Queer SF - October 2026
October 1, 2026
Haunting of a Witch — J.J. Clapton
Genre: Contemporary fantasy
Rep: Sapphic; chronic illness
A chronically ill witch living in a haunted house. A magical English seaside town. A deadly warlock who wants to control it all.
How do you save your town when you’re too sick to leave your house?
Emily, a chronically ill witch, wants a place to curl up and rest her aching body, away from a world that doesn’t care. She's found it by squatting in the basement of a haunted house. Nobody else dares get close to its volatile, dangerous magic. But the ghosts and aura of fear don’t bother her; she knows what it means to be trapped in a house she can never leave. Instead, she uses the extra magic swirling through the air to supply potions to a shady businessman in exchange for the care she needs to survive.
That is, until a cute girl collapses at her back door in the middle of the night, smelling of smoke and magic, with tales of witches dying across the country.
The deaths all lead to Runestowe, her small English seaside town, and Emily realises the people looking after her are involved in the murders - with her potions in their hands and a front door key to come and go as they please.
When they turn up in her kitchen insisting she join their deadly schemes, Emily knows she has to stop them. But what can Emily do when she’s housebound and they know where she lives?
Link: Goodreads
October 3, 2026
House of the Iron Reaper — Storm Lomax
Genre: Fantasy, retelling
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Standalone in established universe
Dragons and magic combine in this sapphic retelling of Cinderella.
Deyanara is one of the last surviving dragons of House Iron, her lineage hanging by a thread after a tragic accident claimed her family. With her House on the brink of ruin, she’s determined to work day and night to ensure its survival.
When she’s mistaken for a contender in the brutal Ascension Rites—a legendary tournament where dragons fight monsters for the chance at winning divine favour—Deyanara expects humiliation. Instead, she finds a talent for battle and friendships she never expected—including one sharp-tongued rival.
But after a shocking turn sends the Rites spiralling into something far more deadly, Deyanara must decide what she’s truly fighting for.
Link: Goodreads
October 6, 2026
Carrying — Samantha Josephs
Genre: Horror
Rep: Trans woman MC
She’s serving. She’s eating. She’s... carrying.
In this electrifying horror debut that’s equal parts funny and harrowing, a stealth trans woman desperate to maintain her picture-picture life discovers that she’s seemingly—impossibly—pregnant.
Everything Martha’s wanted, she’s made for herself.
Meet Martha: perfect wife, perfect stepmother, perfect woman. She’s got an adoring husband who wants more kids with her, a loving stepdaughter who looks up to her, and a body to die for. She’s an absolute pro: Salon-quality blowouts at home? Done. Perfectly plated meals on the table every day? Effortless. Meticulously faked miscarriages so her husband won’t suspect the truth? Just hand over the Oscar now.
Martha is trans, so stealth even her family has no idea. She carved the woman she is out of the marble of a boy, and she’ll do whatever it takes to protect what she’s built. When a mysterious chronic illness and its debilitating symptoms threaten to upend her existence, she starts experimental treatments and gives in to her new, unsettling cravings. She’s even more shocked to discover that she’s undeniably, impossibly pregnant.
With her body changing rapidly outside of her control and her choices dwindling, Martha struggles to maintain the life she’s fought so hard to live while preparing for the motherhood she never thought she’d have.
Link: Kobo
Quaint Folk — Bitter Karella
Genre: Horror
Rep: Queer
The Wicker Man meets The Twisted Ones in Bitter Karella’s Quaint Folk—a queer folk horror novel that peels back the idyllic veneer of a seemingly perfect island town to reveal the rot beneath.
From the outside, it looks like Jessica has the perfect life. She’s a stay-at-home mom, married to a man with a respectable job, raising a son they adore. Her family is as wholesome as all-American pie. But deep down, Jessica knows there’s something wrong with her; she knows she can’t escape her past.
When her husband’s job has them move abroad, Jessica thinks this is her chance for a fresh start. On the remote island of Hasenhurst, the modern world can’t get in. The people there grow their own herbs, make their own jam, and mind their own business. They believe in folk tales and the power of dreams. They tell visitors, “We’re a quaint, quiet people.” The right sort of family would do well here.
Jessica is determined to be the right kind of person for a family—and a life—like this. But as she tries to befriend the townsfolk and learn their ways, she soon realizes that beneath the town’s cozy idyll, something sickly-sweet and rotten lies buried...
Link: Kobo
The Witch of the Wood — Alex Larkspur
Genre: Fantasy romance
Rep: M/M
There is a witch hiding in the trees of Hatwick Wood. They are a steward of the wood, caring for the alders, maples, and cedar within, watching over the home of the beasts and birds. The people who survive on the generosity of Hatwick Wood-every denizen from Farbreak at the south edge to Northpost on the opposite side-respects the witch. Everyone knows the witch is the forest caretaker, and if anything ever went wrong, they need to be found to mend it.
When Hatwick Wood is cursed, the witch must be found. It is up to Milo Ashton, an unremarkable member of the Ashton hunting clan, to venture into the cursed forest and find the witch. But soon, he is cursed himself. A mysterious hermit named Cam finds him and swears that he can help Milo lift the curse. Milo is torn between the magnetic draw he feels towards Cam and the certainty that Cam is hiding something from him.
Milo must find the witch, lift the curse, and reckon with his own feelings before he is consumed by the wood.
Link: Goodreads
Shattered City — Talli L. Morgan
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 2 of City of Silver
Who are you, Cyrus Beldon?
