Who doesn’t love to get cozy during a brisk fall night with a horror book? This is what spooky season is all about! You must channel that eerie energy by jumping into a book about ghosts, serial killers, paranormal forces, vampires, apocalypses, murders, demons, cults, and gore! So, we’re giving you five LGBTQ+ authors who deliver the horror scene perfectly!
Trigger Warning: The mention of violence, assault, and suicide may be triggering for some readers. Please exercise personal care when reading this article and check out each author’s trigger warnings before adding their books to your bookshelf.
Hailey Piper
Hailey Piper brings us to a haunted hotel called Cranberry Cove. A chilling mystery has surrounded it for decades. It is filled with strange occurrences, odd noises, and violent assaults. The hotel has even claimed the lives of those who are foolish enough to enter. No one ever investigated the eerie happenings until a criminal kingpin’s son was assaulted at the Cranberry Cove. Emberly Hale decides to journey into the haunted history of the hotel. As she embarks on this dark journey, she is also faced with her past. What horrible truths will she discover hiding within the hotel and her past?
Piper wrote All the Hearts You Eat to quench our thirst for a twist on the classic vampire. Ivory is a trans woman who lives in a small seaside town in Massachusetts. Everything is calm as she walks along the beach early in the morning until she sees something odd. She has stumbled upon the lifeless body of Cabrina Brite. After this incident, Ivory gets followed home by something. She feels its presence lurking and can’t seem to shake it. This evil presence begins haunting her, and things quickly escalate. A series of events leads to gruesome and horrific happenings.
Be sure to check out more of Hailey Piper’s horror books. They are full of plot twists, dark secrets, and spooky energy!
Suzan Palumbo
Suzan Palumbo perfectly delivered the core of the spooky season with Skin Thief. This book is a collection of twelve short horror stories and dark fantasies. Not only do the characters in this book face physical horrors, but they also face the horrors that lie within themselves. Palumbo features the eerie themes of Trinidadian folklore, gothic hauntings, and shapeshifting to present the complexities of identity. These dark and frightening short stories will make you question how we live in our skin.
Andrew Joseph White
Andrew Joseph White presents Hell Followed With Us, a book that follows a sixteen-year-old trans boy named Benji. He successfully escaped from the cult he grew up in and is desperate to find a place where he can hide. However, the cult infected him with a bioweapon that would mutate him into a deadly monster. Fortunately, he is rescued by a group of teens. Benji doesn’t realize it right away, but something is off about the group. They are hiding secrets and have a dark agenda. Will Benji be able to find out what’s happening before he turns into a monster who will wipe all of humanity off of the Earth?
White wrote The Spirit Bares Its Teeth to remind us of the spirits that lurk around us. Silas Bell is a trans boy living in England during the 1800s who can connect with spirits beyond the Veil. Unfortunately, the world refuses to see him as a boy. He attempts to escape an arranged marriage but fails. He finds himself at Braxton’s Sanitorium and Finishing School, which forces students to become eligible wives. They mysteriously disappear if they cannot be forced into the perfect wife. Suddenly, the spirits of missing students begin asking Silas for his help. Will he be able to help them before the school breaks him?
You also must check out Andrew Joseph White’s other horror book, Compound Fracture!
Aaron Dries
Aaron Dries takes us to the summer of 1995 with House of Sighs. A woman started her day by planning to kill herself. And now, she is driving a bus full of passengers. The passengers may not know that their driver is suicidal, but they quickly realize that she’s threatening to kill them. They were once passengers, but they turned into her captives. They have no clue where she is taking them as she has gone far off the original route, but they are stuck for the ride. She has a gun in her hand and shows that she will use it at any given moment. Who will be the next to die, and will there be any survivors? Maybe they’ll find out at their mysterious destination.
Dries wrote A Place for Sinners to make us question our next vacation. Wild dogs attacked Amity Collins at the young age of seven. She suffered severe conditions and lost her hearing as a result of the attack. Her father also died the same day. She has had a traumatic childhood, but she doesn’t let that stop her from enjoying life. Amity and her brother, Caleb, plan a much-needed trip to Thailand. As their boat travels to the remote island, they are having the time of their lives. But they don’t know what they’re in for when they reach their destination. Serial killers, isolation, and wild animals will attack as secrets are unearthed and tensions rise.
Make sure to check out more of Aaron Dries’ horror books, including The Fallen Boys. They are dying for you to read them!
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya
Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya warns us about our partner’s family with Helen House. Amber and her girlfriend share one similar trauma that has helped them bond – both of their sisters are dead. However, their relationship may not be as strong as it seems. Amber has plenty of secrets that she’s been hiding. Although the couple isn’t 100% with their feelings, Amber decides it’s time to meet her girlfriend’s parents. When they first arrive, there’s an extremely awkward energy in the parents’ rural upstate home. It seems quaint, but it quickly turns into a nightmare. Amber finds herself in the middle of the family’s traditional mourning ritual. She is stuck in a terrifying and erotic ritual that results in nothing but trauma and grief.
Now that you know about these five LGBTQ+ authors, you know where to turn for your next horror book! Grab one of their deathly frightening books and cuddle up on the couch with it before the spooky season is over!
Check out more horror recommendations here.
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