I love my spooky stuff all year long, but let’s be real, there is just something special about October when the weather is just right (or is supposed to be *cough* climate crisis *cough cough*) and everyone is celebrating spooky season. There’s nothing better than to curl up under a blanket with a warm drink while it’s dark and rainy outside, the trees dancing in the wind, and reading a good book. And if you know me, you also know that books featuring queer (main) characters is what makes a book really good.
Not everyone is into horror and/or likes to be spooked, but there are lots of other types of books that fit the season just as well! A cozy vampire novel is just as valid as those about haunted houses (but oh boy do I love me some evil-to-the-core queer vampires). So this list features a mix of queer science fiction and fantasy books where hopefully everyone can find something to read this October. From haunted space ships, over slashers, to killer mermaids: LGBTQIA+ rep can be found in all of them!
36 Queer SFF Horror Books to Read This October!
The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown
A haunted space ship
- scifi
- sapphic
The Dead Take the A Train by Cassandra Khaw, Richard Kadrey
Demons in the flesh
- fantasy
- bi/pan
My Heart a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
Read this one if you like slashers!
- fantasy
- bi/pan?
The Blighted Stars (The Devoured Worlds) by Megan E. O’Keefe
The plants are out to get ya! (The Last of Us, anyone!?)
- scifi
- TRANS MC
- bi mc
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion by Margaret Killjoy
A summoning gone wrong
- fantasy
- bi mc
- many queer SC
The Devourers by Indra Das
Shape shifters? Check!
- fantasy
- genderqueer mc
Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco
Vampire hunting taking an interesting turn
- fantasy
- polyamorous
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
This gay conversion camp is worse than you think
- fantasy
- lesbian MC
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant
Watch out, we’ve got killer mermaids!
- fantasy
- bi mc
- lesbian mc
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Necromancers in space, stuck in a locked room mystery
- scifi
- fantasy
- lesbian MC
Summer Sons by Mando Lee
Appalachian street racing meets hungry ghost
- fantasy
- gay mc
The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
What if the (literal) book eater suddenly starts to crave human minds
- fantasy
- lesbian MC
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
The Fall of the House of Usher retelling
- fantasy
- NB mc
The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson
Your own clones out to kill ya!
- scifi
- fantasy
- bi/pan MC
Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
The haunted house fucked you up
- fantasy
- trans mc
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The curse that haunts a legendary lost film
- historical
- mystery
- bi mc
Leech by Hiron Ennes
In the baron’s icebound castle, a parasite is spreading…
- scifi
- agender MC
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
Escaping a cult while pregnant
- fantasy
- intersex mC
All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes
An Antarctic expedition gone very wrong
- historical
- trans mc
Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson
A sweet romance takes a deadly dark turn
- romance
- lesbian MC
The Crows by C.M. Rosens
A lonely cannibal under the spell of a sentient house
- fantasy
- aro/ace mc
Burn the Dark by S.A. Hunt
Bring down witches, one youtube video at a time
- fantasy
- bi mc
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
When the mining job turns into a claustrophobic nightmare
- scifi
- sapphic MC
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder
A virus transforming its victims in nightmarish ways
- fantasy
- sapphic mc
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The vampires took over
- fantasy
- bi mc
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
Not your average mermaid story
- fantasy
- PAN MC
The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht
Murder, a monster, and the magician who loves both
- fantasy
- gay mc
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
The darkly seductive tale of Dracula’s first bride
- fantasy
- polyamorous
- bi mc
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
When online dating turns into a toxic, abusive relationship
- thriller
- lesbian MC
Dead Space by Kali Wallace
A brutal murder on a claustrophobic space station
- scifi
- lesbian MC
Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydís Moon
An exorcist, challenged by an unruly haunted house
- romance
- fantasy
- trans mc
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
A haunted small town and a sinister house knowing all its secrets
- fantasy
- bi MC
The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Survive a night among the most deadly hunt ever known
- fantasy
- ace MC
The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
Characters escaping from the Library of the Unwritten in Hell
- fantasy
- Pan mc
Salvaged by Madeleine Roux
A space crew infected by a mysterious parasitic alien
- scifi
- bi/pan MC
The Untimely Undeath of Imogen Madrigal by Grayson Daly
Poet mysteriously returned from the dead, seeks help in solving her murder
- fantasy
- lesbian MC
I hope you will find something on this list to read this October, or at any time really, when the call for spooky story comes. There are a lot more queer horror stories out there, this is just a small fraction that time and energy allowed me to put together. I especially recommend checking out what indie authors are putting out these days!
(I always recommend checking out content warnings for books if needed, but especially in horror and with some of the books listed above I would consider it even more so)
What books are you reading during this year’s spooky season?
Steph
Oct 9th, 2023I love the little one-line summaries you have here! Very much piquing my interest, hehe. Starling House is hopefully going to be a read very soon for me, once I recover from The Blighted Stars (and I assume The Fractured Dark too, heh). I also really like the sound of The Devourers, The Book Eaters and The Murders of Molly Southbourne! Thanks for this list 👻
Sana
Oct 10th, 2023Ahh thank you so much for these recs! The one-line summaries are so helpful and interesting. I definitely don’t recognize all of the books since I’ve been so out of the loop lately, but I do own some and excited to get to others.
I’d seen Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydís Moon around but thought it was YA because of the cover art, heh. So glad to know that it’s adult.
If you want more evil-to-the-core queer vampires, you gotta watch Interview with the Vampire on HBO Max! It’s only available till the end of October, though. I basically binged it all in a day recently and it’s extremely fucked up and very messy, but SO GOOD.
C
Oct 10th, 2023I could have sworn the Freydís Moon book is YA too but looked closer and it seemed to be adult (at least I’m assuming considering the summary mentions a “house owner” XD)
Sana
Oct 10th, 2023LOL I assumed it would be adult because you posted about it and then had to go and make sure. (I currently have KU and it’s available there so I’ll probably get around to it soon 👀)