Having fled the chaos he left in his hometown by exposing his family’s crimes, Cyrus Beldon finally has a chance to live as he pleases—miraculously with the man he loves.
Yet Cyrus and Lucien’s work is not done. As they travel across the province in search of a place to call home, they discover that the monstrous Wild vampires they faced in Chestervale are more widespread than they thought. When a particularly strange encounter leads them to the vampire-friendly city of Byronia, at first they think they’ve found a perfect new home, but within days it becomes clear that trouble lies beneath the idyllic surface. A strange cult, a vengeful alchemist, and suspicious disappearances all weave around one common thread: an alarming frequency of Wild vampires.
Cyrus and Lucien need a solution if they hope to settle safely in Byronia, and an elusive alchemist could have all the answers they need, but he too hides a sinister secret. The pair find themselves snared in a greater danger than before—one that will test their bond, threaten their future together, and beg the question: is it worth the risk of losing everything they’ve fought for?
Link: Goodreads
The Heresy of Thieves — Mia V. Moss
Genre: Epic fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 1 of The Spellfall Series
After a millennium of prosperity and magic, one catastrophic night undoes the realm of Yvaelen. Magic has fallen, and prayers to Vael the Giver go unanswered.
Jal Riago knows when it’s time to move on from a con. She can’t maintain her false refugee heiress story forever, and her benefactors grow weary of playing host. Just when she’s about to confess and cut ties, a deadly raid sets Jal’s life on a collision course with a powerful entity reckoning with its own madness.
The young, steadfast King Thealys Vorrine inherited the throne of Dynestra after her parents’ deaths at Spellfall. But sparks of unrest flare all too quickly into the unpredictable wildfire of rebellion, and King Vorrine must forge headlong into unknown territory.
Royal knight and notorious rake Ember Carrado is trying his best to get fired. Instead, when he’s paired with a judgmental paladin and sent on a mission to hunt down a rampaging mythical beast, he finds himself face-to-face with the past he’s been running from since Spellfall.
Beacon Wylda Lorcanthas wields a sharp tongue and the second-highest office in the Church of Vael. When the head of the Faith dies, Wylda must seek out a biddable successor. Unfortunately, the clergy’s clear favorite is a charismatic priest who promises the restoration of magic—for those willing to partake of a bloody cost.
The dark betrayal behind Spellfall, and the very fabric of Yvaelen’s faith, will be hidden no longer. What began with a thief’s touch will end with a reckoning. And salvation for some may be a waking nightmare for others.
Link: Publisher’s Website
A Wall Is Also a Road — Annalee Newitz
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Queer
From bestselling author Annalee Newitz, A Wall Is Also a Road is a thought-provoking science fiction adventure about the meaning of life and love, seen through the many eyes of an alien grad student studying a familiar backwater planet. Perfect for fans of Becky Chambers, Ryka Aoki, and Martha Wells.
Gardenpath is a graduate student in biology who desperately wants to pass their exams with the highest honor possible: a prize given to scholars who discover something truly novel in the universe. Gardenpath also happens to be an amoeba—a slime mold, to be exact—from an ancient civilization that dwells in a vast network of towers between the stars. Seeking their prize, Gardenpath heads to a remote, dangerous planet that other researchers have dismissed as dead and uninteresting. There, they are surprised to discover a complicated ecosystem unlike anything they’ve ever encountered—including some peculiar, multicellular animals who seem to have language and culture.
To learn more about these animals, Gardenpath changes their shape to resemble one of them. And that’s how they meet a creature named Murtis, who lives in a city she calls Pompeii and works in a brothel known to locals as “the lupanar.” Unfazed by a visitor who says she’s from the stars, Murtis takes Gardenpath into her care, introducing her to the seaside tourist town full of immigrants and shopkeepers who are just trying to get by.
A Wall Is Also a Road is a story about what happens when the alien becomes familiar—and beloved. Gardenpath expected to finish their research, present their discovery, and take their place among the decorated scholars of the floating cities. But when they look at their wild new friend Murtis’s sensor bulb, attached to a bizarre electro-chemical control system, they begin to realize there’s more to life than academic achievement. They're not sure what it is, but they’re going to use science to find out.
Link: Goodreads
The Southern Sorority of Superstitious Witches — Katie Ortiz
Genre: Historical fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
In this spellbinding Southern Gothic novel, three women weave together old Southern folklore and magic to fight sexism and educational discrimination in post-Civil War Alabama, perfect for fans of Hester Fox and Louisa Morgan.
When Lucille, Catherine, and Victoria are invited to participate in a trial semester for women at Alabama’s most prestigious university, they each have their own reasons for accepting. Lucille wants freedom from both her father’s control and reminders of her traitorous first love. Catherine wants to escape an arranged marriage meant to halt her attraction to women. And Victoria wants to run from the guilt that haunts her after the death of one of her fellow mill girls.
The trial semester will determine whether or not women across the state will be allowed to attend other universities. But the enrolled women quickly learn that success is not guaranteed, and some of their male cohorts are determined to see them fail. When the men’s pranks go too far, Lucille, Catherine, and Victoria form a coven under the guise of a sorority and call upon witchcraft steeped in the traditions of southern folklore to fight back.
As they gather their fellow witches, they discover there is something darker at work at the university, a force that is determined to expel all the women at the university, and they’ll need all the allies they can get if they want to succeed.
For fans of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls and Weyward, this historical speculative novel explores the darker side of human nature and the ways in which women navigate—and survive—oppressive, male-dominated societies.
