Now Read This: Next Of Kin (Elton Skelter)

The dark and thrilling queer romance “Next of Kin” is the latest must-read from the master of wickedly satisfying endings, Elton Skelter.

Hey, ghosts, ghouls, and all you gorgeous people! I’m just here to tell you about a really exciting book that recently came out called Next of Kin by Elton Skelter.

The best way to describe it is basically a dark, gay horror romance by Skelter, an influential queer horror author. I was so lucky to receive an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of it from Elton himself after a quick chat with him. And it was fantastic!

It focuses on a thrill-seeking serial killer named Jacob Mallory, who has lived under the radar and murdered a lot of people over the years. But suddenly, a boy who attempted to commit suicide and is currently at a hospital has him listed as his emergency contact.

Jacob meets this boy, Nathan McGuire, and they immediately fall into a sort of sadomasochistic, dark, and twisted relationship.

But there are secrets still hidden, and Jacob continues to go out and kill people. What will break their relationship? What will happen by the end? What is Nathan hiding? These are some of the questions you’d ask as you start this one, and they’re all really worthwhile.

I’m not going to spoil the book, but know… the ending is just as gorgeously dark as the beginning is.

I had a chance to talk with Elton about his work (specifically two of his previous books).

Author Elton Skelter

One of them is a book called Monomania about an ensemble of very varied people who all in some way fit the “Final Girl” trope, although they’re gorgeously diverse — from a 70-year-old final girl to a nonbinary one, with our main protagonist being the most mysterious of the eight survivors all brought to one place for a documentary.

Then, of course, another killer comes. Who will make it out alive? And how gruesome will the imagery get? Spoiler alert: VERY gorgeously gruesome in a splatterpunk way.

In his own words, his goal with this one was to pay homage to all of his favorite horror movies and slashers while simultaneously updating them to his standard of gorgeous queerness.

The other one is called Let’s Get F*** Up And Die, a set of short stories in Skelter’s usual style, gorgeously queer and gorgeously dark at all the best possible points.

Personal favorites include the opening story, Chucklef***er, featuring a strange sentient STD collected after a one-night stand, as well as the gruesomely ocular All Eyes On Me, the attention-grabbing X is for XXX_Partyboi_69, and Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, which plays off of all our fears and hopes to be known and understood.

Skelter’s personal favorites are Chucklef***er and Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.

One thing Elton asked me to share with everyone is that his stories all feature a twist ending, as he was “raised on a diet of Agatha Christie”, and as such, the ending is one of the most emphasized parts of his tales.

So keep an eye out, as the ending always raises the stakes!

Written by JXR