#of herbs and altars

[zmbiefood]

[astrovampz]

[borninwinter81]

Queer horror from my teens

I periodically wonder whether these books are still known and read by young goths and horror fans as they were all extremely important to me in my teenage years, so I thought I'd share them.

Though I'm cishet, during the mid 90s two of my favourite authors wrote primarily queer fiction: they were Anne Rice and another author from New Orleans who is now known as Billy Martin.

He came out as a trans man in 2011, however these books were published prior to that so unfortunately you have to search for them under his deadname. This is why I've used that name in the tags on this post. I don't believe the books were ever reprinted with his current name.

Though I loved Rice, I always felt a more immediate connection with Martin due to his vivid portrayal of subcultures like goth and punk, and how it felt to be a teenager who was part of them. I could see myself in many of his characters as I had the same interests, listened to the same music, and shared the same sense of social alienation. Remember in the 90s the Internet was still a reasonably new thing, and many of us didn't have a home Internet connection at all. There was certainly no social media, no YouTube, and no real way to meet and interact with like-minded teens unless you were lucky enough to have another "weird kid" at your school. If you were a weird kid, you likely had very few friends and were bullied.

That as much as anything else led me to seek solace in books written by an author who I felt understood me, and characters who became my friends.

Lost Souls is about vampires in a kind of Lost Boys/Near Dark way. Fans of the YouTuber OfHerbsAndAltars might be interested to know that this book is where the name of his channel comes from - it's a description of the taste of Chartreuse liqueur.

Drawing Blood is about ghosts, a "murder house", computer hacking, comic art and a very beautiful (if rather messed up) romance. This one is probably my favourite of the three.

Exquisite Corpse is about serial killers, set against the AIDS crisis of the 90s. If you like the Hannibal TV series you'll probably enjoy this one - imagine if Dennis Nilsen and Jeffrey Dahmer had somehow met.

Martin doesn't pull any punches when it comes to descriptions of blood and gore, violence, abusive parents or his portrayal of toxic romantic relationships (of which there are many in his books), but if you can deal with those things there is also a great deal of beauty, phenomenally good writing, and a somewhat unique perspective on the supernatural.

Maybe I'm biased, looking at these through the lens of my teenage self. Maybe they'd seem horribly dated to today's young audience. But I still wanted to make this post in case there's someone out there who will end up loving them as much as I did.

[kantharohs]

[graceland-double-two]

Basing my personality on these gorgeous humans

[powerlinevalley444]

willoughby tucker is major ash from of herbs and altars storytimes vibes

[st-guliks-fnord]

Any other long term fans of OfHerbsAndAltars currently having their heart ripped out by Exit Note?

The chills I got reading “the truest thing I ever wrote was ‘On my gravestone this is what it said: whenever I’m sober I wish that I was dead’.”

Only 50 pages in, but oh my god. So glad Dorian’s still here. Watching their writing only grow across these 3 books has been a gift.

[stonerpixiedreamgirl]

sketchbookposting!! little drawing of ofherbsandaltars. Please read Millennium Gothic so good

[kantharohs]

[your-average-mess-on-all-fronts]

I found that a good way to transfer myself into the "I want to live actually" mindset is listen to artists who's opinion I care about talking about grief.

[my-specials-interests]

[wayfee]

[clatterbane]

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria: The Really Scary Thing About ADHD...

Another recent one from Dorian that I just have Too Many Thoughts about.

Though, at least for me I do feel like what's been getting more attention lately under that label does lean very fucking heavily toward the side of "oddly specific trauma reactions" where an awful lot of us do have some shared experiences. Complete with some very distinct berserk buttons. To go right along with the rest of the carefully installed learned social anxiety bundle.

I don't even know that this is connected to the things that get lumped under ADHD, so much as Just Being Noticeably Weird in some similar ways.

[bisexualjinx]

i can’t believe Dorian Ofherbsandaltars loves iZombie too he has such good taste

[astrovampz]

[faeriebitescreations]

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