The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle

This book was an absolute whirlwind of queerness, emotion, campy humor, and skin-crawling horror. IT. WAS. AMAZING!!

There is no way to describe what you should expect from this book. Just buckle up and enjoy the ride. It’s a labyrinth of horror that will have your anxiety up, stomach turning, and jaw dropping from the never-ending twists. Also, my eyes were a continuous fountain of tears from Act 2 onwards—I cried literally right up until the last word.

Phenomenal book!!

This a hard book to talk about without spoilers. So let me tell you a little about my experience of reading it and a few things I CAN comment on spoiler-free.

Horror’s not a genre I consider myself fluent in. So partway through this book I ran to my spouse and a close friend–both huge horror fans/connoisseurs—begging: “y’all. I think this is incredibly good?? Validate me??? Also I NEED TO TALK TO SOMEONE ELSE ABOUT THIS OR I MIGHT IMPLODE???’

See, we were all about to go on a camping trip in the forested, internetless wilderness: an ideal reading situation for it (tho a small isolated wilderness town would be even better). And while I’d been screaming my feelings in barely coherent Bsky posts at the kind Steve, I wasn’t going to be able to do that for the last part of the book.

Readers, they also both loved it. We spent a non-trivial amount of our weeklong camping trip talking about it and all the cool and clever tricks Steve employed to take us all on an absolutely wild journey through the psyche of a very messy queer boy and the murder island that loves him. 

(spouse/friend also helped decode some references I didn’t recognize with their greater genre savvy. Given that the main character is an internet celebrity/co-star of a cryptid-investigation YouTube, the density of references and memes is fun and fitting, and not getting them all didn’t detract from my enjoyment.)

An important note. If you start this book and, like my spouse, go ‘WOW. UHH. This main character is… a LOT???’ 

Yes, he is. That is true.

However. I implore you. Keep reading. 

You have no idea. But please, trust me. Keep on, pay attention, and you will be richly rewarded for your perseverance.

This book is an exquisite character study of a queer man whose recent, crushing rejection has left him questioning his own ability to perceive others, himself, and reality in general. 

It’s a genius setup. Tyler’s understandable inability to trust himself in this moment leaves him horrifyingly vulnerable to misapprehending the nature and severity of the threats surrounding him. 

Also: Steve’s prose is gorgeous. Specific, rich, immersive; by turns hilarious, surreal, and reverently beautiful (sometimes all in the same scene). I can’t overstate how pleasurable I found the sheer act of reading this book.

Until the horror kicked ALL the way in, and reading became agonizing. Readers, I was NOT PREPARED. But it was too late for me, just like it was too late for Tyler, and I’m SO glad I held on white-knuckled and screaming and saw this story through, because.

Oh. My heart.

This story made me feel so much.

If any of what I have said tickles your interest at all, buy this book. Read this book! I loved it so much I read it twice in a row and made other people read it!

I own a physical cooy but wanted to boost via itch as well. I really enjoyed the premise of this book and found Tyler to be a fun, relatable protagonist. It was cool to notice “odd” things in the story and learn that they were intentional later on. Definitely recommend others give a read. 

This premise is so utterly delightful, and the execution even better 👏✨ the blend of horror and comedy is such a hard needle to thread but you nailed it!