Somewhere in the Night cover

Somewhere in the Night

by Jeffrey N. McMahan

All of the protagonists of the eight horror tales here are gay, allowing McMahan both a new twist on chiller standbys, such as vampirism and spirit possession, and an intriguing perspective on the complexities of gay life. Devilish energy and macabre wit glitter throughout. One vampire, for example, is an unwillingly undead ghoul with a heart of gold who pities the beautiful men he kills--yet he is reluctant to bestow the dubious gift of a vampire's immortality lest his liaisons with them grow tiresome over the millennia. A few stories teeter precariously between effective shock and the merely grisly: gory details menace the exposition of "Two-faced Johnny," in which a vain young man at a strange Halloween party is transformed permanently into the gruesome being of his costume. "Fantasyland," about a young boy who takes refuge in daydreams from his brutal rape until he rescues another boy from the same assailants, is the richest entry, a trenchant meditation on coming out as gay in a hostile society.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?