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mendingbone · 10 months

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i keep seeing people in their late teens/early twenties having a "[X] content intended for younger audiences does not feel satisfying to me anymore but i don't know where to start to branch out into adult fiction" moment and i thought i would give some recommendations for adult fiction for my fellow creepy crawly queer people. all or at least a LOT of it will be on the darker and more fucked up side bc i primarily engage with horror and thriller media personally but feel free to add on with more or recommendations from other genres :)

edit: i am continuing to add to this list so there might be new recs (highlighted in pink) in here every once in a while! also want to add that there's a variety of POC, queer, and disabled authors in here as well, i am also all of the above (asian, bi/aro, poly, disabled) and tried to incorporate as many of their wickedly talented, compelling narratives as possible. that's all, happy reading!

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E Schwab*

A Dowry of Blood, S.G Gibson

Animal, Lisa Taddeo*

A Ripple of Power and Promise, Jordan A. Day*

Bunny, Mona Awad*

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi*

Cursed Bread, Sophie Mackintosh*

Dark Places, Gillian Flynn

Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, Alex Ritany*

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Olga Tokarczuk*

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh*

Fruiting Bodies, Kathryn Harlan*

Goddess of Filth, V. Castro*

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha*

Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao

Jackal, Erin E. Adams*

Juniper and Thorn, Ava Reid*

Kindred, Octavia Butler*

Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin*

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee*

Rabbits, Terry Miles*

Scorched Grace, Margot Douaihy*

Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn

She is a Haunting, Trang Thahn Tran

Slewfoot, Brom*

Sorrowland, Rivers Soloman

Summer Sons, Lee Mandelo

Supper Club, Lara Williams*

The Centre, Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi*

The Change, Kirsten Miller

The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling*

The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher*

The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter, Soraya Palmer*

The Jasmine Throne, Tasha Suri

The Locked Tomb, Tamsyn Muir

The Luminous Dead, Caitlin Starling*

The Red Tree, Caitlin Kiernan*

The Unfamiliar Garden, Benjamin Percy*

Vicious, V. E Shwab

Wake, Siren, Nina MacLaughlin*

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher*

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starrlikesbooks · 2 years

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i’m a horror novel fan and it’s like fully impossible to find queer horror novels. my all-time favorite book is house of leaves by mark danielewski, but i also really love the raw shark texts by stephen hall and johnny got his gun by dalton trumbo (which isn’t really horror but MAN is it good). i’d love something with a little bit less of a ya vibe if you have it, and thanks so much! :]

Hi there! I wrote out a SUPER detailed list for you and tumblr blue-screened me 💀 So apologies for the lack of details/descriptions, but here are some queer horror novels:

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

The Luminous Dead by Cailtin Starling

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper

The Bayou by Arden Powell

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and You've Lost a Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca

Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology edited by Celine Frohn

Also, if you do feel like checking out a Queer Horror that happens to be YA, I recommend Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

#i feel like im missing some i had now 🙃#queer horror #pride month #lgbt horror #book list #bookish #adult horror #anon #book blog #booklr #bookblr #castorstarr

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bookishlyvintage · 9 months

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Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

[thoughts | book sleeve]

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eva-reviews · 6 months

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What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher -- A review

Trigger Warnings: Death, murder, gore, mentions of war, mentions of suicide, anxiety, mentions of amputation, misogyny, misgendering, animal dissection, fire.

My Rating

9/10 I really liked this book; I have been trying to get back into horror books, and I have to say, this is a really good horror book. I loved how Kingfisher was able to make the grotesque gore sound so beautiful. However, there were a lot of sidenotes which did make things slightly confusing. It was all very interesting, but it did take away from the story every once in a while.

Overview

Alex Easton is a Lieutenant from Gallicia when they get a letter from their childhood friend, Madeline, that she is dying. When they get there they are greeted by hares that don't move correctly, a glowing pond, and a falling-apart manor. There are fungi everywhere, and a strange woman, Ms Potter, a very intelligent mycologist is enamoured by all of it. Madeline sleepwalks and talks in a strange voice and Roddrick is so anxious he jumps at the opening of a door, and the American doctor, Derrick, who is just as clueless as the rest of them.

