Tyler Kyle doesn’t believe in monsters.
A washed-up thirty-year-old actor and reluctant cryptid investigator, Tyler is used to playing the Scully to his best friend Josh’s Mulder on their stupidly popular YouTube channel. But when Tyler receives previously unseen footage of the B movie bombshell mother who abandoned him eighteen years ago—footage linked to an isolated island in the Canadian wilderness—the mystery is one conspiracy he’s determined to investigate. The fact that following the scent gives Tyler an excuse to run away from the “straight” Josh, whom he drunkenly made out with, is just the cherry on the shit sundae.
But Echo Island isn’t what it seems. Its eerily scenic veneer hides a twisted secret buried in its roots as a gay conversion camp, and as Tyler retraces his mother’s footsteps, he discovers a supernatural connection between the residents and the island—one they seem to think Tyler and his mother share.
Even worse, the footage of Tyler’s mom came from someone on the island–a stalker whose obsessive fascination with both Tyler and Josh is about to make Tyler wish he hadn’t gone this one alone. Puppeteered by his stalker, searching for his mother, and debating whether it’s possible to queerbait yourself, Tyler comes to realize that it doesn’t matter so much whether you believe in monsters, if they believe in you.
THE ERSTWHILE TYLER KYLE is an adult horror comedy for fans of GHOST FILES, BUZZFEED UNSOLVED, and TWIN PEAKS.
You may be thinking, a horror book? On MY Read Indie Fantasy? Truth is, our little blog on the internet is for all SFF (or SFFH as I’ve started seeing around) which includes fantasy, sci-fi, and horror with speculative elements, but a website called ReadIndieandSci-FiandHorror.com would have been too long. I suppose ReadIndieSFF.com was right there, but I digress. The other truth is, I don’t read much horror, though I’d like to. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for an author to hear “I don’t normally read X but I loved your book” because does that mean the book stood out for an odd reason, rather than a great one? I digress again.
The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle by Steve Hugh Westenra describes itself as an adult horror comedy for fans of things I’ve never actually read or watched, but I like comedy, I like messy adult characters that swear a lot, and this book is also queer as fuck, which is absolutely my thing. I’m also quite squeamish. Can I handle horror?
The story is about our title character, Tyler Kyle, who is one half of a popular YouTube channel with his partner Josh. They investigate tales of cryptids and other spooky things for their audience, a bit like true crime podcasts, only Tyler may have fucked things up by accidentally kissing the presumably straight Josh. While he’s panicking over that, he also receives a video about his presumably still-dead mother on a mysterious Canadian island. Visiting the island and investigating is one way to avoid awkwardness (as you do), and so Tyler goes on ahead, not really expecting to find much.
What he does find, of course, is more than he bargained for.
There are layers of secrets on this mysterious island that get slowly revealed as Tyler explores and meets the locals, including a few twists I didn’t see coming, despite the clever foreshadowing and overall creepiness. The author does a great job at setting up red herrings and misdirection and balancing out the encroaching creepiness with Tyler’s own dark humour and cynical perspective on his situation and life. While he’s starting to slowly freak out and unravel, he’s also battling his own inner demons and insecurities in a way that feels sadly all too relatable. I love first-person books that understand how to SHOW the character, their personality and lived experience, instead of just narrating what’s going on. Tyler’s personality drips off the page, as does his worries and the humour he uses to hide it.
I’ll say that the story does take its time and feels a little slow at the start, but then the actual horror hits, and I wasn’t entirely prepared for it.
Things get pretty dark, and if you don’t like torture scenes, then you may balk at this one. I often think that good stories should make you feel uncomfortable at times, and there were parts of this book where I was yelling at the page in the same way you’d yell at a character in a horror film to just bloody turn around. It’s all the more satisfying when they don’t listen to you yelling, and they suffer. Maybe that’s just me. And then you’re yelling because you, the reader, know things that the characters don’t know. There are definitely moments that made me cringe. If this was a film, I’d be burying my head at those parts. But there were also quite emotional, tender moments, that made me tear up. This book made me feel, damn it!
It goes without saying that this is an adult book with adult moments, and I appreciate that the author didn’t shy from these. In fact, this book absolutely celebrates them. I loved the world, love the backstory of the island, loved the variety of queer side characters and where the story eventually went, and I look forward to reading more by the author. Does this mean I’ll pick up more horror? Well, I’m open to it!
Final Words
The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle is a queer comedy horror that knows exactly what it is and has a lot of fun with it.
AHHHHHHH!
Thank you so so so much for reading and reviewing and for saying such nice things. This made my day! <333333