10 QUEER HORROR BOOKS To Add To Your TBR

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hi guys, I'm Kasia. Welcome to your coffee times to talk about horror. And as promised, I'm back with a book recommendation video. And this time we're here to talk about queer horror books.

[00:00:15]It's coffee time.

[00:00:19]I promised I was going to make a video on queer horror books and here we are.

[00:00:24]And I decided to make a total of 10 book recommendations. Normally I try to keep it to eight, but there's so many books out there that are so interesting that are queer horror books. So, I made a list of 10 and I considered to wait until June to do this video because, you know, it's Pride Month, but any month is actually a month to celebrate pride and to celebrate queerness. So, why not?

[00:00:49]Let's do it now in the month of May. The books that I am going to talk to you about are very different. I wanted to provide a mix of different types of horror books and horror thrillers that include queer characters. And there's also a couple of YA books in here because I feel obviously that representation is important as well in YA books. And you should not be sleeping on YA horror books. Let's start with a book that I have absolutely loved and adored and that is Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. To be honest with you, this book is one of those that it did not feel like so much a horror book, but more kind of like atmospheric, eerie, very dramatic story, but in the core of it all, it is a beautiful queer relationship. And this book, the way it was written, it was just so fantastic.

[00:01:46]Like I could not like stop thinking about the way the author was describing things and the words she was using. It was just so wonderful to listen to. I listened to the audiobook of this one and it was amazing. So I have been meaning to read more by Julia Armfield, but unfortunately I still have not read anything else by her. This is one of those books that has a devastating story and one of those books that is going to haunt you long after you have read it.

[00:02:15]It's one of those books that stays with you. After a deep sea mission that ended catastrophically, Miri has been grieving the loss of her wife, Leah. But then Leah just comes back. She just shows up one day at the door and Miri couldn't be happier. I mean, this is a reason to rejoice, to be happy because you got your wife back that you thought you lost.

[00:02:38]However, Leah doesn't seem to be the same person that went deep under the sea. The person that came back it's different. Whatever happened under the sea to Leah has changed her forever. Our Wives Under the Sea is a book told through two different perspectives. We follow Miri, who is grieving the loss of her wife, Leah.

[00:03:00]When Leah shows up and she has to face the fact that Leah is never going to be the same person again.

[00:03:07]And then we also follow Leah in her mission under water and we're going to learn exactly what happened to her. This is more of a study on emotions and people and how people change and how we have no control over that and how when people change, relationships also automatically have to change. So it's a very interesting study in all of that and it has this kind of like eerie atmospheric kind of horror vibe, but it's not a full-on horror. So don't go into it expecting that. It kind of talks about the question, you know, when people change, people that we love, can we still love them the same way? Is it possible? Now we're going to talk about a horror dystopian book and we have Manhunt. It is by Gretchen Felker-Martin and this book, keep in mind that it's going to be very different in tone because this one is very bloody, very gory, very explicit. It basically follows two trans women that are living in a post-apocalyptic version of New England and they're just trying to survive. The fun part about this one is also that the virus that spreads and you know, turns the earth into this post-apocalyptic world affects basically men and turns them into rabid monsters.

[00:04:23]So, Beth and Fran are our two main characters and they are working together to try to kill these feral rabid monsters that men have turned into. And that's where the fun part obviously comes, but that's also why this book is quite gory. What they're also doing is they're killing this man and then they are harvesting the organs and that's what's helping them survive. This is a story that will remind you to the story of The Last of Us in the sense that they took the idea of a zombie virus kind of thing and then gave it a spin and turned it into something a little bit different, you know, like in The Last of Us you have all of these kind of like spores, like this kind of vegetation that grows and that's what's causing people to get sick and turn into this evil zombies. There are some basic questions in this book, you know, about morality, good and evil, what's right and what's wrong. It's a book that is also very fast-paced with a lot of action, so be prepared to be really in this wonderful ride. But also in one of the very important things about this book is that it talks about all of the societal issues that a lot of trans women and trans men have to face every day and all of the problems and and things that they have to go through.

[00:05:37]So, it's very interesting to read that as well, especially when you are not queer, but you want to learn a little bit more about their experience.

