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Embracing the Dark
Cover art by George Barr. Edited and introduced by Eric Garber.
Works of Art by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Blood Relations by Jeffrey N. McMahan
Cheriton by Peter Robins
The Succubus by Jess Wells
Joe Lewis Was a Heck of a Fighter by Jewelle Gomez
Sacrament by Adrian Nikolas Phoenix
Manor by Heinrich Ulrichs, translated by Hubert Kennedy
Moon Time by D. T. Steiner
Imagined by Jay B. Lewis
Ferata by Kij Johnson
The Strawberry Man by John Peyton Cookie
Works of Art by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Blood Relations by Jeffrey N. McMahan
Cheriton by Peter Robins
The Succubus by Jess Wells
Joe Lewis Was a Heck of a Fighter by Jewelle Gomez
Sacrament by Adrian Nikolas Phoenix
Manor by Heinrich Ulrichs, translated by Hubert Kennedy
Moon Time by D. T. Steiner
Imagined by Jay B. Lewis
Ferata by Kij Johnson
The Strawberry Man by John Peyton Cookie
190 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1991
61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 15, 2025
In the introduction to this 1990 collection Eric Garber, now better known as Andrew Holleran, wrote:
"...horror writers seem overwhelmingly misogynous, antisex and homohostile. While some of their mass-market amusements are subtle studies, the majority and cliched potboilers drenched in gore and violence. The standard horror novel glorifies heterosexuality. A virile male, representing the Good, the Pure, the Christian, and the Patriarchal, battles an unspeakable monstrous depravity, representing the Evil, the Profane, and the Sexually Chaotic, to save a feisty, but ultimately helpless female, representing Heterosexual Love and the Family."
He goes on to castigate various popular authors and least we imagine we have moved on from that time he highlights James Herbert whose Rats and earlier novel The Fog which are still in print today. Garber rightly praises authors like Anne Rice, Clive Barker and Michael McDowell but by mentioning them he focuses a spotlight on the problem with the vast majority of the stories in this anthology - Rice, Barker and McDowell write excellent horror stories many of which are either suffused with a queer sensibility or have queer characters. What this anthology contains are some very basic horror tropes grafted onto some very basic 'gay' tropes. They are not good horror stories nor are they good gay stories - even for 1990. Today they are simply curiosities out of an era that is harder to understand than that of Dickens.
There are exceptions - the 'Cheriton' by the English author Peter Robins and 'Manor' by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the 19th century German gay rights campaigner, which was originally published in a collection of stories 'Sailors Tales'. It was translated by that indefatigable translator of 'gay' German texts Herbert Kennedy but the rest of the stories are at best forgettable if not risebly bad - I will spare the author's embarrassment by not naming them. I do salute Garber's inclusion of Gay and Lesbian stories in one volume - it was a worthy trend but perhaps one fated to die out.
Because of the two stories mentioned I am giving the collection two stars and not shelving, as I should, under any of my 'bad' headings.
"...horror writers seem overwhelmingly misogynous, antisex and homohostile. While some of their mass-market amusements are subtle studies, the majority and cliched potboilers drenched in gore and violence. The standard horror novel glorifies heterosexuality. A virile male, representing the Good, the Pure, the Christian, and the Patriarchal, battles an unspeakable monstrous depravity, representing the Evil, the Profane, and the Sexually Chaotic, to save a feisty, but ultimately helpless female, representing Heterosexual Love and the Family."
He goes on to castigate various popular authors and least we imagine we have moved on from that time he highlights James Herbert whose Rats and earlier novel The Fog which are still in print today. Garber rightly praises authors like Anne Rice, Clive Barker and Michael McDowell but by mentioning them he focuses a spotlight on the problem with the vast majority of the stories in this anthology - Rice, Barker and McDowell write excellent horror stories many of which are either suffused with a queer sensibility or have queer characters. What this anthology contains are some very basic horror tropes grafted onto some very basic 'gay' tropes. They are not good horror stories nor are they good gay stories - even for 1990. Today they are simply curiosities out of an era that is harder to understand than that of Dickens.
There are exceptions - the 'Cheriton' by the English author Peter Robins and 'Manor' by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the 19th century German gay rights campaigner, which was originally published in a collection of stories 'Sailors Tales'. It was translated by that indefatigable translator of 'gay' German texts Herbert Kennedy but the rest of the stories are at best forgettable if not risebly bad - I will spare the author's embarrassment by not naming them. I do salute Garber's inclusion of Gay and Lesbian stories in one volume - it was a worthy trend but perhaps one fated to die out.
Because of the two stories mentioned I am giving the collection two stars and not shelving, as I should, under any of my 'bad' headings.
