Set against the backdrop of San Francisco during the presidential elections, we follow Nathan Valmont and Oliver Merteuil as they set out on their respective paths of conquest and revenge in this daring and imaginatively faithful but no-less trangressive adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’ iconic epistle; Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
For Valmont, it is a constant pursuit of pleasure and indulgence, and for Merteuil; to be the avenger–the right hand of God–bringing justice for those like him.
Bound by a wager that will be impossible for either one to get out of, Nathan and Oliver embark on a game of seduction and psychological warfare that turns their chosen targets into helpless flies caught in their web.
Like the original work, Where the Vile Things Are confronts, challenges, and holds a mirror up to class, marginalization, privilege, and the tribalism of today.
“With his ninth novel, WHERE THE VILE THINGS ARE, Marcus James finds the metaphysical in passion–superstitious, automatic, and measuredly paranoid passion. Patterned on the French eighteenth century novel Dangerous Liaisons, Vile Things relocates the wickedly jealous machinations of the Ancient Regime to contemporary gay San Francisco; a society complex enough to accommodate drop-dead-handsome bisexual cockswains and gay right-wing Christian pundits working the MAGA field, and the women who love these disgusting creatures. The novel takes a microscope to the problems of gay feeling and identity, and through the character of twice-bitten Oliver Merteuil tenderly examines the appalling beauty of sincere universal romantic emotion. It is a plea for and a treatise on understanding, which only propels the story toward its take-no-prisoners climax and wistfully wise ending. It is that enviable narrative: uncannily clever and breathtakingly felt.”
–Michael Carroll, author of Stella Maris and Other Key West Stories and the Sue Kaufman Prize-winning Little Reef
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Particularly Vile and Deliciously Wicked, Songs that influenced Where the Vile Things Are: A Study in Sex, Revenge, Deceit, and Affluenza
Shuffle Recommended
About Marcus
I have been writing since the age of five. At the age of 17 I finished my first novel and at the age of 19 I was signed to my first literary agent. From 2005-2009 I was published in a dozen anthologies from Alyson Books. I have published nine novels. All of them varied and wonderful, filled with complex and engrossing people. I host a podcast called Queerly Spoken (on hiatus; thanks Covid), which focuses on curating the individual queer experience of everyday people by having them share their stories on air.
I am the winner of the Festival of Words Book Awards for Best Lierary Fiction in 2017 for the Blackmoore 2nd edition, a 2020 International Book Awards Finalist, and a 2020 Top Shelf Magazine Book Awards Finalist for Ghosts of Blood and Bone. My experience with conversion therapy at the age of 14 led to a lifelong activism for LGBTQ rights and sharing my story to help end clinical conversion therapy in Washington state.
I am a horror FANATIC. I love to cook. my passion for cooking shows and grocery shopping for ingredients and imagining I am Nigella Lawson or Ina Garten pretty much gets me through my day-to-day. I love my pets, history, and music. I LOVE going to live shows, drinking champagne till I can’t take the bubbles anymore! I’m a Leo through and through, and I love it. Fashion as art, as beauty, as a window in time and an exploration of societal movement and change is EVERYTHING! I used to produce runway shows back in the day and my Vogue subscription is a heavy weight in the best way. there is so much art around us and I love to absorb it in all of its forms.
Through my novels I hope to always show that everyone can be a hero, everyone can save the world, even a fem gay boy with a swish in his step!
ENJOY YOUR JOURNEY THROUGH THIS WONDERFULLY DARK AND MAGICAL WORLD OF MINE!
KEEP IN TOUCH! FOLLOW ME ON THE SOCIAL AND LETS TALK ABOUT ALL THE WEIRD, WONDERFUL, AND BRILLIANT THINGS THAT SURROUND US!
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The Blackmoore Legacy
2017 E-Festival of Words award winner for Best Literary Fiction
Blackmoore is a heart-wrenching, adventurous supernatural suspense in the tradition of television’s Dark Shadows and Anne Rice’s Lives of the Mayfair Witches. This novel introduces Marcus James and the bewitching Blackmoores to the world.
“Symphony for the Devil is a novel of the mysterious, the supernatural, and the wondrous, both magickal and mundane. It is a tale of lasting legacy and a cursed family. James does a masterful job of keeping the threads together with complex story weaving.
…A book descended from the same lineage that gave us such classics as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
—Manhattan Book Review
Sex, Witchcraft, and Rock & Roll on the Sunset Strip. Rise of the Nephilim is the first of a two part erotic paranormal romance/thriller revealing the beginnings of one of the most captivating characters in The Blackmoore Legacy Series. It is a stand alone prequel of Eroticism, romance, and suspense.
Los Angeles, 1987. Bodies have been turning up all over the city for months. Broken, bloodied, and mutilated with their hearts and brains missing, while dark entities are stalking the streets of the infamous Sunset Strip, gathering strength for some unknown purpose that seems to center around Kathryn Blackmoore, future matriarch of the Blackmoore dynasty of witches.
Other Titles
“Marcus James has a succinct voice for the paranormal. His verbiage draws upon human emotion and sexuality, as you will most certainly read within the pages of Instructions in Flesh. A page-turner that should be celebrated.”
–Joseph A. Federico, author of Voudou Juice
“…if you aren’t afraid to explore the deeper and darker sides of love, fear, and humanity, and you fancy the supernatural, then this book should already be in your hand!”
–EDGE: Boston
“James blends psychological thriller elements, mystery, and queer romance into a deeply unnerving tale….James creates a genuinely unsettling atmosphere while ratcheting up the tension but still allowing readers moments of relief in the sweet romance between Chase and Aaron….this frightening tale will appeal to fans of I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
A story of love, friendship, religious bigotry, and the courage to be yourself; In God’s Eyes is based on the author’s own experience, and explores the fragile stability of adolescence, and the horrors of religious conversion therapy. It’s a lyrical and theological coming of age story exposing the very real human horrors of religious dogma.
Armed with their unrelenting curiosity to learn the truth. Kelly and Michael set off on a road trip that leads them to more than just the facts about the mystery of Joan and Gordon Kaehee and their disappearance, it leads them to each other and themselves.
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