[00:05:44]Everything is told kind of through metaphors and stuff like that, but it's still very easy to understand where the social commentary comes at play. Moving on to another book, we have Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, and this one again, very very different. Um it is one of those books that has a lot of atmosphere, but this is another one of those that it is really filled with social commentary if you look for it. We follow Rose, and even though she has very strict parents, she is content with her life. However, she lives in a town where everybody is very uber religious, like to the extreme, and of course they have to go to church as well and follow the rules of our Lord and Savior. There is also a church called Kingdom of the Pine, and it's kind of like a shady church that runs a conversion camp for teenagers that have lost their way, or that's what they think, and are sent there to yeah, to convert them back into being heterosexual. But this summer is going to be different for Rose because there is somebody new at school, a girl that kind of changes Rose's perspective. The moment that Rose sees the beautiful pretty girl, her life starts to change.

[00:07:05]She has these weird nightmares or hallucinations. She doesn't know exactly what's going on with her, but there is something very very wrong, and she's going to start to remember what happened to her. Now, this book, the only issue I had with it is that I wish we would have spent a lot more time in Camp Damascus, which is obviously this conversion camp, this gay conversion camp, and that is in the book, okay, the the camp is in the book, but I feel like we got so little of it, and it was very intense, and I loved that was my favorite part when we were at the camp, but I wish kind of we would have seen more of that. But, that doesn't mean that this book was not good because it was fantastic. And I would definitely recommend you to check it out. It's basically a horror book that talks about the persecution of gay, queer, um teenagers in a lot of the religious circles. Moving on to another favorite of mine, and that is We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer. This is a horror thriller. And to be honest with you, when I picked it up, I thought it was just a thriller. What was my surprise when I started reading this book, and I realized very quickly this was the stuff of nightmares. There's something about Marcus Kliewer's way of writing that is just so unsettling.

[00:08:24]Like, I was reading it, and I was like, "Mm, it's giving me the ick. It's giving me the ick." And that is why I loved it so much. So, while I am going to be diving into his new book this month, I wanted to mention this book again because it's just so good. It was a lot of people's favorite horror book of 2024. I think it came out. And I think it deserved it. Between the great characters and the sense of dread that you're going to have throughout the whole book, this is a fantastic read for especially gloomy, rainy days. I believe it's one of those that is really going to take you on a trip. We follow Charlie and Eve, and they are a couple. They are both working in the same business. They basically buy old houses, and they flip them, and then they resell them. And this time they have bought a house in like in an area that normally didn't work at, but they couldn't pass this opportunity to buy this house because it was perfect. So, they go to the house.

[00:09:20]They start, you know, making a list of everything that needs to be renovated.

[00:09:24]They are starting with the renovations, all of those things. When one day, Eve is home alone while Charlie is getting, you know, things to renovate the house.

[00:09:34]And Eve receives the visit of a stranger. It is a man knocking at her door asking to see the house.

[00:09:44]He comes with his family and says, "We used to live here. Can we come in, take a look? I would like to show my kids where I used to live."

[00:09:52]And Eve is a people-pleaser. So, she has a hard time saying no.

[00:09:58]And I've been in her shoes before.

[00:10:01]And I have learned now that you can say no.

[00:10:04]And Eve says, "You know what? Okay, just a quick tour of the house and you're out because, you know, we're still working in the house, whatever." So, the family goes into the house and that's when things get a little bit complicated. Um one of the family members disappears inside of the house and they're unable to locate this person. And that's where the nightmare truly starts. Now, I cannot tell you more about the plot because I think it's going to be ruining the experience. So, I will only tell you that, which is basically the synopsis of the book. But, I will say that it reminded me in a lot of ways to House of Leaves. However, this is a more palatable version of that.

[00:10:46]>> [laughter] >> It's not so um exhausting to read in a way. It's not a story where the footnotes have footnotes or telling you a second story.

[00:10:58]But, it was one of those that it takes you on a trip and you don't know exactly where you're going to land.

[00:11:04]But, if you love really interesting horror horror that is very atmospheric, horror that is a little bit bizarre, that comes with kind of all the worldly things happening and going on inside of houses where nothing is what it seems, this is going to be the book for you. Let's talk now about one of those YA horrors that I am going to recommend you. The first one is You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by uh Kaelen Byron. And this one takes place at a summer camp, so this is going to be perfect if you're looking already for summer reads. We are in Camp Mirror Lake, and it is a summer camp where there are some people reenacting like like the most famous scenes from slasher movies and stuff like that. It's basically a camp for horror fans. And Charity, our main character, is really excited to get a job there because she's going to have her, you know, dream job.

