It’s October, the one month of the year when I join the crowd of horror fans. Something about the weather cooling off, the leaves falling, and the approach of Halloween has me reaching for horror, thrillers, dark fantasy, and everything unsettling. I especially look forward to the October 24-hour readathon, which I’ve been doing every year for more than a decade. It’s the perfect time to read through a big stack of horror comics and novellas in one sitting!

Currently, my dresser is covered in stacks of horror books, most of them queer. I save them all year, and I place a bunch of library holds to come on October 1st, so I’m drowning in options. I’m reading An Education in Malice by S. T. Gibson at the moment, a sapphic vampire dark academia novel based on Carmilla, and I’m loving it so far. A Dowry of Blood is one of my favourite books, so that’s not a surprise. I’m also listening to the audiobook of If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens, a bi4bi M/F romance between two Indigenous horror authors set in a haunted castle. I’m really enjoying it, partly because Penelope is one of the most stubborn woman main characters I’ve ever read, and I’m here for it.

As I mentioned, I have dozens of queer horror/Halloween books to choose from this month, but here are five of the titles on my TBR, from a queer monster anthology to a trans YA horror novel to an asexual romance set in a haunted house.

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