Hey there horror fans, I’m Jessica Avery and I’ll be delivering your weekly brief of all that’s ghastly and grim in the world of Horror. Whether you’re looking for a backlist book that will give you the willies, a terrifying new release, or the latest in horror community news, you’ll find it here in The Fright Stuff.
Happy second full week of Pride month folks. I know the world is a terrifying place right now for folks in the LGBTQIA+ community, but if you’re celebrating this month, I hope you’re able to find some joy and some time to just be yourself in the midst everything. As horror fans, we know that sometimes the best thing we can do when the headlines are full of terror is reach for something fictional to balance the scales. So with that in mind, I’m really excited to introduce you to this week’s horror recommendations!
Given that you can still smell the new paint on Horror’s recent mainstream publishing resurrection, and the fact that queer speculative fiction has often also had to exist outside the realms of traditional publishing houses, this week we’re celebrating the two forces that have been responsible for keeping both horror and queer fiction going through the years. Each of the books on this list has been published either by an indie press or by the author or editor themselves, and they’re all amazing books that you won’t want to miss.
The Book of Queer Saints ed. by Mae Murray
The debut anthology of editor Mae Murray, The Book of Queer Saints (with its striking cover!) was published independently following a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the project. The anthology includes new stories by familiar voices like Eric LaRocca (You’ve Lost A Lot of Blood) and Hailey Piper (Queen of Teeth). It also features 13 stories in total from queer authors whose works span the width and breadth of the horror genre. If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, I highly recommend adding The Book of Queer Saints to your horror pride reading list.
Unfettered Hexes ed. by David Ring (AOC – Approx 50%)
This is not the first time I have shared my love for this eclectic collection of queer, dark fiction, and it definitely won’t be the last. Unfettered Hexes is everything I could want in an anthology: it’s diverse, delicious, witchy perfection, and you couldn’t ask for better. Stories range from sci-fi to fantasy to horror, often blurring the lines between the three to create captivating queer stories of survival, love, revenge, hope, and nightmares. It’s also worth noting that, if like me you love your books to be as visibly beautiful as the stories they contain, Neon Hemlock makes gorgeous books and Unfettered Hexes is no exception. I mean, just look at that cover.
The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan
Is it even a list of horror recommendations if I don’t include a Gothic, erotic, vampire horror novel when I have the chance? Set in 1927 colonial Singapore, Lianyu Tan’s second novel is a gorgeous work of historical horror about a maidservant who ends up falling in love with both her vampiric mistress and her mistress’ majordomo, kicking off a F/F love triangle that – in a unique twist – is up to the reader to resolve. The novel contains two complete, exclusive final acts, allowing readers to decide how they want the story to end. Tan’s specialty is dark stories about characters caught up in questionable relationships, and if you enjoy The Wicked and the Willing and want to follow it up with something a little more romance-y (but still pretty darn dark,) I HIGHLY recommend Tan’s first book, her Hades and Persephone retelling Captive in the Underworld, with which I am 100% obsessed.
Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Tsai (August 2)
You might remember Unwieldy Creatures from my Frankenstein birthday post in January! It’s going to be out in August and I’m really curious to get my hands on a copy because I love a Frankenstein adaptation. Billed as a queer gender reversal of Mary Shelley’s original novel, Unwieldy Creatures features a narrator who is a medical intern. She finds her prized internship in the country’s most prestigious embryologist lab upended when the renowned star scientist of the lab, Dr. Frank, has a breakdown and ends up couch surfing in the intern’s house. While she recovers, Dr. Frank tells the intern her story of an experiment gone wrong. This is a tale of ambition, murder, and bloody revenge.
Ashthorne by April Yates (August 23)
April Yates’ debut novella won’t be out until August, but it’s worth waiting for. It’s a queer, historical, Gothic horror-romance, so it’s already ticking pretty much every box on my “must read this book” list. Ashthorne is set in the aftermath of WWI, in a manor house that has been repurposed as a convalescence hospital and may be housing more than just injured soldiers. Adelaide came to Ashthorne to be a nurse, and to hide from her family. But when she ends up falling in love with Evelyn, the owner’s daughter, the two set out to investigate Evelyn’s suspicions about the hospital, and in the end, Adelaide may find that Ashthorne is not the safe haven she hoped it would be.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Fresh From the Skeleton’s Mouth
As part of the Horror Writers Association’s A Point of Pride series, Michelle Lane interviewed queer horror author Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam.
The Shades of Orange is a great booktube resource for horror book recommendations, so if you haven’t visited Rachel’s channel yet, be sure to check it out! I love this recommendation video for horror books about creepy dolls and other terrifying toys.
Netflix is going to be bringing back the 90’s teen horror nostalgia once again, this time with an adaptation of Christopher Pike’s The Midnight Club! So excited!
As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.