My Thoughts

What Moves the Dead is based on The Fallen House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe, for the most part, it is a reimagining of Poe’s story. Kingfisher expands on Madiline's illness and she really gives us a lot more detail into the story itself. I loved how this book has undertones of feminism, Ms. Potter talks about the mycology institute and how they won't let her in because of her sex, and how she is going to make such a big discovery that they won't be able to disregard her. Alex Easton agrees with her and supports her fight to be recognized.

What I loved most about this book, was the use and understanding of pronouns and gender. Easton and the Ushers are all from Gallicia, where they do not use the traditional, he/him, she/her, and they/them pronouns. In Gallicia they use, ta, tha, tan, than for he, she, his, and hers. These are used for adults, and there are more that are used for children being va, van and for priests and nuns they use var. If you were to use va on an adult they would take great offence, and ta on a child and people would think you are a pedophile. There is also a set of pronouns for God and rocks. Lastly, there is a new set of pronouns for soldiers, which has no link to the gender binary, ka and kan, it is extremely rude to use ta on them and it might get you punched. This also means, that due to the new pronouns, gender is no longer applicable. Thus, when a woman became a soldier they could not turn her away, because the laws said that she was now ka, therefore, she was allowed in the military. This brought about “Sworn in Soldiers”, which is what Alex Easton is. Ka is not a woman nor a man, Ka is Ka or in English They.

This book takes place in 1890, so this is much before the acceptance of queer people. For example, if we look into the UK around this time, in 1885 there was a law against queer people and thus against trans poeple. Also, in 1889, a woman named Mary Mudge died in a workhouse (basiclly a homeless shelter today, but they have to work and many people died. It was a horrible place to be) Mudge passed as a woman her whole life, until her bith sex was revealed during her postmortem examination. Although trans people and the nonbinary have existed for the entirety of the existence of human kind, they were not widely accepted. It is so interesting to see Easton live as a nonbinary person in an alternet reality, and to see kan be accepted and to see how other interact with kan.

The eding of the book was crazy. It all of a sudden changed, the pace completely changed and it really became a horror book. They do a dissection of a hare and… that was so creepy. I never expected it to change so drastically. I knew there was something inhuman about Madiline, but what it was so something so unlike what I could have thought it would be.

Conclusion

This book was so good, I finished it in 3 hours and the entire time I was enraptured by the story. I was on the edge of my seat. Ms. Potter was such an amazing character, I loved every time she was present. The entirety of this book I felt as though I was there. Kingfisher is such a good writer, she really knows how to balance the creepy with the beautiful imagery of the mushrooms and the decaying bodies of the hares. If you are new to horror, this is such a good book to start with, and if you are an avid horror reader, this really has some of the most beautiful imagery. Even the cover is gorgeous. I definitely recommend this, although, not to the squeamish or faint of heart.

#book review #what moves the dead #t. kingfisher #historical horror #horror #lgbtqia #lgbtq pride #nonbinary #books #review #fungi #adult fiction #adult horror #2022

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selfiesforalgernon · 5 months

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Just finished adult horror VN Song of Saya and wow... it actually does exactly what I wanted it to, despite having sex scenes I would not reduce it as being a "porn game" it has maybe 4-5 scenes in the whole thing, but the psychological horror/cosmic body horror themes work extremely well.. Also the soundtrack is fucking so fucking sick holy shit.. idk why I'm saying this, it's hard to recommend to anyone with delicate sensibilities... unless? 👀

Tl;dr it has very mature themes but it doesn't go to the places where say, Maggot Baits goes lol (ill-advised for most audiences) but check out the soundtrack it's awesome

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Saya no Uta OST- Shapeshift

#Song of Saya #saya no uta #adult horror #mature visual novel #shapeshift #horror ost

