"
Reginald stared at the spot where an image of his mother had appeared and pondered that long line of parents and children disappointing one another. 
Name a family where they don't.
"
(pg 13/348)

the gays would totally survive a horror movie.

queer cosmic appalachian horror? that alone sold me.

reginald voth is a mean queen and his mother, dorothea, is dead. probably.
he's stuck tidying up after her. yet she still haunts him.
a dead mother leaving a taint on her queer son. but, oh, the trauma runs much deeper.
this is cosmic horror and you get to watch it all unravel like a curse.
there's something unknowable beyond the mountains of appalachia. rife with grief, abuse, generational trauma, childhood and adulthood, the masks we put on.
but this is also a tale of queer resilience.

the writing is wry and witty, dream-like and haunting when it needs to be. reginald manages to find humor in alot of things. you're unsettled but you can't help but have a good chuckle.

the characters are vivid and complex. reginald has made me gasp a few times.

pissing in your dead mother's garden?

gurl. you need therapy.
he is such a conniving little shit and i love him for it. a mean old queen but damn. beneath all that he's witty, emotionally intelligent, and smart. still armed to the teeth with jabs, even whilst being chased by the ghost of his dead mother. unapologetically, unabashedly, queer. reginald, smokin virginia slims, grows on you.

we queers don't take shit. reginald is fighting for his life and his sanity but it's his queer resilience that shines through. this novel was cathartic to say the least. loved it


excerpt (pg 34/348):
"Three cheers for me," Reginald said aloud to himself. He felt the occasion needed something with a little more flair, so he added, "Ding dong, the bitch is dead." It felt hollow, though: not because he missed his mother, not by a long shot, but he'd expected to feel something and now he mostly just felt... blank.
A subtle feeling of being just about to encounter someone-an unknown figure on the other side of the door, the sound of a footstep on a stair, but without actually seeing or hearing anything, just a knowing they were nearby-reached into his guts and curled its cold fingers around them. Reginald stopped, the keys halfway to the deadbolt lock on the door, and he felt his heart flutter for a moment. He could have sworn he saw something move beyond the door. He peered in on nothing, the house beyond a dark well showing only shadow. How could he have seen something move when he couldn't even see the room where it would have been moving? And yet…

not convinced?

a curse that runs through generations. reginald is haunted by his mother and what she's done to him. reginald is an ass sometimes but it's a defence mechanism and he gets better.
also, body snatchers.

content warnings (mentions of) :

death, homophobia, child abuse, csa

( Received an advanced reader copy for review. Children of Solitude, Michael G. Williams, a queer appalachian cosmic horror novel )