Link: Goodreads
Night of the Mallrats — Nicolina Torres
Genre: Horror, time travel
Rep: Queer
Five friends travel back to the 1990s to solve the brutal murder and disappearance of two of their high school peers in this thrilling debut novel from a promising new voice in horror—a murderous, nightmarish romp that is nostalgic, terrifying, and impossible to put down.
Shop ’til you drop... dead.
Colleen’s life feels as hollow as the abandoned Beechnut Mall—the 90s hangout where neon lights and endless laughter defined her teens thirty years before. When her old high school clique reassembles for one last night of rebellion inside the now condemned building, she joins them, never expecting the mall to give something back. The reunited friends do not know that inside its darkened halls, the past is waiting, and it’s not all Glamour Shots, Beanie Babies, and Lisa Frank.
Faced with their lost youth, they are drawn back into the mystery of Beth Packard—a schoolmate who vanished in 1994—and without warning, they find themselves transported to the mall in its heyday on the very night Beth disappeared. Thrust back three decades, the former mallrats must unravel the secrets hidden beneath memories, lies, and betrayals before time snaps shut around them. But each step closer to the truth of Beth’s disappearance brings them within reach of exposing ugly, fatal truths about each other.
Haunting, wistful, pulse-pounding fun, Night of the Mallrats is a time-travel thriller that asks a question with an unforgettable answer: What really happened to Beth Packard?
Link: Kobo
She’s a Doll — Barbara Truelove
Genre: Horror
Rep: Queer
Lucy isn’t a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She’s a doll on a mission—to find the man who killed her and return the favor.
Lucy McQuinn has been murdered, but she’s not about to go quietly.
If she doesn’t get to keep breathing, then neither does Kyle, her killer. Possessing the body of an antique doll, she sets out on a quest for revenge. But it’s hard when you’re eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain.
For help, she turns to Nicola, a human and fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle. But in their small idyllic town, no one wants to hear the truth, especially not about such a promising young man. If they can’t expose his crimes, Lucy will have to roll up her lacy little sleeves and teach him a lesson the old-fashioned way—as slowly and painfully as possible.
From LA Times bestselling author Barbara Truelove, She’s a Doll is a ghoulish and gleeful tribute to the unstoppable power of female rage and a love letter to the friends who have our back—in this life and the next.
Link: Goodreads
October 9, 2026
The Witch of Eden Hollow — G.T. Anthony
Genre: Fantasy romance
Rep: Two trans man MCs; queer; polyamory (M/M/M)
Hunting witches is Inquisitor T. Sterling’s specialty. Many hail and revere him for his efficiency and ruthlessness. But soon, he is about to tackle his most difficult hunt yet. A small hamlet called Eden Hollow has reached out to him for aid with their own witch problem. He accepts the job, but soon after realises that his target is not what it seems to be.
Elias’ life is tied to the Elder Grove, and he hides himself away and keeps everyone out with hostile barriers or killing first and asking questions later. When this witch hunter stumbles into his life, he knows he should make quick work of him. But as the forest deteriorates around him and he is desperate to find out the reason why, this hunter may be his only hope.
Within Eden Hollow, Avery Miller fights a war within himself that he fears he will lose. To be devout means to turn his back on the man he loves. To embrace a strange, all-consuming power means gambling with the risk of being disgraced. Or executed.
As their lives intertwine and tensions rise, secrets that were desperately locked away seep through the cracks, and what they find very well may destroy them.
Link: Itch.io
October 13, 2026
Bird King Rising — Samantha Bansil
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 2 of Letters From Maynara
A new queen reigns. A rebellion stirs. Will she risk it all to rule?
Newly crowned queen Laya Gatdula is determined to prove her worth to her subjects, her family, her rivals—and herself. When whispers of rebellion and rumored sightings of a giant raptor in the mountainous Skylands reach the capital, Laya must face the terrifying realization that her ex-lover and rival, Luntok, might still be alive and coming for the throne. Though she already wields power over wind and rain, to quell the threat from the north, Laya seeks the ultimate weapon: lightning.
Torn between the counsel of two men—her beloved confidant and her ruthless uncle—Laya must trust herself to cement her legacy and hold the throne. Is it better to earn her nation’s loyalty through benevolent rule, or risk everything to become an all-powerful god? And with Luntok rapidly gathering his army, will she live long enough to make the choice?
From Samantha Bansil, a brilliant, fresh voice in AAPI fiction, Bird King Rising returns to the world of Black Salt Queen with the gripping conclusion to an epic story of duty and strength, passion and betrayal, and the devastating cost of war.
Link: Goodreads
As You Wake, Break the Shell — Becky Chambers
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 1 of 2
Explore a universe of stubborn survival and found family, of persistent danger and quiet wonder in the first installment of a heartfelt new duology from Hugo Award–winning author Becky Chambers.
Life on the resource-poor planet of Fortune is challenging, but for its inhabitants, it’s home. For two of them, Signy and Cora, this home might no longer be enough.
Signy is a brilliant but reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine from her small plant shop, often bending the rules to help those the system leaves behind. Her life is filled with the green of her store, the warmth of her one elderly friend, and the quiet determination to help others without putting herself in danger.
Cora is a rorqual pilot, one of the few with the unique ability to navigate the massive, living ships that connect the scattered settlements of their solar system. Her bond with her rorqual, Colibri, is profound—a connection that is both her greatest gift and a threat to her career.
It is that threat—the “mindbleed,” a dangerous side effect of her piloting—that brings her to Signy’s shop, and her appearance puts Signy in the danger she so fears. But it’s soon apparent it’s not just about losing her license—this delicate balance between risk and trust has the potential to change everything for them.
