Book Review for Pieties by Marc Ruvolo
I received this book for free. This does not impact my review in any shape or form.
Pieties, by Marc Ruvolo, is an LGBT horror novella about the depravity of saints and sinners during a time of a sexual epidemic. Andrew is a gay man who was recently diagnosed with GRID, termed gay-related immune deficiency. After being told there was no way to treat the disease, Andrew decides to move back home where he’s greeted by his neurotic mother and homophobic father. Andrew forces himself to navigate through the failures of his life, from getting a job as a custodian to getting berated by his physician and loved ones for his “lifestyle”. Even so, Andrew notices sinister behaviors coming from his parents, from his mother’s sleepwalking to his father’s sneaking out. All the while, he hears strange noises in the walls of his childhood home.
I loved how every person in Andrew’s family tried to retreat from the real world. Andrew had carried the brunt of it; for him to be dragged through the mud by anyone and everyone because of his sexual orientation is more than enough to get anyone to retreat into their shell. The fact that he self-harmed was a testament to his own shame, and even now, he’s imprisoned by those mental chains. And while neither his father nor his mother had experienced the consequences of the flesh, it forced them into a different torment. His mother thinking Andrew was Ronnie, an old ex, spoke volumes to how loveless their marriage is. And for his father to hurt his own family, if only to satisfy his pleasures, is a testament to how he himself was drowning in sin. It doesn’t matter how righteous you think you are; at the end of the day, we’re ruined by demons, real or imagined.
LGBT populations are more likely to experience violence and have been found to be more likely to use and misuse alcohol and substances. They may also be more likely to be diagnosed with one or more mental illnesses due to the stigma they face (back then, labeling GRID as HIV, of course, didn’t help). With the abuse from conversion camps and the isolation they experience in religious communities, to the increased chances of homelessness, there’s a lot stacked against the population. So honestly, I can say I empathize with Andrew more so than I do Dick or Enid. When Andrew decided to succumb to his father’s vices, it felt more of a happy ending than anything, similar to movies like Midsommar or The Witch.
As such, I would give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
