Gary Thomas
The story of a Coventry-born nerdy homosexual with an anxiety disorder, a dysfunctional family, various love interests, a love for all things film-related, and a constant paralysing fear of death. Expect romance, comedy, and drama within this survivor’s guide to living as a queer hypochondriac.Gary, born on May 20th, 1992, to an unhappy couple who would often go on to describe him as a mistake, would go on to live his life full of very bizarre and unfortunate situations, whether it’s through living in supposed haunted houses or many awkward sexual encounters, all whilst having to face continuous anxiety and depression on a daily basis. To say his life is eventful would be an understatement; it’s so eventful, to the point that he would always be told by those who are aware of his story that he should write a book, and so here we are-the book has been written.Throughout the course of this memoir, Gary takes us through the first 33 years of his life with locations ranging from Coventry to Manchester, from London to Blackpool, and from Butlins Skegness to Majorca. We delve into indie music scenes through various bands that Gary was a part of as well as a journey into his varied film taste, from Friday the 13th being the first horror film he watched in full all the way to Everything Everywhere All at Once changing his life and becoming his favourite film of all time upon seeing it at the cinema. Amongst all of this is a dark side, so much so to the point that Gary feels as though he’s living through his own horror film as he faces the pressures of coming out of the closet, being in the middle of the many problems of his family, and facing bullies in various areas of life as well as the inescapable bully that is his own mind.This is a book that has been written as a way of therapy, a way of finding humour in bad situations whilst acknowledging how serious everything is that he has been through over the years, and it’s a way of reaching out to people who have been through similar weird, horrific, and difficult times as a helping hand of sorts, a bit of reassurance if you will, reassurance that you’re not alone and that someone else has been through this and has lived to tell the tale. After all, above all of the darkness, this is a story of optimism, a story of fighting through all of the hard times that life throws at you in order to find who you are and where you belong in order to live a life that may be far from normal but also a life that fits your own personal idea of happiness.