Told in an alternating timeline of their initial coming together and a not-so-distant future where they have found domestic bliss, this is a story harrowing and haunting, heartfelt and hopeful. Through a love story centered around survival, we are given a glimpse into the very best of what Becky Chambers does in her writing: explore what it means to be human, and what it means to come together.
Link: HarperCollins
Devouring Fortune — Oleander Craw
Genre: Science fantasy
Rep: Queer; transmasc & lesbian MCs
Perfect for fans of The Unspoken Name and Gideon the Ninth, this queer, dark science fantasy follows a ruthless fortune weaver and an ambitious cave priestess, who enter into cursed bargains with unintended consequences.
A bargain with a fortune beast guarantees luck, but the price is a future devoured.
Reed’s luck has run out. After causing the deaths of his fellow fortune weavers, he spends twelve years searching for atonement. His luck turns when he finally finds what he desires: a fortune beast who can teach him to fix his mistake.
But all knowledge comes at a cost.
The ancient beast offers him a bargain: the power he needs to weave a fortune construct that can resurrect the dead. In return, all he must do is listen to the story of Daryifel the Eighty-Seventh.
Intrigued, Reed agrees. Yet he quickly realizes that Daryifel’s story is no simple tale, and he finds himself trapped to the fortune beast’s bidding. Attempting to protect the future by unweaving the errors of the past, Reed must face a dangerous truth:
A bargain with a fortune beast cannot be so easily broken.
Link: Books2Read
The House of the the Three-Headed Dog — Morgan Dante
Genre: Gothic vampire romance
Rep: M/M; trans man MC
Devon O’Brien has a few secrets: He is an assassin who must find the Crown of the Undying, and he killed the sire of the vampire he must serve.
Living on an isle overtaken by an imperial power, Devon is tasked with traveling to a dreary, peculiar, and seashell-filled coastal manor in Etierre, and he must retrieve a necromantic artifact called the Crown of the Undying from the vampiric lord of the manor, Naberius, who rules over three other vampires. When Devon, undercover, is assigned to serve the fastidious and dry-humored vampire musician Cillian Gallowglass, the two, despite themselves, grow closer and keep each other moored—but never one to let anyone truly know him, he finds himself in a dilemma: Years ago, Devon murdered Cillian’s true sire, and therefore he’s responsible for all the pain Naberius inflicts on Cillian after he took him in. The discovery of that truth may unravel everything, or in their colliding paths toward freedom, penance, and vengeance, Devon and Cillian may find a way to embrace the worst parts of themselves.
The House of the Three-Headed Dog is an M/M dark, sensual, and gothic vampire romance with a trans man assassin lead.
Link: Goodreads
Monstera — Delilah S. Dawson
Genre: Horror
Rep: Sapphic
A reclusive young woman moves into what seems like the perfect apartment and is obsessively drawn to her reclusive neighbour, who keeps a lush garden and is hiding a deadly secret… Eat the Ones You Love meets Wilder Girls in this sensual, sapphic, botanical horror novella from the New York Times-bestselling author of Bloom and House of Idyll.
When Lucy McClintock moves into a dreamy Victorian in downtown Savannah after years of suffering under the rule of her overbearing grandfather, she feels like she's won the lottery—well, outside of the creepy landlord. She soon notices a glorious green haven in the backyard and meets her downstairs neighbor, Saskia, a weightlifter who lives in a magical apartment overflowing with plant life and beautiful artwork. Naïve and lonely Lucy is drawn to strong and secretive Saskia, and as the two women grow closer, they discover they share more than just an apartment building…
A seductive, heady, sinister breathless romance and bone-chilling suspense collide in this sweet and deadly tale.
Link: Titan Books
Rottenheart — Kat Dunn
Genre: Gothic horror
Rep: Sapphic
From the author of Hungerstone comes a stunning new gothic horror novel set in Victorian Era London, inspired by the ghostly world of Hamlet.
It is the time of night when only the dead are abroad.
1898 Hampstead, London: Odette’s mother is dead. Before the funeral rites have concluded, body not yet buried, her once-estranged aunt, Claudine, takes over as the family’s matriarch. Not long after, she is announced as Odette’s new step-mother and the household reorders itself around Claudine's every command. As Odette reckons with this betrayal, a sinister presence begins to make itself known—and it is desperate for revenge.
Odette’s childhood best friend and lover Cecilia is caught in the middle. As Cecilia’s affections are tested in the face of Odette’s spiraling madness, so too is her duty to her family when they find themselves bound to Claudine by a buried secret.
Telling a story of love and grief, mothers and daughters, death and madness, Rottenheart reimagines Hamlet with a fearless queer love story and a world full of ghostly hauntings.
Link: Goodreads
Grotesque — Elliott Dunstan
Genre: Dark fairy tale
Rep: Queer
A darkly erotic fairy tale of death and redemption.
Bedhyndann is a small seaside town in Cornwall. A town that travellers feel uncomfortable in. A town where sailors often choose to stay on their ships rather than coming into port. A town where the golem Denvyth has lived for nearly two hundred years and where he has been waiting for his master, the sorcerer Arderne, to return for one hundred and fifty of those.
To pass the time, he amuses himself at the siren Victoire’s private club, helping the humans around him fulfill their most dangerous desires. Until he crosses paths with Summers, a client who wants more from Denvyth than he should, and who has the clues to unlock the secret of Arderne’s disappearance.
But Arderne sought to release an old god, and once Denvyth follows his master’s last instructions and finishes the sorcerer’s spell, what he unleashes could make him the monster he’s always feared being and destroy the world.
