Wilde Stories 2013: The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction. Ed. by Steve Berman. Lethe Press, 2013. Paperback. 274p. $18. ISBN: 978-1-59021-131-1.

Different subgenres of speculative fiction in these dozen stories provide a queer twist on past, present, and future from dystopian, technologically advanced futures to ghost stories set in a medical school supplied by grave-robbers, with a substantial amount of variety in between.

Every one of this wide variety of stories was well done as the authors displayed a variety of writing styles and structures to their stories. Their prose ranged from clear and precise to beautiful and evocative.

One particularly enjoyable story, Alex Jeffers’ “Tattooed Love Boys,” deals with the confusion created by two characters rapidly and inexplicably changing genders, pronouns, and embodiments. Rahul Kanakia creates an unsettlingly believable future in “Next Door” when squatters take over houses owned by people entirely plugged into the Internet and plagued by pesticide-resistant bedbugs. Hal London’s “Sic Him, Hellhound! Kill! Kill!” plunges into the frenzied mind of a love-struck werewolf and takes on the current obsession with pretty boy vampires. And “Renfrew’s Course” by John Langan is a lovely meditation on the longevity of love and the persistence of mistrust.

This short story collection is highly recommended for public libraries, particularly with patrons known for interest in queer literature and/or speculative fiction.

Reviewer: Kyle Lukoff, Librarian

Corlears School, New York City