Recs if you like The Dangers of Smoking in Bed...

An emergent subgrene by and about strange women on themes of female rage, sisterhood, hunger, attraction, beauty, motherhood, violence, and much more.

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!

Horror books written by Latin American authors.

This list was a winner of the Q1 2026 Community Voting event. To participate in the Side Quest, please follow the link pinned in the comments.

I am planning on keeping this list alive and will be adding more recommendations as I find them. Thank you everyone for nominating and voting for the list to be made into a Side Quest!

Shorter books (under 200 pages) that are part of at least one quest. Many are also in the public domain, making them easily accessible when you want to grind for that next badge.

Books that are atmospheric, emotionally unsettling, beautifully written, a little weird, and linger long after you finish them.

the gurls NEED to read horror books 💋 i wouldn’t say these are all horror but that’s left to the reader to make that assumption

tangled narratives and re-formed genres sprouting from the toxic ground of colonialism

If we are going to do Qwordy's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do 3.0 - we should probably get some Pagebound badges along the way! I'm specifically going to be adding books from Quests and readalongs that go past the July start date and match at least one of these title prompts: Periodic Table, Familial Terms, Rainbow of Words (also Joseph's coat), Numerical Titles, Titular Counting 5+, Pun in the Title, and First & Last Name in the Title. Recommendations welcome!

Aka Dua Lipa’s reading list. Everyone’s fave popstar on permanent holiday with a massive list of books to read, and she always seems to have incredible recommendations.

I am not part of Service95 or affiliated with Dua Lipa. I am just a fan curating this list based on the @service95bookclub IG account 💋

Books in this list are in at least two quests. Thus helping to earn more badges. Books will span different genres. Once I scan through all the quests, I plan to further organize the list. I am thinking of creating a seperate list and moving the books with three or more quests to the new list and keeping the two badge books in this list. Are there other ways you would organize a list this big?

winners, shortlist and longlist (this will be a very long list indeed). complete from 2016-2026

Let's get weird!! 💫

for those who don't conform to the norm.

short story collections by a single author in a variety of genres. recommendations welcome!

Magical realism is a genre prominently defined by Latin American authors responding to the socio-political realities Latin Americans face through the use of fantastical elements grounded in the mundanity of reality to highlight the surreal experiences of post-colonial life in oppressive regimes. This genre has been deeply influential and this list showcases the Latin American literature that is defined by and/or influenced by magical realism.

All credit for this list goes to ysaleftyouonread on instagram! This is her list of female authors she spotlighted for Women’s History Month, that are “not the same five white ladies” we always hear about! My personal goal is to read one book from each of these 31 women this year; I have been loving this journey and wanted to share with you all!

(Check out Ysa’s reels, she does a great job of describing the vibes without giving away the story!)

Horror short story collections and anthologies

weird/wicked/gory/gothic/strange/surreal books by women, translated into english.