Recs if you like Monstrilio...

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

Books that are part of 3 or more quests ✨for easier planning! Initially thought of making this on my shelf, hope the members of pb find this helpful!! (The list is incomplete, I'm working on checking & adding new quest books🙌🏻 thanks for the love ❤️🥹)

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, started in 2022 and brought to pb in 2026.

horror books with a queer focus, including queer stories and central characters

The SCP is an organization that Secures, Contains, and Protects our world against anomalous objects, entities, and phenomena. Be advised: these books contain such SCPs that have escaped confinement and have caused havoc and destruction. Read at your own peril. And remember to document your findings.

For all the multitaskers on here (including myself): books featured on 2+ quests! Go get those badges everyone

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!

books where women eat or think about eating other people

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

Hauntology is the philosophical concept, as quoted by Mark Fisher from his article taking a deeper look into Derrida's philosophical work, that "the present is always haunted by the ghosts of the past and the unfulfilled promises of the future." From generational trauma to dark histories to dying Old World pagan traditions, these elements persist throughout the wide genre of folk horror. These books explore deeply into the hauntings of the past and the instability of the future.

these books are both aligned with and offer a queering of ‘weird girl literature’, a genre that manipulates horror, dark comedy, and/or surrealist elements to excavate the internal world of complex and unconventional characters. they are deviant, daring, and perverse reads for the weird queers among us.

*girl in quotation marks to allow this list to extend beyond the binary. recommendations welcome!

Books about death, dying, grief and what remains.

Fiction has always been where truth hides. Across horror, thriller, literary fiction, fantasy & mystery every book on this list has something to say about power, who holds it, who destroys it, and how it reproduces itself.

Weird, unusual, or taboo LGBTQ books that may make you slightly uncomfortable

Suggestions always welcome

Debut novels that feel like they were written by seasoned writers. Whether it be because of the author's clear voice, the depth of the themes or the quality of the prose, you'll be surprised that this is the author's first published novel

Note: The authors featured may have published other works, like short story collections or plays, but the book featured here is their first novel

one time I told my friend that I was reading a book about cannibalism and they said, "I think you already told me about this" and I said, "that cannot be true, that has to have been a different gay cannibalism book." also look, I don't know about these emoji.

Books where grief is personified, given a body, a voice, or a shape, to explore how loss lives alongside us.

Mexicans have have a deep connection to supernatural folklore. Witches, ghosts, legends, demons, you name it we have it. Here's a collection of Horror/Supernatural books written by Mexican authors. Have not read all of them so if you have any suggestions, please let me know and I'll add it!

Horror books to read just for the aesthetic