Bending the Landscape: Horror

Bending the Landscape

by Nicola Griffith (Editor / Contributor), Stephen Pagel (Editor / Contributor), J.K. Potter (Artist)

A unique collection of horror stories focuses on the work of gay and lesbian writers, including Kraig Blackwelder's "Coyote Love," Leslie What's "The Were-Slut of Avenue A," and other contributions from Holly Wade Matter, Mark Tiedmann, Brian A. Hopkins, A. J. Potter, and Alexis Glynn Latner. Reprint.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Queer, Fiction, LGBT, Gay

332 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2001

About the author

Nicola Griffith has won the Los Angeles Times' Ray Bradbury Prize, the Society of Authors' ADCI Literary Prize, the Washington State Book Award (twice), the Nebula Award, the Otherwise/James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the World Fantasy Award, Premio Italia, Lambda Literary Award (6 times), and others. She is also the co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of anthologies. Her newest novels are Hild and So Lucky. Her Aud Torvingen novels are soonn to be rereleased in new editions. She lives in Seattle with her wife, writer Kelley Eskridge, where she's working on the sequel to Hild, Menewood.

Series:
* Aud Torvingen

Reviews

[Sucre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two major things: some of the authors are straight, and this isn't leave-the-lights-on horror. There's a lot of good stories in here (a decent handful about southern gay ppl dealing with ghosts and other such things, which is exactly the kind of thing I love) and there's also some that are just bad. The last story, which involves a lot of torturing and murder of gay men, was really tasteless. Some of the stories feel more like bad comedy routines (true hell is the DFW airport and your nagging bitch of a wife, amirite?) and others are obviously men writing lesbians. Several stories were touching and emotional with horror elements incorporated (post-apocalypse settings, more ghosts) and some felt like writing exercises that should never have been published (looking at you, story #3). All in all a decent anthology, if mostly white, able-bodied and cis.

[Marie-Therese · Rating 2 out of 5]

The final and by far the most uneven and disappointing volume in the 'Bending the Landscape' series. Few of the stories featured here rise above mediocrity and a couple are downright dreadful-so amateurish and so poorly structured that I'd hardly expect them to pass a college creative writing class much less be selected for publication in a major anthology. Only L. Timml Duchamp's evocative 'Explanations Are Clear', Simon Sheppard's dry and witty jeux d'esprit 'What Are You Afraid Of?' and Holly Wade Matter's wrenching, beautifully imagined 'Memorabilia' really stand out. A rather sad end for an intriguing and important series.

[Jennafhur · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book truly has some of the most amazing gay/lesbian stories in it. Not just like gore horror stories like I originally thought upon picking up the book, but just things that horrify us such as love, loss, death, etc. Some are very sweet, some make you cry, some make you wince as your stomach churns. I definitely recommend it.

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yes, it did in fact take me over 6 years to finish this anthology, and not for lack of picking it up, which I probably did at least once in every one of those years. The vast majority of these were just... a slog. Uninspired, or off-putting, or actively gross (and not in a fun horror kind of way.)

Three standouts are the only reason I'm not giving it one star.
- I liked "Memorabilia" but that's mostly all I have to say about it. Some kind of 3.5 runner up.
- I thought "'Til Death" by Barbara Hambly was the best horror of the collection, and caught a glimpse of another review about it I thought missed the point. It's not that hell is an airport with your wife, it's a "hell is me (and I can't other-people my way out of that)" take I found really refreshing after the ad nauseam takes on "hell is other people." It made me upset, I was not having a good time: That's good horror. 4.5 stars.
- I actually read "If I Could See Lazarus Rising" by Kathleen O'Mally last, which I'm glad about, because it made my cry, and it was the best all around story of the book. Absolutely beautiful. 5 stars.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the introduction, the editors state that the horror genre is difficult to define because what scares one person doesn't necessarily scare others. One example they give is that a story about spiders will scare an arachnaphobe but not someone with a pet tarantula. These stories are not about monsters or vampires, but rather about psychological things that scare us. For example, one of my favorite pieces is about a woman who is possibly one of the last survivors of a virus who devotes her solitary life to saving whooping cranes. She faces an existential crisis when she questions whether her life has any meaning because the cranes fly away and don't return. In another story a man chews off his own arm (like a coyote caught in a trap) to avoid acknowledging that he slept with another man. One consistent theme of the collection is the horror of homophobia, whether internal or external.