Link: Wolsak & Wynn
What a Nightmare — Rebekah Faubion
Genre: Horror
Rep: Bi
They called her a nightmare, so she became one.
Haven Powers has spent years trying to disappear. Once a loud, troublemaking girl who defied every expectation in her small town of Friendship, Texas, now she’s learned to hide her fire behind a quiet receptionist’s smile. It’s safer that way—for her, and for everyone else.
When an unsettling encounter with her predatory boss cracks open the tightly locked box inside her, Haven dreams a terrifying dream about him, only to wake up and discover it’s come true; he’s dead. Desperate to gain control of this deadly power once and for all, Haven returns home.
Welcomed suspiciously with open arms, Haven is immediately met with the ghosts of her past. Under the suffocating pressure of the town and her family who believe obedience is next to godliness, Haven soon finds herself on a path to revenge. She’ll show them what happens when the girl they called too much, too loud, too everything, finally lets her demons loose.
Link: Kobo
Nightcurse — Emma Hinds
Genre: Dark academia fantasy romance
Rep: Queer
Cursed with eternity, haunted by love–discover the truth about living forever in this achingly atmospheric dark academia fantasy.
Emrys Swift is so dead. One hundred and fifty seven years worth of dead, to be exact. He’s a Revenant, nightcursed, destined to be stuck being seventeen forever. Hidden away, he spends his infinite days as an undead librarian of witchlore at the NeverEnd library—until a new Revenant arrives and magical artifacts start going missing, jeopardizing his beloved home.
Emrys’s mortal enemy and annoyingly attractive shapeshifter Aubrey Vale is determined to solve the mystery—with Emrys’s help. Suddenly Emrys and Aubrey are magically bonded together on a quest into the dark and frost-bitten world of night-kin. But as Emyrs and Aubrey interrogate ghosts and face drowning by mermaids, deathly creatures aren’t the only spectres haunting them. With the ghoulish Night Hunt chasing them down, can they outrun the secrets of Emrys’ death and Aubrey’s life? And if they can save NeverEnd’s future, can they have a future together?
Hauntingly gorgeous and tender, Emma Hinds’ Nightcurse is both a Gothic mystery and an enemies-to-lovers romance about navigating life and love in the face of death.
Link: Goodreads
Mothsblood — Lynn D. Jung
Genre: Dark academia fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
An ambitious alchemist must uncover her university's dark secrets while trying to escape from her mysterious past in this electrifying debut.
On a rain-soaked night in modern-day Paris, Larkspur Lee and her academic rivals find themselves at the center of an impossible crime—the murder of their university’s headmistress, the immortal Petronelle Flamel.
In the aftermath of Flamel’s death, the school devolves into chaos. The mysterious investigator assigned to the case, Violaine, believes a cult known as the Promethean Genesis is responsible for Flamel’s murder. But Lark, who knows all too well what kind of horrors that the Prometheans commit, will do anything to stay out of the cult's reach. Matters are complicated when the mentor she crossed an ocean and a continent to escape re-enters her life, enticing her to his side once again while secretly wielding an agenda of his own.
As the Prometheans’ plans come to fruition and the university’s dark history comes to light, Lark has no choice but to decide whether the power she desires is truly worth the price.
Link: Goodreads
The Forest Bleeds — Rachel Kitch
Genre: Horror
Rep: Sapphic
Saige Chambers, Arcane Bioengineering student and blood witch, is constantly anxious and chronically over-prepared. When Saige and her fellow witch doctoral candidates depart for a conference, she plans and anticipates every last detail. Except–she’s not prepared for the moment their bus turns off the highway and takes them to a remote mansion in the Appalachian Mountains, the gates sealing shut behind them.
The mansion’s owner, Arius Medea, issues a simple mandate: fix his injured, rotting leg or die. But it’s no ordinary injury–the flesh melts off the bone, emitting waves of foul magic that set Saige’s blood alight. Saige’s colleagues want to fight back and escape. Saige thinks their best chance is to fix him fast and get out. As tensions rise, Saige finds herself growing closer to Vaishnavi Sri, a poison witch and Saige’s long-term crush. But first impressions can be misleading, and as Saige’s reluctant attraction to Arius grows, she begins to wonder if there’s a better life waiting for her in the walls of this mansion.
But as one by one Saige’s colleagues start to disappear, Saige realizes that dying may not be the worst option–because there are far worse fates lurking in the woods.
Link: Goodreads
As We Fall Through Time — Claire North
Genre: Time travel
Rep: Queer; MLM
Fall through history on a thrilling journey of shattered time, broken futures, and a love that can never be erased, perfect for fans of This is How You Lose the Time War and The Ministry of Time.
In the beginning, the world will end. This is the story of what happens next.
When Cal meets a soldier of the French Revolution, he knows his lover is destined to die. But what’s the point of being a time traveler if you can’t make a few small tweaks to the course of history? A little paradox here, an alteration there—nothing Cal can’t fix, to save the man he loves.
When Fadimatu walks into a museum in 2018, she stumbles upon her own mummified corpse, setting her on the path to a betrayal that has already killed her, and a murder that has not yet come to pass.
And when a sudden rupture in the fabric of history rips through the lives these travelers have built, breaking both past and future, they must reckon with death foretold, love forsaken, and a secret that will shatter time itself.
An extraordinary tale of time travel, betrayal, and a love that echoes through the centuries, from Claire North, the multi-award-winning author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.
Link: Goodreads
October 20, 2026
The City That Shattered the World — Fiona Fenn
Genre: Romantic fantasy
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 2 of The Cursed Mage
Happily ever after isn’t all that magical...