November 10, 2015
Embracing the Dark (1991), edited by Eric Garber, is a collection of eleven tales of horror and alternative sexuality. In the introduction, Garber notes that with few exceptions most horror writers “seem overwhelmingly misogynous, antisex, and homo-hostile.” This collection is intended to provide stories counter that trend, and in that aim it succeeds. However, one wishes that the results made for better stories. The best ones are among the five reprints: “Cheriton” by Peter Robins, from his 1977 collection Undo Your Raincoats and Laugh!; and a new translation from the German of an 1885 story “Manor” by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, an early proponent of the gay movement. A few original stories (those by Nina Kiriki Hoffman and Jewelle Gomez) are reasonably well-done, if unambitious, but some of the others are disappointing—“Blood Relations” by Jeffrey N. McMahan is simply-written and clichéd; “The Strawberry Man” by Jon Peyton Cooke is simply stupid. A mixed collection overall.
June 16, 2023
Another uneven queer anthology from Alyson Books, but this time it's horror instead of fantasy and SF. What I will say about this collection is that it's much, much less bleak and fatalistic than the previous two I'd read. There's a wide variety of themes and tones (and quality).
One of the most intriguing inclusions was a translatated story from 1885 called Manor, by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the only non-modern addition. I've read a few stories with queer subtext from this era, and that really got me thinking how much I'd love an anthology of such. It'd be perfect topic for The British Library's Weird collections.
Kij Johnson's Ferata, about an abused woman's battle with personal trauma and the vampire she meets, is the best written of all of them, by a long shot. It's the only one with a full grasp of great storytelling. The information is doled out perfectly and the prose is fast and engaging. She's gone on to write quite a bit, and she's on my list now.
Sacrement, about a 15-year-old suicidal homeless boy battling AIDS and meeting a vampire, does a great job of giving a full character arc and painting a complete and emotional picture in very little time.
Heavy-hitting, character-focused stories like this are my ideal. Both these made me realize how much I love stories about recovering from trauma and learning to stop blaming yourself for things that were never your fault.
But most of the collection lacked those qualities. Many stories are silly or pointless. Succubus, with its lengthy focus on mother-fetishizing and excessive use of the word "cunt," was just gross.
As one of the rare holders of my ellusive 5-star rating for his novel The Unfinished, I was looking forward to the Jay B. Laws's entry. It isn't great, but it's an unabashedly raunchy bit of fantasy-made-real and it does what it sets out to do.
Bonus point to the final story, The Strawberry Man, a totally bonkers tale of gay punks, slam dancing, and mysteriously addictive strawberries originating from a bizarre source.
One of the most intriguing inclusions was a translatated story from 1885 called Manor, by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the only non-modern addition. I've read a few stories with queer subtext from this era, and that really got me thinking how much I'd love an anthology of such. It'd be perfect topic for The British Library's Weird collections.
Kij Johnson's Ferata, about an abused woman's battle with personal trauma and the vampire she meets, is the best written of all of them, by a long shot. It's the only one with a full grasp of great storytelling. The information is doled out perfectly and the prose is fast and engaging. She's gone on to write quite a bit, and she's on my list now.
Sacrement, about a 15-year-old suicidal homeless boy battling AIDS and meeting a vampire, does a great job of giving a full character arc and painting a complete and emotional picture in very little time.
Heavy-hitting, character-focused stories like this are my ideal. Both these made me realize how much I love stories about recovering from trauma and learning to stop blaming yourself for things that were never your fault.
But most of the collection lacked those qualities. Many stories are silly or pointless. Succubus, with its lengthy focus on mother-fetishizing and excessive use of the word "cunt," was just gross.
As one of the rare holders of my ellusive 5-star rating for his novel The Unfinished, I was looking forward to the Jay B. Laws's entry. It isn't great, but it's an unabashedly raunchy bit of fantasy-made-real and it does what it sets out to do.
Bonus point to the final story, The Strawberry Man, a totally bonkers tale of gay punks, slam dancing, and mysteriously addictive strawberries originating from a bizarre source.
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August 17, 2025PLACEHOLDER REVIEW
"Manor" by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs - a tale from the Faroe Islands in which two inseparable young men (one had rescued the other from drowning) are finally separated by the grave when one dies when a whaling ship sinks. But the dead sailor continues to visit the young man, sucking blood from his breast, even as the townspeople of the remote island attempt to remedy the situation.... this is an impressive story, originally appearing in a homosexual journal in 1885 and recently translated into English. The homoerotic aspect is not coded or flinched at - the two young men love each other, even beyond death - and yet it is beyond that a somewhat standard folkloric vampire story, but with the added element of the "doomed love." Quite nicely done.
"Manor" by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs - a tale from the Faroe Islands in which two inseparable young men (one had rescued the other from drowning) are finally separated by the grave when one dies when a whaling ship sinks. But the dead sailor continues to visit the young man, sucking blood from his breast, even as the townspeople of the remote island attempt to remedy the situation.... this is an impressive story, originally appearing in a homosexual journal in 1885 and recently translated into English. The homoerotic aspect is not coded or flinched at - the two young men love each other, even beyond death - and yet it is beyond that a somewhat standard folkloric vampire story, but with the added element of the "doomed love." Quite nicely done.
August 3, 2015
I disliked all of the stories except for The Succubus by Jess Wells and Ferata by Kij Johnson.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews