuentran narradores en primera, tercera y segunda (!) persona. Siendo esta última la más que me capturó por su carácter fantasioso.
Los cuentos toman lugar en muchos espacios por los que he transcurrido y esta familiaridad junto a la contemporaneidad de sus temas fueron muy bien recibidos.
Explora la homosexualidad boricua de una manera real y cruda. Desde la crianza en el clóset consumiendo televisión gringa, la vida estudiantil en la UPR en Río Piedras, y los rincones íntimos donde se refugia el paria y sus drogas, y el amor y sexo queer.
Aunque desconozco si es verdad, los cuentos parecerían cargar un peso personal. Son emotivos y honestos. Y aunque quedé enajenado de algunos pensamientos y pedazos de texto, no dejan atrás lo particular que sí aprecio de la ficción boricua: la diversión linguística, la consciencia sociocultural y el atrevimiento.

[Jorge Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

La primera colección de cuentos de Gabriel Carle me parece más que pertinente para nuestros tiempos. Con una prosa fresca, renovada, despojada de cultismos, lúcida, pensada para los lectores que reconocen los referentes de los ‘90 porque pertenecen a esa generación. Los seis cuentos de Carle me recuerdan un verso del ilustre poeta peruano, César Vallejo: «Zumba el tedio enfrascado». Estos personajes están enfrascados en la cotidianeidad, que también es la marginalidad, en los temas que atañen a la sociedad contemporánea, tanto dentro como fuera de Puerto Rico. Indudablemente el mejor cuento de la colección es «Moñas de Marruecos», pero cada uno tiene su gancho bien preparado para agarrar a cualquier lector que desee adentrarse en la narrativa de un escritor puertorriqueño de calidad indubitable, como lo es Carle.

[endrju · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think there's a bad story in this collection. They are of varying degree of interest, of course, but all of them are written with desire - with desire for other bodies, other places, other times. Most of the stories are as drenched in melancholy as Puerto Rico is in the rain. Favs must be "Luisito" and "In the Bathhouse", awfully bleak but all the more political for that.

[Skylar Miklus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal and ballsy and fabulous! Bad Seed marks the long-awaited first translation into English for emerging Puerto Rican fiction writer Gabriel Carle. Their prose is red-hot, erotic, and immediate as they investigate an eclectic cast of young queer Puerto Ricans. Everything feels so authentic, raw, ecstatic, and deeply felt.

[Sam Boman · Rating 4 out of 5]

very strange. good. very good.

[Mayah Reyes · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star 🌟 This book was... an interesting read [derogatory]. Throughout most of it, I felt confused and disgusted. Thankfully, it is only 120-ish pages, so I was able to read it fairly quickly. The themes covered kinda reminded me of Agustina Bazterrica's short story collection, and like it, it made me uncomfortable and made me wish it would end asap. However, this one did not feel nearly as well-written or developed as Bazterrica's stories did. I don't want to drag on about what I disliked, so I figured I would make two concise lists of its positives and negatives.
Pros:
- original stories/plots
- diversity & inclusivity
- supporting a new author
- stories/characters connected to each other nicely
Cons:
- incest (with graphic detail of incestual sexual acts)
- child abuse
- drug abuse
- sexual assault & rape that develops into a relationship
- (not that the 3 points above should never be included in books, it just felt a bit out of left field here and very gratuitous)
- I don't know how to explain this very well, but a character purposefully and unremorsefully spreading HIV to his sex partners because he believed it to be a means of population control???
- that same character saying he hates Puerto Ricans - maybe a motive to spread HIV???
- Porn, sex, dick, asshole, cum, fucking, etc. (any other word you can think of to describe sexual acts) being present in *almost* EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH - I mean, I understand including sex in a book (especially one about the exploration of sexuality) but that was the basis of nearly every. single. story.
- practically every story is the same as the last, except with new characters/a new location/new sexual acts
- the translation seemed a bit off/unnatural - despite the author claiming the stories were written in English??? im confused

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. I could have used a little more context and plot in most of these stories.