[Alexia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a couple of these were really horror, i would describe a lot of them as tragic but not really scary. Disappointing bc the first one out the gate made me squirm. I did quite like a few of these, especially the ones that were more speculative

[Casie Blevins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic writing. Definitely recommend. If I can locate the other books in the series I will read them all.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

None of them really scared me. Uneven quality. The good were good stories just not.... horrifying.

[Emmett · Rating 1 out of 5]

yikes, it's a no from me

[rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

lots of interesting concepts but no real standouts

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I didn't enjoy this one as much as the SF stories (gore and horror actually horrifies me, in a usually unpleasant way that I don't over-enjoy much, though thrillers and psychological suspense are really enjoyable - so about half of these just made me queasy).

This is my failing, by the way, not the stories. Horror fans? This one is a great collection for you. I'm just a wuss. Still, there's something to be said even for a wuss like me in these tales! The story with the pink triangle from Nazi Germany made me shiver down to the bone, and the opening story about a homophobic gay man whose arm ends up trapped under another man post coitus, and he feels he must eat his way out of this trap had me just about ready to vomit.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Kindred” is a very sweet story about a lonely gay Georgia farmer who gets otherworldly help from his gay neighbors who have died. ‘”Til Death” by Barbara Hambly has an unhappy lesbian couple stuck in a very real and funny hell that is the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. “Passing” by Mark Tiedemann takes place in a near future where gays and lesbians are killed by the state. Howard works for the police, drugs himself, has a cover marriage to a lesbian and turns his friend in all to protect himself. This story would be a good companion to The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

[Stephen Poltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Bending the Landscape” is a series of original collections of gay and lesbian short stories in different genres: Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. This edition is Horror. I found it very interesting. As in the title of the book, the landscape of horror is bent a bit. Only a few stories are what I would call classic horror. The rest are more like speculative fiction of horrific things. They didn’t evoke outright fear and loathing as much as sadness and despair. Most are very disturbing and some are even surreal.

Come visit my blog for the full review…
http://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspot...

[Erin Sterling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories, some more horrific than others, all of which featuring gay and lesbian characters. Memorable ones: a married man has an affair with another guy while drunk and decides on a gruesome way to get out of the bedroom, a widowed teenager in a hick town in love with another girl gets followed and beat-up by the other girl's boyfriend/husband, an evil antique of the pink felt triangles used by the Nazis to identify homosexuals, teenagers who hear a motorcycle crash but who no one believes until it's too late.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had higher hopes for this collection but so many stories were dull and didn't feel like horror. A couple of decent ones in here with good writing that weren't trying too hard. I felt the same way about the Science Fiction collection in this series. I have the Fantasy one but I don't think I can bring myself to try it after two duds.

[Ruthie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first picked this up sometime in 2003 and have revisited it several more times in the past decade. I'm pleased to say that I enjoy it just as much every single time. This anthology delivers some well-crafted new classics of its genre. Particularly, Mark W. Tiedemann's novella "Passing" is one of the best and most haunting stories I've ever read. Highly recommend!

[Angel S · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was nowhere near as good as the fantasy Bending the Landscape. Most of the stories weren't really horror, and a lot weren't well written. There were a few I liked. I'll have to go through it again and put down the stories/authors I liked.

[Aster Rye · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. If "horror" means horrific then this book takes the cake. If there was a rating lower than one star it would receive it. By far the worst book I have read. Not horror at all. Was not worth my money.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sound collection of stories, mindful, thought provoking, and subtle. This was a happen-chance find at the bookstore and has picqued my interest in the other two installments!

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well-done on the whole - varied, skillful, deeply unsettling. Some of them made me feel actual nausea. Mostly in a good way. If you know what I mean.

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Omg blahhhhhhh

[Mills College Library]

Fiction B4588 v.2