The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times by Rob Costello
It is rare for a book that made me so angry reading it to become one that I will recommend as highly as this, but The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times truly is an exceptional collection of incredible short stories.
Don’t let the title of Rob Costello’s new collection fool you. The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times might sound like a fun jaunty collection of stories. It is as far from this as possible but in a perfect way. Although there is a bear on show in one of the stories, if you can classify it as a dancing bear, I’ll leave that to you. The eleven tales on show here showcase an author with an immense talent to wring every last drop of emotion from both the written words on the page and the emotional response from the reader. These stories, for the most part, are difficult to read due to the rawness of the beating heart that lies open for all to see at the centre of these powerful and heartbreaking stories.
A wide range of styles and tropes is showcased within The Dancing Bears, from straight-up horror, cosmic horror, ghost stories and even a slightly obscure “farce” for want of better words. However, a vigorous, vibrant and vital horror voice links these stories.
Tonally, this is an angry, melancholic and sombre collection of stories. When you strip away the horror elements of these stories and look solely at depictions of the LGBTQ characters on show here, you cannot help but become angry at some of the situations they find themselves in. As you know, the awful things that happen to them, not by the fictional monsters showcased here but by the all too real human monsters, are things that have been and are still being faced by members of the gay community today. In a perfect and more accepting world, this collection would never need to have been written, but sadly, we live in a world that is filled with knuckle-dragging homophobes. This makes this collection a must-read if only to hammer home to those of us who are not part of the queer community that things are still far from being right.
As soon as I finished the heartbreaking opening story ‘Whatever Happened to the Boy Who Fell in the Lake,” I knew I would love this collection—a moving and soul-destroying story of a boy desperate to find his place in the world. With one of the best depictions of Selkies I have ever read, this story was the perfect start to a robust collection.
‘I Am the Other One” is a shocking and brutal story of two brothers where one can map his emotions onto animals, with a truly startling ending.
Jill is a clever story where a disgruntled child and mother communicate through passive-aggressive and aggressive messages via magnetic letters on a fridge. It’s a brilliant concept matched by the larger story within the tale of a warped relationship between the protagonist and their older ‘lover”. Talk about toxic co-dependant relationships, ‘Jill’ takes this concept and runs with it at full tilt.
“The Thing with Chains” is an honest look at fame, the loss of dame within Hollywood, and the desperate measures people will take for that last shot at becoming a household name. It is a brilliantly unsettling tale; however, I couldn’t help but smile and think of all of those idiots who think Taylor Swift and her ilk all perform Satanic rituals in their Hollywood mansions.
The “Njogel” is a moving story about coming to terms with the loss of your soul mate; Costello handles this story with a delicate and sensitive ear to the situation, and despite the not-so-happy-ever-after ending to the tale, you cannot help but have a wee smile on your face knowing that the protagonist is finally as satisfied as they ever will be.
“Emergent” is the most brutal story here, where a horror writer suffering from writer’s block is possessed by the spirit of his dead son, with the sole purpose of the son setting things straight with his abusive father. This emotionally raw tale doesn’t hold back the anger the ghost feels at his father’s evil actions towards him. Actions that caused the love of his life to leave him and look back on him with disgust. Even now, writing this review, I can’t get the pungent smell out of my nose.
The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times is a triumph. The broad style of narratives showcased here is a testament to the skill of Costello’s writing ability. Rarely does he pull any punches to deliver a fearless story in looking at the dark nature of relationships. However, underneath the horrors and brutality on show here, he still finds the hidden glimmer of beauty or the tiny shard of hope. It is rare for a book that made me so angry reading it to become one that I will recommend as highly as this, but The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times truly is an exceptional collection of incredible short stories.
The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times by Rob Costello
A lost boy under the spell of a seductive killer suffers the sting of betrayal while on the hunt for fresh blood. A misanthrope obsessed with death carries on a torrid affair with the malevolent spirit haunting the house in his favorite novel. The dead son of an abusive horror novelist returns from the grave to tell his father what really happened the night he died. An ex-child star desperate for a comeback meets a sinister stranger who reveals the terrible price of attaining his heart’s desire. A headstrong girl determined to seduce her ex-boyfriend discovers what being trapped in the closet really means.
The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times showcases eleven darkly speculative tales of the queer and uncanny. With eight previously published and three brand new stories, this debut collection features young queer characters grappling with love and desire in a heartless world hurtling toward the abyss.
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