It's a rare memoir in which one can see themselves -- a small-town farm slut turned big city queer journalist, for example -- but also constantly pause at the unflinching and powerful way an author recounts their personal journey. Alexander Cheves has offered such a book in My Love Is a Beast: Confessions (from Unbound Edition Press), a provocative and poetic look at one young queer man's coming of age in rural America.
His exploration in the kink and fetish world, his embrace of sex work and recreational drugs, even his move from city to city in search of himself and his people reflects so much of the modern queer experience in the gay meccas of the country today.
As Cheves moves from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Atlanta to New York, having sex with abandon, he moves through issues including a reappraisal of what it means to be "gay" today, his role as a feminist in a cis male body, and what is acceptance versus a betrayal of self.
His embrace of sex work and his own sexual thirsts are laid bare, very bare, in efforts both to be transparent and a bit of a braggart, but to also buck the stigma that comes with sex work, chemsex, and gay fetish play.
I loved every uncomfortable minute of My Love Is a Beast, and it's a must-read for many folks, not just queers, though Cheves gives nods to the latter throughout, often in subversively political ways. Even the rather benign ending nods to why readers should care. It's an acknowledgment of thanks to "those who fought a plague and liberated me and all future faggots by refusing to simply die."
This story is part of The Advocate's 2021 Film and TV issue, which is out on newsstands October 5, 2021. To get your own copy directly, support queer media and subscribe -- or download yours for Amazon, Kindle, Nook, or Apple News.