With Hell’s chasm closed and magic sealed away, Orpheus and Fenrir find themselves at the center of the Empire’s reconstruction. But when mysterious assailants kidnap Orpheus to a city once powered by the chasm he closed, the redeemed villain discovers all magic may not be lost… only his.
Presented with a choice, fix the city or die, Orpheus comes face-to-face with a young mage named Gwen whose magic is too weak to cast a spell, let alone help the broken city. Enamored by the former dark sorcerer, Gwen offers to help keep Orpheus’ missing powers a secret in exchange for magical tutelage, buying Orpheus the time he needs for Fenrir to come to his rescue.
But when weeks pass without Fenrir’s arrival while Gwen only grows stronger, Orpheus looks to his unlikely student and wonders…
Is there a way to steal Gwen’s magic and save himself?
The City that Shattered the World is the epic second book in the LGBTQ+ romantic fantasy series The Cursed Mage. Fans of Critical Role and Arcane will be swept away by Fiona Fenn’s emotional, character-driven story, where morally gray villains fight to earn their redemption.
Link: Goodreads
Lethal Kiss — Taylor Grothe
Genre: Horror romance
Rep: Sapphic
Jennifer’s Body meets Ninth House: Taylor Grothe’s adult debut novel is a sapphic horror/romance that’s as grotesque and blood-soaked as it is beautiful.
When Marcella is hired at Preston University, she has her game plan already mapped out―lay low for a few semesters, enjoy the extensive library, and maybe feast on a couple of her coworkers. That is, until a professor is found murdered and it’s not her doing. She may be the newest monster on campus, but she definitely isn’t the most dangerous.
Assistant professor Lacie is aware how ruthless the track to tenure is. But seeing the corpse of one of her colleagues is enough to make her suspect the other professors that came before her didn’t just quit academia. Unfortunately, there’s only one person she can trust enough to ask for help―the beautiful, aloof, and tantalizingly secretive Marcella.
Lacie and Marcella team up to make a chilling discovery: there’s something festering under the marble floors of Preston University, and it’s hungry. Marcella might be a monster, but the deeper into the mystery they dig, the more she’s attracted to Lacie’s immovable bravery and quiet intelligence. And the closer they grow, the more Lacie is drawn to Marcella’s vicious nature.
The weight of spilled blood and stolen opportunity is too heavy to carry alone, but they’re both determined to get what they deserve―even if they have to kill for it.
Link: Goodreads
Milkteeth — Caitlin Starling
Genre: Horror
Rep: Queer
From the bestselling author of The Death of Jane Lawrence comes a new, genre-bending supernatural horror about a vampire broodmother fighting against her own monstrous descent.
Beatrice is a a vampire responsible for nursing newly made fledglings through the first years of their unlife. She nests in an abandoned, isolated warren of office space beneath her patron’s skyscraper, raising two fractious Gorgeous—once a heartthrob, now to all appearances a living corpse—who longs for the return of the lover who made him immortal with all the fervor of a rebellious teen, and Fortunata, the scion of Beatrice’s mistress, alien and ambitious in her desires.
But when Beatrice decides to take on a third fledgling, the product of an attempted siring gone wrong, teetering between vampiric purity and ghoulish depravity, Beatrice finds herself strained to breaking between the societal and physical demands of her position, her own ravenous hunger, and an obsessive need to discover what’s happening to her—because her body is changing too, transforming her into something even more monstrous. She begins to crave the taste of flesh, something anathema to all vampires, and to swing between desperate hunger and vicious power.
Desperate to master herself once more, Beatrice courts a mortal OBGYN who might be able to unravel the secrets of her unnatural anatomy. But soon their connection threatens the secrecy of her vampiric coven as well as the safety and development of her dependent nurslings… and the humans they stand to slaughter if left to their own devices.
Link: Goodreads
October 23, 2026
The Buried Club — M. O’Hara
Genre: Grimdark fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 1 of The Suits of Vengeance
Some debts can only be paid in blood.
After ten years in exile, the Prince of the Club Confederacy walks the streets of the Diamond Empire once more, hidden amongst people. Arthur slays monsters and people alike under the moniker of the Deathwalker, seeking a truth that was stolen from his very mind. Accompanying him on his hunt for revenge is Maisha, a bone shaman whose visions of a monstrous serpent come to fruition when Arthur stumbles upon her village and becomes a prisoner.
Meanwhile, the Diamond Empire continues its conquest for land and resources. Civil unrest grips the empire's furthest reaches as rebels from the occupied Syndicate of Spades spread death and fear around the world, and the passing years have done nothing to quell their bloodshed. The Spades can burn everything to the ground for all Arthur cares. He just wants their king, and Maisha just wants her freedom.
Link: Goodreads
October 26, 2026
Crown of Ash — Kai Butler
Genre: Romantasy
Rep: M/M
Series: Book 5 of Emperor’s Assassin
As fires burn Tavornai and Bemishu marches on the Ariphadeus, something even more horrifying threatens the happiness Tallu and I have found.
We have finally found an ally that will allow us to retake the Imperium from Kacha and Bemishu’s clutches. Even as we control the rivers that cross the empire, Kacha and Bemishu move with the confidence of experienced generals, keeping us from total victory.
When Bemishu flees into the Ariphadeus, we must follow him because what lives there would change the war in his favor. Can we find it first? And if we do, could we possibly win at last?
