I already shared with you the queer books I read during the 24-hour readathon, so I’m skipping those. Here are the other queer books I finished in October, ordered roughly on a scale of not-horror to horror.
For my book club, I read This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, which has been on my TBR for years. Most of the other people in my book club didn’t love it, but I did! The writing is gorgeous, and I had just read Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots in September and also really liked that one, so I think I have a new favourite author.
Then I picked up the queer graphic novel retelling of Anne of Green Gables, Dan in Green Gables by Rey Terciero and illustrated by Claudia Aguirre. That one was okay, but it didn’t fully land with me. I think other readers will really like it, but do be prepared to read about homophobia and neglectful/abusive parents.
Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger doesn’t have a queer main character, but it’s the prequel to the asexual book Elatsoe, and it has two sapphic side characters. Like Elatsoe, this book had several lines so good that I had to stop and stare into the middle distance for a while. I really need to pick up her other books!
I’ve been eagerly awaiting Pizza Witch by Sarah Graley andStef Purenins since it was first announced. A lesbian pizza witch graphic novel—need I saw more? If you like these sort of goofy YA fantasy comics, this should be on your radar. But be prepared that this seems to be setting up for a sequel.
Getting into the proper Halloween reads, I finished Queer Little Nightmares edited by David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli. This is a mix of queer monster-themed poetry and short stories. I enjoyed it, but nothing particularly stood out.
In the sapphic gothic department, I really enjoyed My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen. It’s a blood-soaked, unexpected love story (but not a capital R romance).
Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle is a horror book that’s also about bisexual erasure and existential dread. This is my second Chuck Tingle horror novel, and they always surprise me and give me something to think about. I don’t always love the writing style, but the ideas are captivating enough that they keep pulling me back in.
The book that scared me the most was A Game in Yellow by Hailey Piper, a lesbian erotic horror novel about losing touch with reality after reading the play The King in Yellow. I started to dread reading it because it was getting in my head too much, but I guess that means it succeeded at what it was trying to do!
In case you’re curious, I ended up reading five of the 15 books on my Halloween month TBR, which is honestly higher than I expected. A TBR cannot contain my Halloween reading moods! In my defense, a few of them didn’t come in from the library on time.