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rockislandadultreads · 2 years

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Suburban Horror: a reading list

Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

Welcome to Maple Street, a picture-perfect slice of suburban Long Island, its residents bound by their children, their work, and their illusion of safety in a rapidly changing world. Arlo Wilde, a gruff has-been rock star who’s got nothing to show for his fame but track marks, is always two steps behind the other dads. His wife, beautiful ex-pageant queen Gertie, feels socially ostracized and adrift. Spunky preteen Julie curses like a sailor and her kid brother Larry is called “Robot Boy” by the kids on the block. Their next-door neighbor and Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder—a lonely community college professor repressing her own dark past—welcomes Gertie and family into the fold. Then, during one spritzer-fueled summer evening, the new best friends share too much, too soon. As tensions mount, a sinkhole opens in a nearby park, and Rhea’s daughter Shelly falls inside. The search for Shelly brings a shocking accusation against the Wildes that spins out of control. Suddenly, it is one mom’s word against the other’s in a court of public opinion that can end only in blood.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend. Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia's life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they're more likely to discuss the FBI's recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood. But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club's meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he's a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she--and her book club--are the only people standing between the monster they've invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.

White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson

Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper. The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its . . . secrets. That’s only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there’s a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone. But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right? As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn’t limited to Maple Street. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks.

The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

Thirty-something Colquitt and Walter Kennedy live in a charming, peaceful suburb of the newly bustling Atlanta. Life is made up of enjoyable work, long, lazy weekends, and the company of good neighbors. Then, to their shock, construction starts on the vacant lot next door, a wooded hillside they'd believed would always remain undeveloped. Soon, though, they come to realize that more is wrong than their diminished privacy. Surely the house can't be "haunted," yet something about it seems to destroy the goodness of every person who comes to live in it, until the entire heart of this friendly neighborhood threatens to be torn apart.

#Horror #fiction #to read #tbr #library books #scary stories #books to read #booklr #booktok #reading recommendations #Book Recommendations #adult horror #themed reading

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flaviathebibliophile · 11 months

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Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories by Agustina Bazterrica (ARC Review)

Title: Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird Author: Agustina Bazterrica Translator: Sarah Moses Type: Fiction Genre: Adult, Horror, Short Stories Publisher: Scribner Published: June 20, 2023 A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review. From celebrated author Agustina Bazterrica, this collection of nineteen brutal, darkly…

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bcbennycontreras · 2 years

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“The Cuck” by Aron Beauregard

I will never touch myself again..

After reading this I have decided on being celibate. Praise Jesus and think before you wank.

I’ve fallen into a rabbit hole catching up on what I’ve missed after discovering Aron Beauregard.

#horror #bookworm #splatterpunk #horror novels #adult horror #horror fiction #cucklife #cucking

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matsya2510 · 1 year

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Here Comes 21

In exactly two months I'm gonna kiss my 20 goodbye, and what a hell of a period it was.

The very 20 everyone dreams of while growing up is just an emotional rollercoaster I swear you don't wanna get on to just a moment before you're so freakin' happy and then you realise everything's slipping and you just can't do anything other than having a panic attack !!!yeah right talk about the shit. You've got so much to think about your career which is not at all going around like you've planned then there's this perfect life you thought you're going to have which you can feel slipping out of your control that's how it is becoming an adult. There's so much going on inside of that grey matter of yours but what you can do is paste a smile on that silly acne filled face and say I'm totally fine What can possibly be wrong in my life, I'm in college I've got an exam to look up to. That shit crazy is being 20 and whatever crap it holds ahead.

But hey cheers to 20!!!

And hello to 21✨

#self worth #love #blogger #self boost #writers on tumblr #tumblelog #writerscommunity #education #poetry #21 savage #adult horror

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brightbeautifulthings · 2 years

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Hide by Kiersten White

"She doesn't know him, but she knows that when someone screams, LeGrand runs toward it. And she doesn't. What else would anyone ever need in order to weigh their worth?"

