There’s nothing quite like the bright summer sun that brings about a feeling of suspicion. Perhaps there’s something about the gorgeous weather, the bright smiling faces, the near naked bodies, that reads as a little too perfect to trust. Or maybe that out in the light of the summer sun, the horrors of the world are just that much easier to spot. Summer makes for primetime reading for horror fans, despite fall’s claim to fear. Let the chilling reads below cool you off in this extreme summer heat.
Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle
Tingle, the author behind plenty of outlandish queer stories such as Pounded in the Butt By My Own Butt (I mean who can resist this title?), offers a delightfully campy novel about a screenwriter who must survive the monsters of his own stories. Gay screenwriter Misha has worked all his life to be in his position, crafting queer stories and characters that he never saw onscreen as a kid. But when the studio informs him that AI (yikes!) recommends he kill off a lesbian character on one of his shows, Misha stands firm in his convictions and refuses. Now, horror movie villains that he’s crafted in the past are popping up and actually trying to kill him IRL. His dreams have become walking nightmares in this horror-comedy romp that’s perfect for summer reading.
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker- Martin
At the end of the world in Felker-Martin’s horror debut novel, cis men transform into feral cannibals, leaving the rest of the world in disarray. Trans women Beth and Fran have partnered up throughout the apocalyptic downfall of society, doing whatever they must in order to survive. The pair continue to encounter a group of TERFs waging war against trans women as they hoard resources and attempt to build a hierarchical society that, to no one’s surprise, replicates much of the same violence the old world dealt them. As the fight for survival against the horde becomes more dire, things come to a head between the TERFs and the ragtag group of queer survivors Beth and Fran have befriended along the way. Felker-Martin’s novel is bloody and cutthroat, boasting a cast of characters that are as complex as they are lovable. If you like the unflinching look of humanity at its worst that The Walking Dead once offered, be sure to pick this one up.
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Armfield considers how heartbreak is its own kind of horror in this slick and seductive novel about a disintegrating marriage. Miri has never known a love like the one she knows with marine scientist Leah. So when Leah heads off on a submarine expedition meant to only last three weeks, which becomes six months due to an accident, Miri is fearful the life she shared with Leah could be over. But then Leah and her peers return, and what should be a happy reunion is dampened when Miri realizes that Leah is…different. The excuses Miri makes around Leah’s behavior soon fall flat when it becomes clear the Leah that has returned is not the same person that left. And what is one to do when you look into the love of your life’s eyes, and nothing stares back? Armfield’s novel is one you can read in a day and will never forget.
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
Ezri Maxwell has not gone home in a long time. When they were young, they along with their siblings Eve and Emanuelle, suffered inside a house that felt haunted, with nightmares that chased them and left Ezri traumatized well into their adulthood. And yet, their mother refused to leave that frightening house after fighting her whole life for access inside this gated, primarily white community. Now, Ezri’s mother has died, and all the siblings have returned home to pull together the pieces of her death. Was it the supernatural forces of the house that they’d always feared as children? Or was the horror something more human than they were willing to face. Some truths are too hard to look at in the light, but Solomon is unafraid to bear witness.
You Weren’t Meant To Be Human by Andrew Joseph White
To be clear, we’d recommend any of White’s YA horror novels (Hell Followed With Us is a favorite in this house), but his adult debut tracing the betrayal of a trans man is bruising body horror that makes for an outstanding novel sure to break hearts. The autistic trans man at the novel’s center, Crane, has found an unlikely family in worms. Yes, literal worms who have formed an organized community called the hive, who have embraced and loved him in the way humans in Appalachia have not. Only Crane realizes that this love is not real when he discovers he has been impregnated by his abuser, and the hive has only seen him useful for his ability to bear children. Not willing to see the pregnancy through, Crane is forced to face the truth of what the hive is and how far he is willing to go to fight for his own agency.
American Rapture by CJ Leede
If you couldn’t tell by now, I love thinking about the end of the world! In Leede’s sophomore novel, Sophia lived through an extremely Catholic upbringing, enduring threats of how she will be punished should they ever not fall in line with the Lord’s vision for her life. Years later as an adult, a virus is spreading across the country, infecting victims with an uncontrollable lust, and Sophia is willing to risk everything as she heads out on the road to find her family. As the world she once knew crumbles, she will have to consider if lust is truly the abominable concept she grew up believing or the key to a question she’s been too afraid to ask. The Western “find yourself on a really long journey” novel has just gotten a very sapphic upgrade.
She’s a Doll by Barbara Truelove
There are elements of Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman and Don Mancini’s Chucky franchise blended into Truelove’s truly weird and captivating revenge novel. Lucy McQuinn will not let her death go unnoticed. Especially not when everyone around her is willing to bend over backwards to see the humanity in her killer Kyle, but not in her. Lucy, possessing the body of a porcelain antique doll, seeks to get her revenge against Kyle but requires the help of Nicola, a woman with her own grievances against Kyle. What takes place next is the exact kind of insane, campy good horror that feels good anytime of year, but particularly under the hot sun.
She Haunts Me Still by De Elizabeth
Mallory Webb, the theater student at the center of Elizabeth’s romantic and tragic novel, is being haunted in more ways than one. Attending her mother’s alma mater as a theater student, Mallory feels the pressure of living up to expectations and searches for clues to who her mother once was. What she finds instead is the root of evil that killed her mother in the first place, which gives her clues, not answers to what happened to her mother, and how to prevent the same fate from claiming her. Meanwhile, Mallory is desperate to keep her role as the lead of Romeo and Juliet and impressing director Ezra, who has secrets of his own, including insider knowledge about understudy Saskia. Brace yourself for both frights and fun in this sensual queer entanglement sure to leave you feeling haunted as well.
Carrying by Samantha Josephs
Already longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, Samantha Josephs’ debut is a spooky novel you might not be able to get your hands on yet but should keep an eye out for. The book follows Martha, a wife and stepmother who has never shared her identity as a trans woman with her family. She has worked hard to ensure that her outward veneer of perfection is built of steel and that no one will ever be able to truly know her. But when Martha comes down with a chronic illness that threatens to upend the picture perfect cis-het life she’s built for herself, she is willing to do anything to keep her identity a secret, including taking The Substance-eqsuque treatments to prevent her symptoms. And sure, let’s add in a sudden pregnancy. Josephs pries into the troubles of maintaining a body, watching it turn against you, and what you’re willing to do to bend it to your will in this body-gore story.