Link: Amazon
October 27, 2026
Scorpion Deep — CG Drews
Genre: YA horror
Rep: Queer
CG Drews, New York Times-bestselling author of Don’t Let the Forest In and Hazelthorn, weaves a disturbing and intoxicating siren-call in Scorpion Deep, about a lonely boy who accidentally awakens an obsessive eldritch sea god.
The only thing Jonathan Covey wants from the gloomy, moldering isle of Kelcarrow is to leave it. Summer is ending, and his friends are looking forward to college on the mainland, unaware that Jonathan was not accepted to join them. He’ll be left behind with nothing but the ocean’s haunts and a rising dread of being abandoned.
In an act of wild desperation, Jonathan pays a tithe to Scorpion Deep, an eldritch sea god who many of the locals have dismissed as myth. He wants to forget the past, he wants to follow his friends, and most of all he wants to finally escape.
To his shock and horror, the ritual works—Scorpion Deep awakens. And despite his terror, Jonathan can’t help but feel drawn toward the ageless entity that seems just as mutually obsessed with him. As scales start growing down his spine and Scorpion Deep’s adoration of him turns bloody, Jonathan realizes the only way to end the nightmare is to destroy the monster one way or another.
But once a god has awoken, the only way to be free is to pay a price of blood.
Link: Goodreads
The Turbulent Appearance of Brise Collier — Natalie Kelda
Genre: Historical fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Standalone in established universe
Grief and despondency consumes every moment of Ellie’s waking hours. Or at least every moment that isn’t spent toiling away in the cramped and dark confines of an English coal mine at the turn of the nineteenth century.
She doesn’t believe her dreadful existence can get any worse, but then a firedamp explosion claims the lives of two young children right before her eyes.
Brise is an air sprite and has never had a single concern in the eons she has had sentience. Playing chase with her sister in a coal mine as they have done thousands of times before, an open trapdoor captures Brise in a stale air full of firedamp. A spark lights it—changing her life forever.
Ellie didn’t expect to discover a lone survivor from the explosion. But the woman she rescues from the depths of the pit doesn’t quite seem human, and her hair and eyes don’t match those of the collier who had entered the pit the day before.
Who is Brise Collier? An evil spirit sent to haunt Ellie, or an angel come to guide her towards hope and healing?
The Turbulent Appearance of Brise Collier is part of the series of standalone novels in the series Folk With a Disregard for Convention, which are set in a fantastical version of historical Britain.
Link: Books2Read
The Killing of a Chestnut Tree — Oliver K. Langmead
Genre: Cozy historical fantasy mystery
Rep: Gay
Series: Book 1 of Havelock Harper Mysteries
Be gay, solve crimes! The Killing of a Chestnut Tree introduces Havelock Harper, an all-new queer gentleman detective in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, with a cozy, fantastical mystery.
Everyone in England knows Havelock Harper, the celebrated consulting detective, from the cases published in the papers. If any of them read his secret files, they would discover a very different man. His most fantastical cases must never reach the public eye, and nor must the love he shares with his stalwart companion, the formidable Major Sebastian Wright.
The Duke of Farleigh has been killed, and Havelock Harper summoned to the secluded Farleigh Forest to solve his murder. When he and Sebastian arrive, they discover a greater mystery. The trees of Farleigh have begun to speak, writing words into their leaves and bark. The victim is one of those trees: an ancient chestnut, cruelly chopped down.
Why has the forest begun to speak? Why would anyone cut down the Duke? And how can Farleigh’s gentle, quiet paradise survive this crime?
Link: Goodreads
Code and Codex — Yoon Ha Lee
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: Queer
In the stars-spanning Censorate, all languages other than lingua rubra are forbidden. The Censorate’s ruling Peacock, Aurelia, wields the universal language to manipulate reality itself and to command the obedience of all who hear and understand her.
Valentina was sold as a child to Aurelia to serve as her sworn companion, the Swan, responsible for extracting useful knowledge from foreign texts before destroying their languages wholesale. Until she delivers a book of forbidden verse to the Peacock, which proves to be the key to enslaving the Basilisk, a traitor imprisoned for a thousand years, whose gaze is so powerful that he once destroyed the Censorate’s entire fleet…
Link: Author’s Website
Call Me Traitor — Everina Maxwell
Genre: Romantic fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
En is a weapon.
Battle spells are carved into her skin, she’s trained to work through pain, and she’s magically compelled with loyalty to the archmage. When she's sent on a mission to retrieve a group of infamous traitors from exile in a land of unpredictable and deadly magic, she's forced to team up with a common soldier to have any chance of success, or survival.
Tamol is a disaster.
En isn’t fooled by the soldier’s silver tongue and good looks. Tamol is flighty, cowardly and the worst soldier En has ever met. But she’s also brilliant at magic and kinder than En has any right to expect. When she saves En’s life, it takes everything En has not to start falling for her. That is, until En discovers Tamol is one of the very traitors she seeks.
The empire never forgets.
Years ago, the exiled traitors were just normal students with a vision for a better kingdom. They put their lives on the line fighting for it and lost. So they were exiled to the Far Peninsula to die. But now, the empire discovers the traitors may yet live, and they’ve unearthed something in the wilderness that the archmage will pay any price to get.
But the might of an unforgiving empire isn’t the greatest force in all the land. Something monstrous is living in the Far Peninsula that does not discriminate between soldiers, traitors, and kings.
The future of the empire is unexpectedly in the hands of En and Tamol. At least the perfect soldier would never betray her orders, no matter how much she starts to question her command. Would she?
