“It is a sad but very real truth that there is no future for relationships where spaghetti and chocolate milk does not play a major role.”
Chuck Tingle is not exactly an author who fits neatly into a box. From absurdist erotica featuring sentient dinosaurs and political satire to surprisingly heartfelt stories about love, identity, and acceptance, Tingle has built one of the most distinctive bodies of work in modern fiction. And with his popularity continuing to grow, there has never been a better time to dive headfirst into his books. But where should you begin? With dozens of books, novellas, and short stories to choose from, finding the best Chuck Tingle books can almost feel as chaotic as the stories themselves. Today at What We Reading, we’re rounding up our best Chuck Tingle books in order, from the wonderfully bizarre to the genuinely moving. Whether you’re a longtime Tingler or totally new to his work, these are the books worth adding to your TBR pile.
Bury Your Gays (2024)
Kicking off our list of the best Chuck Tingle books is 2024’s USA Bestseller, Bury Your Gays. Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years and has just been nominated for his very first Oscar. But when he’s pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the season finale – “for the algorithm” – Misha discovers that it’s not that simple.
As he is haunted by his past and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what’s right – before it’s too late.
Check Out The Best Books Like Bury Your Gays
Camp Damascus (2023)
Welcome to Neverton, Montana: home to a God-fearing community with a heart of gold. Nestled high up in the mountains is Camp Damascus, the self-proclaimed “most effective” gay conversion camp in the country. Here, a life free from sin awaits. But the secret behind that success is anything but holy.
Camp Damascus is a searing and earnest horror debut novel by Chuck Tingle about the demons the queer community faces in America, the price of keeping secrets, and finding the courage to burn it all down.
Lucky Day (2025)
Vera is a survivor of a global catastrophe known as the Low Probability Event, but she definitely isn’t thriving. Once a passionate professor of statistics, she no longer finds meaning in anything at all.
But when problematic government agent Layne knocks on her door, she’s the only one who can help him uncover the connection between deadly spates of absurdity and an improbably lucky casino. What’s happening in Vegas isn’t staying there, and the world is at risk of another disaster. When it comes to Chuck Tingle, the only thing more terrifying than a serious horror novel is an absurd one.
Fabulous Bodies (2026)
Fashion influencer by day and grave-robber by night, Poppy Stringer is on call when Eddie Michaels – a flamboyant, piano-slamming rockstar and queer icon – unexpectedly dies. All Poppy needs to do is retrieve Eddie’s body from the medical examiner’s office, but what starts out as a routine delivery quickly goes off course when Eddie wakes up.
Poppy must fight for her life in a blood-soaked night of carnage and fabulous entertainment all across Palm Springs. Fabulous Bodies is a supernatural joyride where Drive meets Beetlejuice.
Straight (2021)
When a strange tear in the cosmos appears within Earth’s annual path, the consequences are disastrous. For one night a year, the vast majority of humans now undergo a frightening mental change, transforming into hateful, rage-fuelled zombies who will stop at nothing to satiate their desire for brutality.
While not much is understood about this horrific mass hysteria, the demographic it affects is very specific: cisgender straight people. A few years after the first of these tragic events, four friends from across the queer spectrum look for safety in solitude, hunkering down in a remote desert cabin for what is now known as Saturation Day. With a vaccine available for straight people to curb their violent episodes, some predict the worst is over. Others aren’t so sure.
Trans Wizard Harriet Porber And The Bad Boy Parasaurolophus (Trans Wizard Harriet Porber #1) (2020)
Trans wizard Harriet Porber is a master spellsmith who’s found herself in a bit of a pickle. After finishing wizard college, Harriet garnered a reputation by creating a hit viral spell, but has since failed to brew a follow-up. Now Harriet’s agent, Minerma, is suggesting that Harriet take a trip to an island off the coast of England for inspiration. Harriet arrives to find that her new neighbour, an angsty bard named Snabe, is already there making a racket.
This parasaurolophus spellcaster is a bad boy, and with his incredible powers of metamagic, Snabe reveals that this layer of reality is much more than it seems. Soon enough, these two are discovering that they have more similarities than differences. But with the addition of two devious sentient motorcycles to the mix, Dellatrix and Braco, things start to get complicated.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
