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.

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

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. i've been maintaining it for myself since 2022 and it was time to share the wealth!

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!

Focus on non-humans (trees, robots, animals, aliens, creatures, objects…) and empathy (especially of humans towards them, or the exploration of the empathy/feelings/thoughts of non-humans towards others). Lack of or existing empathy included.

general/adult fiction, mostly & the occasional nonfic

In progress / updated over time I’ve read a good lot of these (34), and plan to read most of the rest. It’s a special interest of mine. ✨

(Suggestions welcome & appreciated!!) I also have a list in my library of titles to look into that may or may not fit the list! Feel free to look & lmk if you think they do.

books where women eat or think about eating other people

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!

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.

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

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

Books about death, dying, grief and what remains.

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.

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.

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!

pregnancy horror has been a prevalent form of body horror for decades, popularised by the arrival of rosemary’s baby. this list offers a mix of classics and more niche picks, traversing the many questions of authority, complexities, and subversions of the subgenre. these books explore pregnancy and its aftermath, sometimes literally, and sometimes through metaphor.

I’m a proud Mexican, proud of my culture and my people. As a reader, I feel the need to give more visibility to my fellow Mexicans, this list of 15 amazing books was curated with the sole purpose of expose them to those who are interested in discovering the world of incredible an very talent Mexican Authors. Books are universal, picking, choosing and recommending books are three things I considere to be my love language, so this list is made with love from me to you. 💚

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