Hey there, 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.
Well, we made it to June, folks. And as much as I would love to just say “Happy Pride!”, I think we can all agree that recent and ongoing events have put a bit of a damper on the mood. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t still celebrate, and, more importantly, come together to support one another and fight for change. So instead, I want to wish you all a safe and happy Pride month. One I think we all are hoping will be filled with community and companionship, not marred by hate or violence.
Now more than ever I am reminded of the importance of horror as a genre that is, and always has been, fundamentally queer. And the more frightening the world becomes, the more grateful I am for the scary books on my TBR and the amazing authors who write them. So I have decided that I’m going to keep up the tradition I started last year of promoting only queer horror books during Pride month! From recent releases to forthcoming titles and a few themes in between, we’re going to seize some joy for ourselves and celebrate the incredible works of queer horror that keep us going long after the last of the confetti is swept up on July 1st.
Before we jump into this weeks picks — are you looking for fascinating stories, informed takes, useful advice, and more drawn from our collective experience as power readers, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and bookish professionals? Subscribe to The Deep Dive, a biweekly newsletter to inform and inspire readers, delivered to your inbox! Your first read (The Power Reader’s Guide to Reading Logs & Trackers) is on the house. Check out all the details and choose your membership level at bookriot.substack.com.
Bookish Goods
Gillman “Gilly” Pride Pin by FeltPhantom
Oh no I love him so much. Okay, so I know Gilly isn’t bookish, technically, but come on just look at the little face! And who doesn’t love our classic monsters, right? You should have seen my face when I found this rainbow Gillman pin. It’s so cute I almost cried on the spot. Creature from the Black Lagoon is my favorite of the classic monsters, and I can’t think a better way to show off both my LGBTQIA pride and my horror pride than with this adorable enamel pin.
$7
New Releases
Boys Weekend by Mattie Lubchansky
If horror graphic novels are your delicacy of choice, get ready to feast, friends. Because Mattie Lubchansky’s Boys Weekend sounds like a must read for fans not just of graphic novels, but of queer horror and creepy cults as well. Sammie is only newly out as trans when they’re invited to their friend Adam’s bachelor party on some weird floating pleasure palace out on international waters, which: suspicious. Right? Especially once it turns out that not only is Sammie now trapped in the oceanbound mini-Vegas known as El Campo, they’re stuck there with a pack of Adam’s “bros” who are so busy indulging in the pleasures of El Campo and ragging on Sammie for being trans that they don’t seem to notice they’re sharing their hotel with a blood-happy cult that’s ritually dismembering the other guests. Yikes. Frightening and darkly funny, if you like your horror on the satirical side with more than a bit of camp, make sure you pick up a copy of Boys Weekend when it hits shelves tomorrow.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter!
Riot Recommendations
Chlorine by Jade Song
So you were all just going to let me sleep on the queer “I’d do anything to be a flesh eating mermaid. Anything” horror book, huh? To be honest, I have no idea how Chlorine slipped under my radar, but as a girl who has wished on more than one occasion that she could fling herself into the ocean, sprout gills, and consume unwary sailor folk, I am so glad that I know about it now. Because that’s all that Ren Yu wants, really: to become a mermaid. (And feast on the flesh of tasty sea goers.) She’s already a swimmer, whose love of being in the water butts up against the expectations that she’ll use her skill at swimming to advance in life. Get into a good college on an athletic scholarship. Be successful — a state of being highly defined by everyone in Ren’s life except herself. When really all she wants is to escape from landlocked concerns and sink deep into the ocean until she’s nothing but fins and teeth. She wants to be free, and she’ll stop at nothing to make it happen.
Monstersona by Chloe Spencer
Monstersona is the kind of mad scientists, monsters, and government conspiracies romp that you won’t want to miss. It’s about 16-year-old Riley, who lives in Little Brook, Maine — headquarters of Titan Technologies. She wakes up one night to find her town on fire and full of monsters. With her dog in tow, Riley beats feet out of town, stopping just long enough to scoop up a passenger from the roadside: Aspen, Riley’s crush and quite possibly the only other survivor of the fire. The two girls set off on a dangerous cross-country journey to try and reach Riley’s father in Oregon, but nothing about the fire or the now-destroyed Titan Technologies is what it seems to be. And neither is Aspen. If Riley wants to survive long enough to see her father again, she’s going to have to get to the bottom of the shadowy conspiracy she’s found herself enmeshed in. No matter how terrible the truth may be.
Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydis Moon
This is my romance-meets-horror addition to this week’s list, because there’s been some Chatter lately (or so the internet tells me) devaluing romance in comparison to other genre fiction. And since it is frowned upon to fight strangers from the internet in a Walmart parking lot, I’m just going to point out, not for the first time, that romance and horror can not only peacefully coexist, but actually make rather spectacular bedfellows. As it were. Something Freydis Moon understands very well, as evidenced by their newest book Heart, Haunt, Havoc about a trans exorcist, Colin, who was hired to deal with what seemed like a standard domestic haunting. Only to find that the home in question, owned by the handsome Bishop Martinez, may prove more of a challenge than Colin first anticipated. It’s awash in restless spirits, drawn by the house’s dark, heartbreaking past. As he navigates the horrors of the house and his budding romance with its owner, Colin finds himself digging into secrets that Bishop would rather forget, further muddying an already messy supernatural situation.
As always, you can catch me on twitter at @JtheBookworm, where I try to keep up on all that’s new and frightening.