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Queer Book Club is a small but enthusiastic community that meets monthly to discuss queer-themed books spanning numerous genres.
This month we'll be meeting on the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Library's 205-B Accessibility Program Room. We'll have a spooky time discussing It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror by Joe Vallese , Carmen Maria Machado , et al.
Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,” body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world.
It Came from the Closet features twenty-five essays by writers speaking to this relationship, through connections both empowering and oppressive. From Carmen Maria Machado on Jennifer’s Body, Jude Ellison S. Doyle on In My Skin, Addie Tsai on Dead Ringers, and many more, these conversations convey the rich reciprocity between queerness and horror.
