While horror novels can certainly be enjoyed any time, all year, they are definitely more appreciated around Halloween. The devilish holiday conjures up vivid images of ghosts, demons, and monsters, and as the cold October days grow shorter and the shadows grow longer, there’s nothing better than curling up with a deliciously dark and frightening book.
Even if you don’t enjoy horror, it is still hard to ignore these powerful and strangely beguiling stories. They fill us with dread, daring us to look beneath the bed late at night, or venture into darkened basements, to confront whatever unearthly thing exists there, making us panic-stricken.
Undoubtedly, the horror novel market continues to boom each year, with scores of writers following in the footsteps of horror giants like Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. But some writers forge a different path, diverging from those traditional novels that crowd the shelves, fiercely exploring themes of terror and trauma through innovative and horrifying tales.
Queer horror writers are having a moment, gifting us with their experimental novels that employ unconventional storytelling structures and techniques, unafraid to play with form and language and narrative perspectives. The stories they craft evoke unease and pull us unwittingly into strange and terrifying worlds.
Here is a short list of seven queer writers and their experimental horror novels that will definitely unnerve you this Halloween.
At Dark, I Become Loathsome
By Eric LaRocca
Big Bald Head
Published January 28, 2025
At Dark, I Become Loathsome tells the story of Ashley Lutin, who succumbs to a deep depression in the aftermath of his wife’s death. Then his son goes missing. In order to cope with his ceaseless grief, Ashley engages in bizarre, self-constructed rituals that involve fake deaths and burials as a way to help other lost and troubled people appreciate life once more. That is, until he meets Jinx. Jinx tells Ashley some disturbing information about Ashley’s son, which may or may not be true, creating a power struggle between them that affects Ashley’s sanity. Things spiral out of control, deteriorating Ashley’s psychological state in the most harrowing way. Three-time Bram Stoker Award finalist and Shirley Jackson Award nominee LaRocca writes transgressive fiction, which features antisocial characters who rebel against the norms of society in atypical or illicit ways. LaRocca has been lauded by Esquire magazine as one of the “Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age.”
Tell Me I’m Worthless
By Allison Rumfitt
Tor Nightfire
Published January 17, 2023
Halloween is never complete without a haunted-house tale. Here, Rumfitt’s trans fiction debut novel portrays a truly evil house that brings nothing but violence and chaos. After a fateful night spent in an abandoned house with her friends, Ila and Hannah, Alice’s life spirals out of control. She drowns herself in alcohol and drugs to shut out the ghosts that torment her. Eventually, she and Ila must confront the past and come to terms with what really happened to their friend, Hannah. Rumfitt’s gothic literature tale makes reference to other notable haunted house stories that readers will appreciate. As Rumfitt explores the complexities of memory and forgiveness, her narrative plays with point of view and even breaks the fourth wall, blurring the lines of reality. Author Joe Hill called Rumfitt “the twisted daughter of Clive Barker and Shirley Jackson.”
Monstrilio
By Gerardo Sámano Córdova
Zando
Published January 30, 2024
Winner of the 2024 Balcones Fiction Prize, Monstrilio is a distinctive, globetrotting literary horror tale that explores the depths of maternal grief. Through folkloric magic, Magos resurrects her dead 11-year-old son, Santiago, from a piece of his lung. What forms and grows becomes a little carnivorous monster that Magos conceals within the walls of their crumbling Mexico City home. Córdova’s genre-bending page-turner explores what makes us human in this unsettling examination of how loss and grief shape our perspectives of the world. Córdova is a writer from Mexico City who currently lives in Brooklyn, NYC.
Chlorine
By Jade Song
William Morrow
Published March 26, 2024
Song’s weird and visionary body horror debut novel is a coming-of-age story and contemporary exploration of mermaid lore. High schooler Ren is a high-achieving competitive swimmer who longs for the chlorine waters of the pool where she feels most comfortable. But when a troublesome coach pushes Ren to the brink, she has no choice but to embrace her true form. Song probes difficult themes of adolescence, bodily autonomy, transformation, immigration, familial loss, and the predatory nature of sports in this blended novel of horror and fantasy. Selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice, Chlorine was the winner of the 2024 American Library Association Alex Award and 2024 Writer’s Center First Novel Prize.
Model Home
By Rivers Solomon
MCD
Published October 1, 2024
Another haunted-house tale but with a twist. The Maxwell siblings—Ezri, Eve, and Emmanuelle—have long escaped the hostile, gated community of white families in Dallas, Texas where they grew up as the only Black family. But Ezri, who is queer, non-binary, and neurodivergent, is forced to return and confront the sinister traumas of their childhood home after losing communication with their parents and then discovering them mysteriously dead. The award-winning Solomon alternates between past and present in this disquieting narrative with an unreliable narrator while tackling themes of grief, trauma, segregation, familial secrets, and racism in the American South.
The Psychic Surgeon Assists
By Zebulon House
Calamari Press
Published April 1, 2024
A speculative body-horror tale set in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic New Hampshire that defies classification. A traveling theater troupe presents a play of medical spectacle in their attempt to articulate trans erotics. Poetic, weird, and perverse, House’s narrative includes invented words and an evolving language that doesn’t conform to known rules of grammar. Here, the reader is a voyeur of sensual medical theater in House’s grotesque and erotically charged horror tale that is unlike anything else you’ve ever read.
You Weren’t Meant to Be Human
By Andrew Joseph White
S&S/Saga Press
Published September 9, 2025
White gives us a fresh take on the horror-science fiction genre, which is touted as Alien meets Midsommar. Crane is a trans man living in rural West Virginia and serves the Infestation, or the Hive—a parasitic alien species which has invaded Earth. Appalachia is rife with hives of worms and flies which require fresh corpses to thrive, leaving salvation to only the few loyal humans. Though Crane feels more himself than ever among the followers of the Hive, things get complicated when he meets ex-Marine Levi and becomes pregnant. The Hive demands Crane give birth no matter what the cost, leaving Crane in a serious predicament that soon spirals out of his control. White, who is trans and autistic, gives us a visceral, disquieting tale that explores identity and place in a hostile and changed world.
