Bend Sinister: The Gay Times Book of Disturbing Stories

by Peter Burton (Editor), Neil Bartlett, Neal Drinnan

Something out of kilter, something dangerously askew...

'There is a long tradition of gay authors writing stories which are at once decidedly sinister and decidedly queer,' writes Lambda-nominated editor Peter Burton in his introduction to Bend Sinister. 'Gothic literature, in which sinister is an essential component, was, after all, virtually the invention of gay men.'

This queer affinity is demonstrated here in work that ranges from horror and fantasy to crime and detection, with more than one erotic dalliance.

Writers include Neil Bartlett, Christopher Bram, Francis King, Michael Wilcox and Richard Zimler alongside the best and scariest new storytellers. Bend Sinister is compulsive reading for anyone who likes to be spooked.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Horror

390 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part, the stories here collected left me with a feeling of "sad" rather than "disturbed," featuring, as they do, many lonely, lost, middle-aged gay men wandering the world in pursuit of what they never can or will have. The sadness was heightened by a strong tendency to "kill your gays," but one can hardly hope for happy joy in a book with such a title. But one story was, in its perverse way, really quite beautiful to me, and another, "Touching Darkness" was the most disturbing thing I have ever read and was, on its own, worth the effort of reading the whole sometimes depressing collection.

[Christy Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories fall nowhere near 'sinister' or 'disturbing' and some fall way too closely to 'boring' but there are some good pieces in here. It's got enough variety to be worth a shot if you can get it used.