In these raw, uncompromising stories, author Ilsley explores the thin line between love and hate, and the outer perimeters of desire that can both heal and destroy. Infiltrating the dark confines of queer sensibilities, in which young men are undone by self-loathing and the powers-that-be, the question is posed: what happens when people know they are hated? Yet in the primal fantasies and bitter ironies there lies a sense of a new definition of masculine power encompassing both the gay and straight, dissonant and equal at the same time.