Synopsis: Hideous - Devon McCormack - June 2014
Eight years ago, Luke
Retter witnessed the brutal murder of his mother and sister at the hands
of his demon-possessed father. He survived but lost a hand and an eye.
The demon also burned its emblem into his skin, marking him as a cursed.
Those who bear this mark are at risk of becoming possessed themselves,
so they are monitored and enslaved by the state-run UCIS. Working as a
slave is hard, but Luke prefers it to the possibility of being
controlled by a demon.
One night, Luke wakes to find his worst
nightmare coming true. His father's demon has returned. In a panic, he
runs to the only person who might be able to help: Zack, a cursed who
ran away from the state and created an underground community to protect
other fugitive curseds. Zack helps him suppress the demon. But the
city's become a time bomb, and Luke's demon itches to escape.
With
the UCIS closing in on Zack's underground operation and Luke's demon
crafting its own, nefarious plot, Luke realizes that he must take a
stand.
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22295284-hideous?from_search=true
Why
YA Needs more LGBT Heroes
I'd like to start off with a big thanks for
having me on the blog today to promote the release of my first Young Adult novel,
Hideous. I jokingly pitch it as "a sweet little book about a boy
and his demon." The more accurate version is: a twisted tale of a boy whose
demon-possessed father severed off one of his hands and gouged out one of his
eyes. Years later, the demon returns to possess him.
My protagonist, Luke, is a young, gay man.
He bears the mark of the demon that possessed his father. Those who bear a
demon's mark are forced to work for the state so they can be monitored, as
they're more likely than most to become possessed themselves. Luke works at an
all-boys high school, where he has to watch all the other boys getting to go on
dates and to school dances. Being gay, this is what much of high school felt
like for me. I was an outsider. I could watch all the other guys go on dates
and to the dances with their girlfriends, but how did I fit into that system?
At the time, I harbored a lot of self-hate and anger about the attraction I
felt for guys, and it didn't feel fair that I didn't get to walk along the easy
path that everyone else seemed to have carved out for them. If I felt attracted
to a guy, I didn't get eager and excited. I got worried and fearful. What had I
done wrong? Was this a punishment from God? Surely, it had to have been.
Otherwise, there wouldn't have been such severe stigmas around it.
It was more than just what I felt around my
peers, though. The absence of gay representations in media seemed to indicate
that, not only was it abnormal to be gay, but it was something that people
didn't want to look at. I gradually came to believe that being gay meant that I
didn't matter to the rest of the world and that somehow being out about my
sexuality would mean I was agreeing to be shunned and ignored--which was
something I desperately feared. I kept my secret through high school. In fact,
I didn't even start acting on my attraction to guys until I was twenty. This
certainly isn't as long as it is for some people, but it was a long time to
bottle up emotions and denial, and it took a toll on me emotionally.
Fortunately, I discovered some great people who supported me as I started
accepting who I really am, and for that, I'm so appreciative.
Looking
back, I realize it didn't help that there were no gay role models I could look
to--nothing to help me with coming to terms with my sexuality as a teenager.
I'm glad to say that isn't the case today. Teenagers have more access to gay
heroes and gay representations than ever before, and it's a great step in the
right direction, because it's a smoke signal--an indication that "Hey,
you're not alone, and we can get through this together." When I wrote Hideous,
I wanted to create a story about a young, gay man who felt the sort of lonely
isolation that so many of us push through in our formative years. I wanted to
be able to reach out to someone who experienced something similar to let them
know we're all going to get through this together. And fortunately, gay heroes
in YA stories just keep coming. Publishing companies are becoming more and more
accepting of gay characters, and I think we're going to see a big shift in the
next few years. Of course, it’s not just gay men who aren’t being represented.
The entire spectrum of the LGBT community isn’t getting the attention that it
deser
