HEX

Four gay friends search for their missing companion, whom they suspect has been lost to a supernatural force.

On the night of Castro’s death, Miami is ablaze with celebrations, particularly in the gay community. Langston and Azaril, graduate students from California, are visiting Miami with their friend Damian. The men’s relationships are complicated: Langston and Damian have had their share of trysts since their middle-school days in Germany, but now, Langston is in love with Azaril, his best friend, who claims to be straight. Langston’s doubt about that may have merit, but it is Damian, not Langston, who tempts him. When Damian mysteriously disappears, though, they must band with two of his newer lovers—Reynaldo and drag-queen Quentin. Langston turns to his aunt Reginia, a noted psychic, for help, and she gives him a well-traveled manual of spells, which was passed down to her by a woman named Verity Gapstone. Despite Reginia’s warnings, Langston attempts a love spell on Azaril, which has muddled, near-disastrous results. But the manual becomes particularly relevant when the four friends travel to New Haven to consult with Damian’s adoptive father. They learn that his biological father had been a gay member of the Black Panthers named Credence Gapstone—Verity’s son—and they begin to suspect, through a series of largely illogical connections, that an angry warlock is on their path. The search spirals into a crazed, supernatural adventure, with travel back in time and through parallel universes. But will Langston’s complicated inquiries into Damian’s past bring his friend back? By the end of this bloated, meandering adventure, it is difficult to care either way. Scott attempts to weave together a complicated story involving race, sexuality, politics, Yoruba tradition, time travel, sorcery and more; his clumsy prose buckles quickly under the pressure.

A bizarre, overwritten disaster.