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A hunted community. A haunted author. A horror that spans centuries.
Men are disappearing from Toronto's gay village. They're the marginalized, the vulnerable. One by one, stalked and vanished, they leave behind small circles of baffled, frightened friends. Against the shifting backdrop of homophobia throughout the decades, from the HIV/AIDS crisis and riots against raids to gentrification and police brutality, the survivors face inaction from the law and disinterest from society at large. But as the missing grow in number, those left behind begin to realize that whoever or whatever is taking these men has been doing so for longer than is humanly possible.
Woven into their stories is David Demchuk's own personal history, a life lived in fear and in thrall to horror, a passion that boils over into obsession. As he tries to make sense of the relationship between queerness and horror, what it means for gay men to disappear, and how the isolation of the LGBTQ+ community has left them profoundly exposed to monsters that move easily among them, fact and fiction collide and reality begins to unravel. Praise for Red X
"Can a horror novel be too disturbing? David Demchuk's Red X begs that question, not because of any excess of gore or violence but because of its singular and unflinching dark vision. That's a good thing-too much contemporary horror fiction plays for easy shocks and even easier sentimental tears, and Demchuk is clearly after something deeper."
-Toronto Star
"A book full of heart and righteous fury, an urban nightmare with some retro-horror stylings that sidesteps that genre's usual pitfalls of splatter and pessimism to deliver a story of emotional heft and guarded optimism. While it's relentless and can be incredibly disturbing, there are also moments of beauty, hope, and a certain melancholy. It's a complex, disturbing, challenging, and compulsively readable work that commands your attention, and indeed deserves it."
-Tor Nightfire David Demchuk's debut, The Bone Mother, was nominated for the Giller Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, the Toronto Book Award, the Kobzar Book Award and a Shirley Jackson Award, and won the 2018 Sunburst Award for Best Novel. RED X was listed as a CBC Books pick for Best Canadian Fiction of the Year, and a New York Public Library Best Book of 2021. He now lives with his husband in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Men are disappearing from Toronto's gay village. They're the marginalized, the vulnerable. One by one, stalked and vanished, they leave behind small circles of baffled, frightened friends. Against the shifting backdrop of homophobia throughout the decades, from the HIV/AIDS crisis and riots against raids to gentrification and police brutality, the survivors face inaction from the law and disinterest from society at large. But as the missing grow in number, those left behind begin to realize that whoever or whatever is taking these men has been doing so for longer than is humanly possible.
Woven into their stories is David Demchuk's own personal history, a life lived in fear and in thrall to horror, a passion that boils over into obsession. As he tries to make sense of the relationship between queerness and horror, what it means for gay men to disappear, and how the isolation of the LGBTQ+ community has left them profoundly exposed to monsters that move easily among them, fact and fiction collide and reality begins to unravel. Praise for Red X
"Can a horror novel be too disturbing? David Demchuk's Red X begs that question, not because of any excess of gore or violence but because of its singular and unflinching dark vision. That's a good thing-too much contemporary horror fiction plays for easy shocks and even easier sentimental tears, and Demchuk is clearly after something deeper."
-Toronto Star
"A book full of heart and righteous fury, an urban nightmare with some retro-horror stylings that sidesteps that genre's usual pitfalls of splatter and pessimism to deliver a story of emotional heft and guarded optimism. While it's relentless and can be incredibly disturbing, there are also moments of beauty, hope, and a certain melancholy. It's a complex, disturbing, challenging, and compulsively readable work that commands your attention, and indeed deserves it."
-Tor Nightfire David Demchuk's debut, The Bone Mother, was nominated for the Giller Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, the Toronto Book Award, the Kobzar Book Award and a Shirley Jackson Award, and won the 2018 Sunburst Award for Best Novel. RED X was listed as a CBC Books pick for Best Canadian Fiction of the Year, and a New York Public Library Best Book of 2021. He now lives with his husband in St. John's, Newfoundland.