[00:12:01]She's going to be a final girl for the whole summer. The way the camp works is people come into the camp, and then they present them with like a horror scene, horror scenario, and they have to survive the night. But everything is obviously a skit, you know, everything is acted, they're actors. So everybody is always safe at the end of the day, and then they get to go home with this beautiful experience. However, this time around the horror story is going to become reality. The last week of the season, when they are kind of already, you know, ready to wrap up the season and go back home, the workers at the camp start disappearing one by one. And when one of the co-workers is found dead, Charity understands that becoming the final girl this time around is going to be a real task. Charity and her girlfriend, Bessie, are going to try to figure out who is the killer and what they want so they can survive the night. What I really enjoyed was the summer camp atmosphere.

[00:13:04]And you can tell that the author really loves horror, you know, horror books and horror movies. And I also like that the tension is kind of slowly built, so it's not like from the get-go all of this dread and stuff. It's like more fun at the beginning, and then the the tension starts to build up, and you're starting to get into the state of fear and dread.

[00:13:23]But keep in mind that even though this book sounds like it's going to be a slasher, it's not 100% a slasher. I I was expecting more of that and I didn't get that, but it doesn't mean that the horror is not good. It just means that if you were going into this book thinking it was a slasher, you might be a little bit disappointed. So, I'm just here to let you know, don't go into it expecting your typical slasher. Next, we have Crafting for Sinners by Jeni Keifer and this is going to be perfect for people that love horror about cults.

[00:13:54]This book basically follows a queer woman that is trying to survive and escape a craft store that she's trapped in that is run by a religious cult. So, it's another kind of survive the night kind of vibe thing, you know, it's another survival story and I love those.

[00:14:09]Ruth is trapped. She's trapped in her hometown and the hometown is called Kill Devil. Love it. Love it for them. And she is closeted because the place that she lives in is very religious, so she has not said anything to anybody.

[00:14:25]However, one day at work, they discover that she's living with her girlfriend and that is a big no-no for this community, this religious cult and they decide, you know, to take action. So, Ruth is fired from her job after they find out that she lives with her girlfriend and she's fired from her job as a cashier at a store, a craft store that's being controlled by the church.

[00:14:47]So, before Ruth leaves the store for good and never comes back to this place, she decides in an act of revenge to kind of steal something. So, she takes some yarn and stuff from the shop and the people that run the shop catch her red-handed stealing. So, instead of calling the police, they instead decide to take care of it themselves. So, the question is, will Ruth be able to escape these people, this store, this town or will she not survive the night? The next book is the other YA book that I have included in this list and it is called Don't Let Forest In by C.G. Drews and this is a horror fantasy. We follow high school senior Andrew and he only finds refuge in writing dark fairy tale stories and the only person that he can turn to is a guy called Thomas and Thomas is the only one that can bring Andrew back to reality. Now, since starting the new year the new school year um Andrew's twin sister Dove has kind of been avoiding him and she has been acting weird around him. So, Thomas is the only one that Andrew can really count on at the moment. But, this year is going to be different at Wickwood Academy. Thomas is acting very different this year as well for some reason and his abusive parents have mysteriously disappeared and Thomas returned to school with blood on his sleeve. Thomas is not talking about it doesn't matter how many times Andrew asks him about it he just shuts down and also Thomas' art starts to change. The sketches that he draws are basically really dark creepy monsters. Desperate to figure out what's going on with Thomas Andrew decides to follow him one day into the forest and up they go up until kind of the very end of the forest where Andrew makes a really gruesome discovery and he's going to work together with Thomas from that point on to try to keep the forest and the monsters at bay. Now, keep in mind this is horror fantasy so there's going to be a lot of that in the book. So, especially for people that love dark fairy tales I think this is going to be a good read and also it has a school setting so if that's something that you love you know dark stories about monsters in a school setting this might also be for you. The next one is Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt and first of all I will say that this novel is very intense. This is not going to be for everybody. It's also quite depressing. So, keep in mind all of that when you go into it and make sure that you're in a good state of mind. 3 years ago, Alice spent a night at an abandoned house with some of her friends, and after that night, everything changed.

[00:17:35]Her life is miserable. She sells videos of herself for money. She parties and she crashes and she's basically on a road to self-destruction. The memories of the night that she spent in the abandoned house are tormenting Alice, and when one of her friends that was there with her that night asks her if she wants to come back because they want to figure out what actually happened to them in that place, she decides that the best thing she can do is actually go and face it once and for all. So, together the two girls decide to go and face whatever happened that night, and this is a story that is very slow-paced, so keep that also in mind when you go into it. And like I said, it's very dark, very depressing, but it's also a book that is presenting a very open and truthful and honest view of what it means to be a trans person. If you are going into this one for a horror novel, the horror kind of kicks in midway through the book, so you have to stay up until the midpoint so that, you know, the juicy horror parts start to come.

