When I was a young queerling, I had a life-changing moment thanks to a funny queer book. I say life-changing—and I mean it—because it was the first story I found that included people like me that wasn’t relentlessly depressing, full of doom, or fraught with hate or violence. Now, before someone comes at me, I want to be clear that I one-hundred percent believe in the value of all kinds of stories about queerness, and that 100% includes the realities of our past, which is often hard, harsh, depressing, full of doom, and/or fraught with hate and violence.
And sometimes we just need to laugh.
When I wrote Village Fool, I was taking on a bit of a target—I loathe April Fools’ Day—but also I was trying to set up a cringe-cute/oh-no/laugh-because-it’s-just-so-awful moment, and be chirpy and uplifting and funny when it all came due.
So, today for #PrideMonth, let’s laugh…
Funny as in Ha-Ha
That book I read that changed my life was The Night We Met by Rob Byrnes, and you should totally read it, but I’m going to talk about a different Rob Byrnes book today: Straight Lies. Now, it’s important to note that Straight Lies is just the first of the Grant and Chase series, but believe me when I say you want to read these books. (The others are Holy Rollers and Strange Bedfellows and I live in hope for more). Grant and Chase are con-men. They’re not good people, but they target really bad people, so you totally root for this lovers-in-crime caper heist, and when they end up in possession of proof that a “really brave, out gay actor” is actually faking it—he’s straight, and just used his coming out story to boost a failing career, figuring infamy and a queer audience would be better than going unnoticed—you are really there hoping they’ll take him down.
Gay capers, heists, more calamitous change-of-plans and replanning on the fly than I can count, and just gut-busting moments of laughing-out-loud and honestly? I truly wish these books would be made into a Netflix series. In the meanwhile, I’ll just keep pining away for more from Byrnes.
From award-winning author Rob Byrnes comes a wickedly entertaining caper involving red-hot men, cold hard cash, and deliciously dirty deeds. . .
Two Partners In Crime
Grant and Chase are a fun-loving pair of small-time hustlers with no money, little patience, and lots of get-rich-quick schemes. If only they could pull off the perfect crime–“The Big One,” as Grant calls it–Chase could finally quit his job at the supermarket and the two could retire in style.
One Star In The Closet
Romeo Romero is the world’s hottest openly gay celebrity. He’s got the face, the abs, the fame, the fortune–and the sex video that could destroy his career. If this naughty little tape should fall into the wrong hands, Romeo’s adoring fans would be in for one big surprise: He’s straight.
No Lie
When Grant and Chase hear about the video (thanks to a notorious Hamptons’ gossip), it’s a no-brainer. All they have to do is steal the tape, blackmail the star, and collect the cash. But then, when they stupidly leave the video in a New York cab, the would-be crooks have to wheel and deal with a sleazy tabloid editor, a lesbian real estate agent, a kinky Internet stalker, and an alluring boy toy to finally get to the truth. . .behind not-so-straight lies.
This next book I listened to on a plane flight in audiobook format, and I’m pretty sure I annoyed the heck out of the person in the seat beside me because I kept giggling. Marshall Thornton’s The Ghost Slept Over has a supernatural hook to its humour, and starts with a death, and while it’s not always dashing from one giggle to the next guffaw, it’s seriously—or, I guess, not seriously—one of the funniest books I’ve listened to.
Cal, an actor just shy of being of quality enough to make a go of it, is doing his best with his one-man show (though his best isn’t enough to stop living out of his truck) so when he gets a call from a lawyer and it’s something to do with his ex, he’s not exactly over-the-moon. But it turns out his ex has died, and he left Cal everything. Unfortunately, the ex is still around. As a ghost. And would like Cal to join him there… Jason Frazier’s performance was above-and-beyond, and his characterization of voice had me wishing I could reach into my phone and strangle the ghost (seriously, the dripping contempt and haughty arrogance was so pitch-perfect).
When failed actor Cal Parsons travels to rural New York to claim the estate of his famous and estranged ex-partner he discovers something he wasn’t expecting…the ghost of his ex! And, worse, his ex invites Cal to join him for all eternity. Now.
As Cal attempts to rid himself of the ghost by any means he begins to fall for the attractive attorney representing the estate.
Will Cal be able to begin a new relationship or will he be seduced into the ever after?
What’s the last queer book that made you laugh out loud? Hit me with it.
'Nathan Burgoine 
I am noticing that you keep sneaking series into these recommendations . . . and I like it. 🙂
Sadly I virtually never laugh out loud at a book, I do grin at them sometimes, but I don’t know when I last did that either. It’s not that books can’t amuse me, just that I don’t seem to express it vocally.
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Oh, uncontrollable grinning still counts. (And so many of my favourite books start series, so it’s impossible not to do it.) 😉
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