Recs if you like Nowhere...

are you sick of being recommended stephen king when you ask for a horror novel? have you picked up a book expected to be scared, but the scariest thing about it was a woman being needlessly tormented and gaslit? have you read 4627473 books about a man in a haunted house and need something different?

if so, this list is for you :)

a masterlist of horror by anyone who isn't a straight cis white man. i've been maintaining it for myself since 2022 and it was time to share the wealth!

Kudzu climbs up the hills, katydids sing in the hollers, and there's something calling from the woods...

Think: whistling winds, howling coyotes, rural isolation, small towns, folklore, religious fanaticism, and ghostly voices coming from the forest

❗️Some of the these books are classified as extreme horror/splatterpunk. PLEASE protect yourself, and check all trigger warnings.❗️

Family Secrets. Decay. Death. Rebirth.

Books set firmly in the Southern Gothic genre or books that incorporate Southern Gothic elements.

Created from the list on Goodreads by Cybil and Sadie Hartmann (September 29, 2025)

let the girls kiss as queerly as possible --

not all of these are romance and most are from my tbr so they could not be sapphic and just, queer, but most of them should be

Statement begins.

(All book ideas taken from @jessdotpng on tiktok!

books with a focus on the appalachian mountains or scottish highlands and their folklore