Year Read: 2022

Rating: 3/5

About: Fourteen contestants are competing for prize money in a high-stakes game of hide and seek in an abandoned amusement park. All of them desperately need it to escape troubled pasts or kickstart stagnant careers, but Mack is sure she can win. After all, hiding is the reason she's still alive and her family isn't. But as days pass inside the park and more contestants vanish without a trace, Mack and the others realize that something far more sinister is going on. They aren't playing for prize money; they're playing for their lives. Spoilers are under the cut. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House/Ballantine. Trigger warnings: character death (on-page, graphic), parent/child/sibling death, suicide (on-page), cults, gore, guns, severe injury, sexism, classism, homophobia, ableism, racism, slurs, grief, guilt, self-loathing.

Thoughts: The concept of this book sounded so creepy to me, but something about it fell short in the execution. I'm having a hard time pinpointing exactly what it was because, individually, there were things I liked about it. There are quite a few characters who are just there for body count (and giving two of them the same name is unnecessarily confusing in a book that already has too many characters), and most of them are varying shades of self-centered and unlikable. However, the ones we do get to know are vivid and sympathetic, with a kind of found family vibe. Mack is a somewhat dubious hero with a clear save-herself-first mentality, and I liked watching her break out of that over the course of the novel. Ava, a disabled war vet, is a badass that I'd totally want on my team, and LeGrand turns out to be surprisingly complex and with a harrowing background. A couple others stand out here and there, but the development varies a lot depending on how much (or how little) time we get to spend with them.

I think what hurt this novel the most for me was that I figured out the plot twist before they ever reached the park. Books don't usually hinge on their shock value for me, but a lot of the reveals fell flat when I could see them coming. There's a lot of spooky atmosphere in the deserted, mazelike park, which I found more effective than the actual threats. I was never very frightened by any of it, and the way characters have to be still and quiet for long chunks of time while they're hiding drags at the pace somewhat. I was more invested once they started to figure out what was going on, and it's got the usual amount of White's righteous anger in it to make things interesting. The message is a tad heavy-handed for an adult novel; I don't think readers need it spelled out quite that blatantly or often, but I get where it's coming from. It's a fun read, but not something that's likely to stick with me.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

It's difficult to talk about a lot of this book without venturing into spoiler territory, so let's start with that plot twist. I can't help it, okay? I've seen a lot of Supernatural! As soon as they were describing the small town perfection, my mind jumped right to "Scarecrow." Sorry, but nothing stays that pristine without some human sacrifice going on. The actual monster leaves something to be desired in its vague descriptions, and I never got a clear picture of it in my head. The real monsters, of course, are the humans, and they make for effective villains. I very much enjoyed the slow burn of Mack and Ava's relationship as well, and I was going to be distressed if one of them died, although it was really obvious that Ava didn't. It's a rule of horror that if you didn't see it happen on page/screen, it didn't happen. It's a satisfying ending, and I'd happily read a sequel about Mack, Ava, and LeGrand taking down a cult in their spare time.

#book review #kiersten white #hide #horror fiction #horror #adult horror #random house #ballantine #netgalley #rating: 3/5 #3/5 #2022

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annafromuni · 7 months

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A House With Good Creep Factor

T. Kingfisher’s A House With Good Bones is a horror novel with a decent premise, a likeable narrator and a plethora of creepy details and affinities that flesh out all compelling horror books. You can’t help but feel on edge when bugs and vultures are involved. There were things I really liked about this book, namely the description and eerie feel of the house. These factors are integral to…

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#a house with good bones #t kingfisher #adult thriller #adult horror #thriller books #horror books #light horror #mild horror #paranormal thriller #haunted house #haunted house books #paranormal fiction books #book review

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biggest-gaudiest-patronuses · 6 months

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finally at that age where i'm thinking i should get a tattoo. not bc i feel strongly about it, just seems like a waste not to. i've got so much skin i'm not using