[00:18:39]This book has horror when it comes to the horrors of the real world and society and our culture and how we are treating trans people, but it also has horrors, you know, the typical horror elements from horror stories. So, it kind of is a blend of two, you know, the horrors of the real world and the horrors of a creepy abandoned place.

[00:19:00]This is one of those books that might be good for people that are looking for a different type of haunted house story, I guess, because the abandoned building provides that setting, but this is a very disturbing story as well, very intense, very gory. So, again, keep that in mind if it's something that you don't enjoy.

[00:19:20]Then we have A Botanical Daughter by Noah Metlock, and this is a horror fantasy historical fiction. We follow Simon and Gregor. They live in Victorian London, and they also live in a kind of separated from the city botanical garden, and they try to live there their lives happy as a couple because they have to keep their relationship secret.

[00:19:44]Simon works as a taxidermist. That's what he loves to do, so he has his own space there. And Gregor likes to explore plants and toxic plants and everything in the botanical garden. So, they're both also quite peculiar when it comes to their jobs {slash} hobbies.

[00:20:03]Everything is going well until Gregor kind of discovers this new type of fungus that it starts to have kind of like a conscience of its own, and Gregor decides to perform an experiment and do kind of like a Frankenstein thing.

[00:20:18]Gregor only thinks about winning an award and how, you know, popular that's going to make him and all of the fame he's going to receive, and he doesn't really think quite much about the consequences of playing God. So, this story is about queer love, but also about a fungus. Also, it's kind of violent and and bloody as well. I think it's also going to be perfect for people that like um horror that is kind of like botanical horror, you know, that includes plants and stuff like that. And also, obviously, if you love stories about the Victorian era, which gives it kind of like a gothic touch. And we have our last book in this list, which is another YA horror. We have The Blossom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran. Since a hurricane, the town of Mercy, Louisiana, has been plagued by these Auggie that came with the hurricane, and after what happened, the people that remained have to leave now with these red blooming algae, and they also have to kind of put the pieces back together of the wreckage and try to survive after this huge hurricane that really hit the town.

[00:21:23]Mercy has never been a safe place, but now it's getting worse. There are people that are disappearing. There are whispers that seem to come from under water. And sometimes they are knocks that are unanswered in the middle of the night. The harbormaster decides that he needs to tell the town. They have to come up with a plan to capture the person that has been drowning the people in the town. So Noon and her daughter Kobe decide to go in that mission to try to find the person or whoever is doing this to the town of Mercy before the next storm comes. This is like an oceanic botanical kind of horror type of vibe, and this book merges all of those kind of subgenres of horror very well.

[00:22:12]This is a book that it is very eerie, very atmospheric, and has really great descriptions of really, you know, um, unsettling things that happen. The author uses a lot of her words for very creepy uh, kind of disturbing imagery, visceral imagery. And you also have a lot of eerie, creepy moments in the story. The story blends horror with grief, with queerness, and with, um, cultural identity. And this is one of those stories where we approach the topic of monsters, and we explore what it means to be a monster, why we call certain people or things monsters. So it also has a very interesting kind of debate on that. And even though that was the last book, I still wanted to recommend you books by two authors in particular, which are Hailey Piper and Eric LaRocca.

[00:23:07]They both write horror with queer characters and they're both very different. I think Hailey's more kind of like a cosmic horror kind of girl and Eric is more his own kind of subgenre of horror.

[00:23:21]And it's very intense, disturbing, gory, and explicit. And the last honorable mention on the list is The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. I have talked so much about this book in the past that I decided not to include it in this list, but it is a great read.

[00:23:36]It's still I think my favorite book by his even though it has a very controversial ending and I had to mention it here because I think it's a great book. There you have it, you guys.

[00:23:46]Those were my 10 queer horror book recommendations. I hope that you enjoyed this list. Let me know down below which other ones you would recommend. There are just so many that I could have went on and on with this list, but maybe we'll leave those for another time and I will make part two of this video. And yeah, I hope that you enjoyed the list.

[00:24:05]I hope that you are reading something fantastic at the moment. Thank you guys, as always, so much for watching and I hope to see you all, as always, in our next coffee time. Bye.