Link: Goodreads
She Isn’t Herself Tonight — Hailey Piper
Genre: Horror
Rep: Bi
From the Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Queen of Teeth and A Game in Yellow, a “blissfully twisted and genuinely heartfelt” (Rachel Harrison, New York Times bestselling author of Play Nice) literary horror novel following a young woman on the heels of a traumatic break-up as she anxiously awaits an impending alien abduction.
When Rabbit was ten years old, she was abducted by aliens. Then, it happened again when she was twenty. Now thirty, she’s ready for their next visit. What she isn’t prepared for is her boyfriend callously ending their long-term relationship and ejecting her from their shared home.
As her birthday approaches, the aliens still haven’t arrived. Rabbit descends into a spiral of growing paranoia and bizarre bodily transformations, until soon it seems that even her reflection has a mind of its own. With her only refuge being the chaos of strangers who might not have her best interests at heart, Rabbit worries that her ex’s abandonment not only severed her from his life, but also from her own. Struggling to orient herself within a world growing more topsy-turvy by the day, Rabbit must regain control before her aliens at last return.
Link: Kobo
Chateau Reverie — Natasha Siegel
Genre: Historical fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
Another sweeping speculative, romantic novel from the author of As Many Souls as Stars, in which attendees of a magical auction must bid secrets in exchange for their greatest desires. Perfect for fans of Erin Morgenstern or V.E. Schwab.
Reverie and Sons humbly requests your attendance at THE AUCTION OF SECRETS.
Genevieve de Vienne does not remember the journey to the Chateau Reverie. She only remembers receiving her invitation to the Auction of Secrets, writing upon it her greatest desire—to forget the woman she once loved—and setting it aflame.
Leander Sterne does not remember a life outside of the Chateau Reverie. When he receives his own invitation, he does not have any secrets to bid, but his greatest desire—his liberty—is worth risking everything. He has nothing to lose.
Alongside five fellow attendees, Leander and Genevieve must survive three nights in the Chateau in order to bid their secrets and win their hearts’ desire. But the Chateau has a mind of its own. As guests begin to disappear and Leander and Genevieve become more and more entangled, it becomes clear that the rules of the Auction might not be in anyone’s favor… and even those who win might not be allowed to leave.
Written in Natasha Siegel’s transportive, lush prose and set amidst the final days of the French Revolution, Chateau Reverie is a rococo fairytale full of horrors and wonders: both a sweeping romance and a twisting speculative mystery.
Link: Kobo
Backwoods Banshee — David R. Slayton
Genre: Urban fantasy
Rep: M/M; gay MC
Series: Book 5 of Adam Binder
As Adam copes with fresh trauma, he must investigate how Banshees are getting into our world, and who is trying to erase history from the books…
Adam, Vic, and their friends are attending a concert, enjoying a rare moment of peace, when a man suddenly rushes the stage and screams, killing the musician and rendering many of the audience members unconscious. Adam quickly learns this is a banshee which has somehow slipped into this world from The Between, a realm outside of everything.
While Adam tries to solve one mystery, the tension builds between him and his boyfriend, Vic, as Adam struggles to heal from the torture he suffered at the hands of a vicious cult. Still not comfortable with being touched, can their relationship survive Banshees and betrayal?
In classic Slayton style, not everyone is who they seem. Friends become enemies, enemies become allies, souls are stolen, and battles fought. Backwoods Banshee is a fast paced, heart breaking, and wonderful addition to the Adam Binder series.
Link: Kobo
Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends — A.D. Sui
Genre: Cli-fi; science fiction thriller
Rep: Sapphic
This sapphic cli-fi thriller is a love letter to hope in the bleakest of times, combining the multiverse-bending drama of This Is How You Lose the Time War with the cat-and-mouse chase of Killing Eve.
On a near-future Earth devastated by climate change, Dr. Cassandra Barlowe is right where she wants to be: working on an island of floating trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as far away from Dr. Yana Gulsvig as possible. Cas’s research on plastic-dissolving fungi is undervalued and underfunded, thanks to the invention of deleria, a drug that allows glimpses into different timelines. For the average user, it’s a way to view lost loved ones or experience a different life, but it also offers a glimpse into worlds where humanity has solved its many global crises. Now, most science funding is dedicated to trawling these different timelines, searching for a reality with the solution to the climate devastation.
But when Yana—the world’s leading expert on deleria and Cassandra’s ex-lover—is killed in a mysterious explosion in the hub of deleria research, taking the hope of reversing climate change with her, Cas is arrested on charges of domestic terrorism. Cas must delve through timelines to piece together what happened, while watching other versions of herself and Yana live out the life they could have had—happier, more in love. As brutal government agents close in and her addiction to deleria grows, Cas has to make a choice: live in the spiraling branches of reality, seeking closure for Yana’s death until the drug shatters her mind, or live in the now, even if that means embracing her own damaged self and fighting, however hopelessly, for her own future and that of humanity.
Link: Goodreads
October 31, 2026
Prometheus — Snakeskin Press (ed.)
Genre: Futuristic horror anthology
Rep: Queer
THE YEAR IS 2099.
A dark web dweller, a curious space explorer in a library, a forbidden queer couple seeking new horizons…
Prometheus stole fire and gave it to humanity. To this day, we carry it in our hearts: an innate spirit no machine can replicate.
Sixteen authors bring you tales of imagined futures, spanning vast worlds and a wide breadth of queer, human, and post-human experiences. From a surgeon’s backstreet office to a city of dreams to motherships, AI-dominated worlds, and cults, enter a universe of horrors that will make your heart race and your skin prickle.
THE FUTURE IS HUMAN.
Link: Goodreads