Just in time for Christmas, Little Ghost Books released the e-book version of Demons & Death Drops, a very affordable alternative for all those interested 🙂 And contrary to first impressions I think it makes for an excellent Christmas read!
The Book
Demons & Death Drops, An Anthology of Queer Performance Horror is a theatre of joys and terrors set on the stage of queerness. Featuring misunderstood monsters, epic music, hallucinatory prose, and beautiful illustrations – all ready to give you the show of a lifetime!
Read more about the book and my publisher in my previous blog post.
The Performance of Christmas
Naturally, many queer people have to perform on Christmas. Some are not out yet and anxiously fend off family questions of when they will find an opposite sex partner. Some may have hidden their true identity for years and feel they have to present this perfect straight version of themselves forever to their folks, for fear of loosing them. Others may even be outcast from their family since their coming out and my thoughts are always with them during this time of year.
But it is not only us that feel obliged to put on an act during the holidays: families of all shapes and sizes all over the world seem hellbend to put on a performance of the perfect happy family for one day – no matter that everyone is in on the truth. Toothachingly sweet pictures are taken, expensive gifts are given to people that make us miserable, and dogmatic harmony is enforced at all costs.
Nevertheless, this often doesn’t succeed in masquerading tensions and true emotions forever, and almost every year I experience or hear reports of hurtful arguments that shatter this happy Christmas bubble in a matter of seconds. Don’t get me wrong: the ideal of a happy family coming together on Christmas is a nice one to have, and blessed are the people who truly experience that on a regular basis – even when no family is perfect of course.
But I think it’s important for people who fear the holidays and the version of themselves they have to put on to know that they are not alone. I think straight people could really learn a thing or two from queer people about how to deal with constantly having to perform for your safety – so I encourage you to try out LGBTQ books for your Christmas read this season! You may be surprised how well you can relate.
My Holiday Book Rec
The Mimicking of Known Successes
A cozy Holmesian scifi mystery and sapphic romance set on Jupiter, by Malka Older, author of the critically-acclaimed Centenal Cycle.
I know what you think: how is this christmasy?
I picked up this book because I was intrigued by the idea of human life on a planet with no surface. Older delivers an intricate world of platforms where humans live precariously, building themselves cozy homes where they retreat from Jupiter’s hostile climate and have scones with tea while studying human history and nature, in the hope of rebuilding it one day on Earth.
Especially in our current semi-dystopian times I found this scenario deeply comforting and hopeful. Our two protagonists, the investigator Mossa and the researcher Pleiti, are both passionate but socially awkward women, who need a planet-threatening mystery to come together and realize how much they care about each other – I think we could all take a page from that book in the Christmas Spirit 🙂
This is a novella that is astonishingly rich for its 168 pages, and you can read it in two days if you want to. So, with these reflections and recommendations I wish you all very happy holidays, in whatever way that makes you happy!
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Roxane Llanque 
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