#feels so selfish like. all this skin what am i saving it for?#open to design suggestions! (please make me regret this offer)#maybe some deep sea horrors. a pretty watercolor of a gulper eel #once saw a person on the subway with various Skeleton Tattoos on all their limbs #i respected their commitment to the theme #but more than that i respected how all the skeletons were engaged in Activities #dancing in a ballgown. juggling its own (and two other???) skulls. swordfighting. being a mermaid skeleton #ANYWAY. the only reason i haven't already gotten tattoos is i just couldn't be bothered #i'm old enough to know i don't have any strong-but-potentially-temporary feelings driving me towards it #aesthetically i prefer decorated to non-decorated surfaces. but i'm not artistic or thrilled with commitment #honestly it feels like sheer laziness. indecisiveness--nay. immaturity!--that i HAVEN'T gotten a tattoo yet #letting all this blank canvas go to waste. tut tut i need to grow up and be an adult and get a tattoo sleeve already.#really i've put off my responsibilities long enough #(in fairness i DID at one time have 18 different piercings)#(but i took most of them out bc they interfere with wearing headphones and/or shoving my face in my pillow during Sleep Time)#(i only kept the nape piercing bc oddly enough it ended up being the most convenient. and the least painful to get now i think about it.)#(neck piercing? no problem. normal pair of earrings? Tribulations And Suffering. i don't make the rules i just poke them with a stick.)

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m1dnightsnackz · 1 year

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Why do dreams cost so much these days? I remember when they used to be free.

#pls im going broke #im crying #adult horror #adulthood #showerthoughts #adult things #growin’ up #childhood memories

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rockislandadultreads · 2 years

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Fungal Horror: books to read

full list available on gizmodo.com

The Seep by Chana Porter

Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle—but nonetheless world-changing—invasion by an alien entity calling itself The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible. Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep’s utopian influence—until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seep-tech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated. Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina chases after a young boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind.

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves. Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.

Rosewater by Tade Thompson

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers. Kaaro is a government agent with a criminal past. He has seen inside the biodome, and doesn't care to again—but when something begins killing off others like himself, Kaaro must defy his masters to search for an answer, facing his dark history and coming to a realization about a horrifying future.

The Unfamiliar Garden by Benjamin Percy

The night the sky fell, Jack and Nora Abernathy’s daughter vanished in the woods. And Mia’s disappearance broke her parents’ already fragile marriage. Unable to solve her own daughter’s case, Nora lost herself in her work as a homicide detective. Jack became a shell of a man; his promising career as a biologist crumbling alongside the meteor strikes that altered weather patterns and caused a massive drought.

It isn’t until five years later that the rains finally return to nourish Seattle. In this period of sudden growth, Jack uncovers evidence of a new parasitic fungus, while Nora investigates several brutal, ritualistic murders. Soon they will be drawn together by a horrifying connection between their discoveries—partnering to fight a deadly contagion as well as the government forces that know the truth about the fate of their daughter. Award-winning author Benjamin Percy delivers both a gripping science fiction thriller and a dazzling examination of a planet—and a marriage—that have broken

#Horror #Fungus #Fungal horror #bodily horror #genre reading #scary stories #adult horror #new books #to read #tbr #booklr #book tumblr #booktok #Book Recommendations #reading recommendations #library books #public library #horror stories

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flaviathebibliophile · 27 days

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Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo (ARC Review)

Title: Forgotten Sisters Author: Cynthia Pelayo Type: Fiction Genre: Adult, Horror, Urban Fantasy, Mystery Publisher: Thomas & Mercer Published: March 19, 2024 A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Kaye Publicity, Inc. and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. Sisters Anna and Jennie live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River. They’re tethered to a…

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bcbennycontreras · 2 years

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One hell of a fucked up book (in a satisfyingly good way.)

Anyone else read this one?

What did you think?

“Woom” by Duncan Ralston

#horror #splatterpunk #horror fiction #adult horror

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