Boyfriends from Hell: True Tales of Tainted Lovers, Disastrous Dates and Love Gone Wrong! [Paperback]

Kevin Bentley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2003

Everyone has suffered the tortures of an unfaithful, unavailable, controlling, or demanding date, boyfriend, or lover. They may be hell to live through, but they make riveting postmortems, collected here as twenty gay writers recount adventures from the deep end of the dating pool.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Green Candy Press (February 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931160147
• ISBN-13: 978-1931160148
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,576,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ex-Boyfriend Origami, December 11, 2003

By 

Little Old Me - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boyfriends from Hell: True Tales of Tainted Lovers, Disastrous Dates and Love Gone Wrong! (Paperback)

Kevin Bentley sure did have something devious in mind when he decided to compile this anthology... "Boyfriends from Hell" documents 19 gay writers' stories of twisted loved affairs with men of very little virtue and decency.

Every reader should be warned that the cover of this book can be misleading. Humor was not the sole intedned purpose. Though all of the stories are incredibly well written, very few have laugh-out-loud quality. The tones tend to be sarcastic and bitter, yet poignant, as writers talk about the hardships of gay relationships in general and then top it off with their experience with a failed romance with a mentally-disturbed (and sometimes dangerous) lover. Stephen Greco's story, Miss Bankhead at Home, is one of the better works in the collection, as he recounts an ex resurfacing in his life. Peter is a failed actor/model, who's looks have faded from aging and drug use. The romance is unsteady to begin with, but Greco talks about being drawn back in with the strange man, until one night he has a knife pulled on him.

Under the guise of humor, some of the writers really give us disturbing stories and we cannot help but sympathize with them and their experiences. In one story, a young man is tries to capture the affections of a sexually-confused but charismatic married man, only to eventually realize that he is being used. Other stories rely on a situational confrontation, such as the surprisingly hysterical story, "In the Garden of the North American Cocktease". The story starts out very humorous and one cannot help but chuckle out loud to the narrator's witty observations but in the end, we realize that the date with a "dream guy" could have eventually led him into a very violent confrontation. Erotica writer, Simon Sheppard, lends his talents as well in "Going Down, Going Down Down", an amusing tale of an online hook-up gone wrong, completed with talk of diaper fetishes and crack pipes.

It is unfortunate the only weak story would come from the editor, Kevin Bentley. Kevin knows how to pick his writers well, but sometimes I think he's too scatterbrained to know what to do with so much excellent material. This really shows in his own story, "Widow Hopper". Bentley tries to do it all - combining real drama, sarcasm and a sex scene that would have been appropriate if the subject matter weren't so bleak. Author's should have more faith in their intended subject matters. Some of the stories featured are very real and very powerful, so we don't need to dillude them with funny cartoon covers and odd humor attempts.

Over all, this collection is fantastic. I wouldn't recommend trying to read every story in one night, but rather savor them over several reading sessions. This is a must-have for the disgruntled romantic - documented proof that the one that got away could have been a BOYFRIEND FROM HELL....

3.0 out of 5 stars A Short Story Collection -- Not All Humerous, July 9, 2007

By 

F. Chloupek (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boyfriends from Hell: True Tales of Tainted Lovers, Disastrous Dates and Love Gone Wrong! (Paperback)

Admittedly, the cover and type font of the paperback edition are misleading. While some of the short stories in this collection are "light" this is not a humor collection.

Rather it is a collection of serious short stories of gay relationships (or tricks) that have turned out wrong.

Given that we have that misconception out of the way (and I like both humerous and serious stories), I found the quality of the stories very mixed.

Among thos I liked were "The Golden Tooth" by Barry Adams which was a nice first love with a crazy person story, "Double Booking" by Steve Nugent, which discusses juggling 2 guys at once, "My Boyfriend Brought Home A Rock And Roll Band" by Jerry Rosco and "My Primitive Man" by Donald Hatch.

There were more misses though, such as "The Smell Of Asparagus Pee" by Shaun Levin which I just didn't get at all and "Geisha In The Pigpen" by Don Shewey which didn't even seem to fit the anthology.

If you don't mind skimming an anthology for the better stories, and you grab this used its an OK page turner, but again don't be decieved by the humerous cover and type font.