[Amelia Teske · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I don’t care about air-conditioning. I care about white rice. I don’t care about the meaning of life. I care about masturbation. I don’t care about small children. I care about the liberation of Puerto Rico. I don’t care about love. But then, I do. Then again, I couldn’t give a shit.”

Each and every one of these stories totally engulfed me into their unforgiving erotic griminess and queer hedonism. Well done.

[Translator Monkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection; I admit, only half of the stories really grabbed me, the others seemed to be variations on the exact same theme, with frankly LITTLE variation. Carle is clearly a talented writer, and I look forward to reading what else he has on tap.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daring in style and format, this free-flowing book of short fiction centers on young queer people in working-class Puerto Rico. Carle is definitely an author to watch.

[sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

"so i've come to the conclusion that love doesn’t actually exist—or maybe it does? maybe i've felt it, for real, outside a momentary hormonal flash? no, i know better. love is just a perfect illusion that escapes all reason."

this was such an amazing collection of stories about queerness from a pov/lense i've never read from. gabriel carle has a way with words that make you flinch from how honest and sensual they are you feel like you need to look over your shoulder every few minutes to make sure nobody's reading along with you. some of my favorites were "in heat" "luisito" and "in the bathhouse"

[Emma Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I really wanted to like this series of short stories I really didn't. I think their is an audience for it and I hope this book finds that auidnece, but I am not it. What drawed me to the book was the topics that it wanted to disucss: social inequality, social pressurss, coming of age, sexuality, gender, and so much more topics that are important and effect so many readers and characters and Luisito was my favoerite short story of the collection because I felt that it touched upon all of those topics but the other stories I really struggled with.

[Sam Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so thankful to Feminist Press and Gabriel Carle for granting me advanced physical access to this book before it hits shelves on May 7, 2024. Bad Seed is a short read, but an impactful one, touching upon our storyteller’s time growing up in Puerto Rico in and out of the closet, from his youth to his young adult and later on years. I really enjoyed how liberating these tales were for our narrator, and feel it will be the perfect read for PRIDE Month in the next several months.

[Kimberly Macias · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really enjoyed this book more than I thought since i’m not the hugest fan of sexual scenes in books, but I feel like the ones in the book were different, like they needed to be in the book to shine more light on the problem of homophobia in puerto rico and how it had affected the main character into feeling like they needed to be desired or validated to feel fulfilled.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very gritty and harsh collection of short stories dealing with queerness in Puerto Rica with a further emphasis and college courses in the humanities. An interesting and raw group of stories that provoke a lot of thought.

[Matthew Chapman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful writing. The pros read like poetry. The problem is all of the beautiful writing, was not terribly interesting. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t know who I would recommend this book to.

[Szymon · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I looked for love the way I look for dick, pieces of my heart would end up in every library urinal

Mid, out-of-context stories of Latinx queers. One or two that I liked (the one abt longing and throuples was nice) but otherwise, meh. Had to skip a few, too.

[Jadyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure if I gave up on the book or the book gave up on me.

[gabriella · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - short story collections by queer puerto rican authors have my whole heart

[Claudi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great debut collection. My reading of this book flew by.

[Sarahi Sepulveda]

I really enjoyed this. It was gritty and dare I say uncut..

[Gabrielle Zimerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love queer, coming-of-age stories, and this one was very unique! Some parts were challenging to follow along.

[marv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone read this book rn

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Bathhouse is the best of the lot by far. The rest felt very average.

[Jazmina Almestica · Rating 5 out of 5]

i don’t think i resonated with a book like this in so long

[Riyah Neck · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn’t read it seriously.

[Altan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved this. Would reread.

[Austin Zamudio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Lots of sadness and longing pero... it's (mostly) relatable. My favorites are: In Heat; Luisito, and; The Blunts That Bond Us.