★Abley, Sean & Tyler Doupé. Queer Horror: A Film Guide. McFarland. Jul. 2024. 468p. ISBN 9781476690278. pap. $75. FILM

While the queer coding in James Whale’s The Old Dark House, released in 1932, might be missed by some viewers, there’s nothing subtle about the 2007 The Gay Bed and Breakfast of Terror. Award-winning playwright/journalist/screenwriter Abley (Absence Makes the Heart) and Doupé (managing editor, Wicked Horror) document more than 900 horror films featuring LGBTQIA+ characters. The authors compile lively and insightful commentary from a collection of journalists who cover queer horror. Though full of gay zombies, lesbian vampires, and transgender slashers, the book aims for a level of completion that includes calling out movies in which only incidental LGBTQIA+ characters exist. They also point out harmful tropes and stereotypes and address that what was once groundbreaking for earlier generations might be offensive today. The titles include cult classics, hard-to-find shorts, direct-to-video adult titles, and noteworthy international films; some entries stretch the filmography’s horror premise, such as the 1961 gay blackmail mystery Victim. VERDICT An essential reference guide with engaging writing that shines. This is an exhaustive and valuable encyclopedia of the hits and misses of queer horror cinema. Genre fans will find plenty of titles to add to their watchlist.—Terry Bosky

Warner, Shayna Maci. The Rainbow Age of Television: An Opinionated History of Queer TV. Abrams. Aug. 2024. 304p. ISBN 9781419762574. $28. TV

This journey through decades of the LGBTQIA+ television landscape offers new perspectives on favorite queer characters and TV shows and introduces pop culture and queer-history readers to ones they may have missed. Film critic and curator Warner shares popular sentiments, like when calling Sara Ramirez’s portrayal of Che (a nonbinary character in the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That) “utterly divisive.” But the book also contains less-common analyses of well-known queer characters. Warner’s reframing of Bugs Bunny’s drag personas as powerful “transfeminine possibility” is at once convincing, charming, and triumphant. Well-cited and concluding with an extensive bibliography, this sprawling queer TV history also features several clever and original interviews with Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz, The L Word’s Jennifer Beals, RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Colby, and film director Lilly Wachowski, among others. VERDICT Including older selections (Norman Lear’s All That Glitters) alongside new ones (the A League of Their Own reboot), Warner will have readers searching streaming services to find the referenced shows. A delightful, nostalgic, and thought-provoking retrospective of a collective LGBTQIA+ history.—Ingrid Conley-Abrams