#HorrorForLibraries Giveaway: A Finished Copy of the Modern Queer Horror Classic RED X by David Demchuk

Today I have a treat. A finished copy of a book that was previously only available in Canada; a brand new edition with so many extras; a title that has gone on to become a Queer Horror Classic. Details below but first, here are the rules on how to enter:

1. You need to be affiliated with an American Library. My rationale behind that is that I will be encouraging you to read these books and share them with patrons. While many of them are advanced reader copies that you cannot add to your collections, if you get the chance to read them, my hope is that you will consider ordering a copy for your library and give away the ARC away as a prize or pass it on to a fellow staff member.
2. If you are interested in being included in any giveaway at any time, you must email me at zombiegrl75 [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "#HorrorForLibraries." In the body of the email all you have to say is that you want to be entered and the name of your library.
3. Each entry will be considered for EVERY giveaway. Meaning you enter once, and you are entered until you win. I will randomly draw a winner on Fridays sometime after 5pm central. But only entries received by 5pm each week will be considered for that week. I use Random.org and have a member of my family witness the "draw"based off your number in the Google Sheet.
4. If you win, you are ineligible to win again for 4 weeks; you will have to re-enter after that time to be considered [I have a list of who has won, when, and what title]. However, if you do not win, you carry over into the next week. There is NO NEED to reenter.

Last week's winner was Janet from OR. Now on to this week's giveaway. 

David Demchuk's Red X is a modern horror classic, full stop, but as a work of Queer Horror is seminal. Don't take my word for it. I have Eric LaRocca's words right here for you:

“When they speak of seminal works of queer literature a hundred years from now, David Demchuk’s RED X will most assuredly be included in that conversation. A tremendously influential novel so arresting, so brutal and yet so delicate that its labyrinthine complexity should be studied and praised. A merciless and truly daring masterpiece of queer fiction.” 

    —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

This book was a NYPL Best Book of the Year, a CBC Books Pick for Best Canadian Fiction, and an Aurora Award Nominee for Best Novel. All of this was back in 2021 when it first came out. So why don't you have it or know about it? Because it was only published in Canada. 

This new edition will be available on June 30th here in America and it includes a foreword by Gretchen Felker-Martin. This book is also the reason I asked David to write an essay for my book. It is a literal masterpiece. Everyone should read it.

I have so much to say about this seminal work of queer and experimental horror. But first, here is the blurb:

Published solely in Canada in 2021, it didn’t take long for David Demchuk’s RED X to garner a cult following. It could be because it’s actually scary, a cursed marriage between supernatural elements and the real-life horrors that isolation and marginalization leave queer people vulnerable to. It could be because it’s formally interesting, punctuated by torn-up book pages, leaking trails of black ink, tiny Canadian history lessons, and personal stories from Demchuk’s own life. Or maybe it’s the emphasis on the power of queer communities as characters routinely show up for one another, even if it means putting themselves in danger. But most likely it’s a combination of all these things, which blend together to create a masterfully experimental narrative that is already being heralded as one of the greatest horror novels of the twenty-first century.

A terrifying supernatural entity haunts Toronto’s gay village in the ’80s in this gruesome, metatextual modern horror classic that spans decades of queer community and history. RED X is a masterful experimental work already heralded as one of the great horror novels of the twenty-first century, now reissued with deluxe materials, including a new introduction by Gretchen Felker-Martin and an essay by Anthony Oliveira.

 In 1984, a young gay man vanishes without a trace, leaving behind a community of friends and lovers desperate for answers. Instead, they face everything from casual indifference to outright prejudice. As decades pass, more men vanish, revealing a terrifying, centuries-old demonic presence at the heart of the disappearances.

Interspersed throughout, the author shares autobiographical vignettes: his earliest brushes with death and fear, his observations on queer culture and the horror genre, on representation and erasure, culminating in an elegiac and brilliantly woven narrative that blends fact and fiction, and has already been heralded as one of the great horror novels of the twenty-first century.

 RED X flickers between perspectives like a choir popcorning the disparate parts of a chamber piece. The conductor here is Demchuk himself, who uses his own autobiographical vignettes—his earliest brushes with death and fear, his observations on queer culture and the horror genre, on representation and erasure—to unite the parts into an elegiac and brilliantly eerie work that blends fact and fiction.

I cannot stress enough to all of you just how good this book is. Demchuk's conversational narration, experimental but accessible style, the brutally honest, bleak, creepy and intense tone, the well developed characters, thought-provoking plot, and visceral connection to the real world-- all of this makes RED X a must buy book for all library collections. 

If you have readers of the very best Horror today, the Queer and the Straight Horror, they need to read this book.

And thanks to Soho Press's Horror Imprint, Hell's Hundred, one of you is going to win a finished copy to add to your shelves today. 

The rest of you need to add it to your order carts now. Seriously. Stop what you are doing and get this book on order.

And if you live in the NYC area, there will be a launch event on June 15th at Twisted Spine. Details and registration links are here.

Enter now and you are entered going forward.

The giveaway will be off next week while I am at StokerCon, but after that I have many titles from the books I reviewed for the June issues of Booklist and Library Journal. Plus coming soon, giveaways of books by Rachel Harrison, Alma Katsu, and more. Enter now to be in it for a chance to win it.