Kevin Bentley sure did have something devious in mind when he decided to compile this anthology..."Boyfriends from Hell" documents 19 gay writers' stories of twisted loved affairs with men of very little virtue and decency.Every reader should be warned that the cover of this book can be misleading.Humor was not the sole intedned purpose.Though all of the stories are incredibly well written, very few have laugh-out-loud quality.The tones tend to be sarcastic and bitter, yet poignant, as writers talk about the hardships of gay relationships in general and then top it off with their experience with a failed romance with a mentally-disturbed (and sometimes dangerous) lover.Stephen Greco's story, Miss Bankhead at Home, is one of the better works in the collection, as he recounts an ex resurfacing in his life.Peter is a failed actor/model, who's looks have faded from aging and drug use.The romance is unsteady to begin with, but Greco talks about being drawn back in with the strange man, until one night he has a knife pulled on him.
Under the guise of humor, some of the writers really give us disturbing stories and we cannot help but sympathize with them and their experiences.In one story, a young man is tries to capture the affections of a sexually-confused but charismatic married man, only to eventually realize that he is being used.Other stories rely on a situational confrontation, such as the surprisingly hysterical story, "In the Garden of the North American Cocktease".The story starts out very humorous and one cannot help but chuckle out loud to the narrator's witty observations but in the end, we realize that the date with a "dream guy" could have eventually led him into a very violent confrontation.Erotica writer, Simon Sheppard, lends his talents as well in "Going Down, Going Down Down", an amusing tale of an online hook-up gone wrong, completed with talk of diaper fetishes and crack pipes.
It is unfortunate the only weak story would come from the editor, Kevin Bentley.Kevin knows how to pick his writers well, but sometimes I think he's too scatterbrained to know what to do with so much excellent material.This really shows in his own story, "Widow Hopper".Bentley tries to do it all - combining real drama, sarcasm and a sex scene that would have been appropriate if the subject matter weren't so bleak.Author's should have more faith in their intended subject matters.Some of the stories featured are very real and very powerful, so we don't need to dillude them with funny cartoon covers and odd humor attempts.
Over all, this collection is fantastic.I wouldn't recommend trying to read every story in one night, but rather savor them over several reading sessions.This is a must-have for the disgruntled romantic- documented proof that the one that got away could have been a BOYFRIEND FROM HELL....
Product Description
Everyone has suffered the tortures of an unfaithful, unavailable, controlling, or demanding date, boyfriend, or lover. They may be hell to live through, but they make riveting postmortems, collected here as twenty gay writers recount adventures from the deep end of the dating pool.
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