All the (More!) Books! September 25, 2026

0:00You're listening to all the more books, a weekly show of the books of all kinds. I'm your host, Danica Ellis, and today I'm talking about the queer horror and horror adjacent books on my October TBR, or I should say a few of them. Because I am a reluctant horror fan, I most of my life have avoided horror because I am a very anxious individual, and I don't want that in my head. But slowly over the years, I have been introduced to such great horror books and movies that they keep creeping in. And originally, I kept them to October. I figured I can have my Halloween season and do the scary stories then, and even if they kept me up a night, it would be contained to one month. And now they have spilled over a little bit, but I still do most of my horror reading in

1:03October, which means throughout the year I put horror books that I'm interested in on hold of the library and then freeze the hold so that they come in late September or early October. And it's gotten completely out of hand because now I've maxed out my holds, I'm getting way more books than I can possibly read in a month, but it is very exciting to have so many to choose from. And as usual, most of them are queer, because queer horror is having a golden age. There are so many incredible queer horror books out, so I thought I would talk about just a few of them that are on my TBR. But before I get to that, if you want to keep up with new horror books or new queer books or new queer horror books, you should check out the new release index. It is book riots curated database of new books organized by genre and release date, and I add books to it all the time. I'm one of the people who helps build that catalog, and you better believe I add a lot of

2:09queer books and you can actually filter by not just genre, but also LGBTQ books. So if you want to know more about upcoming queer books, it's a great resource. And now it is included with your all-access membership. So if you're not a member yet, head to the link in the show notes at bookride.com, slash all the books to sign up today. All right, I have far too many books to talk about today, so this is going to be pretty rapid fire. I always look forward to Dewey's 24-hour readathon. I've mentioned it on the podcast many times. It's twice a year, and me and a few friends of mine get together and try to read as much as we can in a 24-hour period. It's happening in October, and I always prioritize queer reads for the October readathon. So I got a lot of graphic novels and novelas that I could get through pretty quickly on my TBR. One of them is Simplicity by Mattie Loupchansky. This is the author of Boys Weekend, which is a satirical trans horror graphic novel that

3:14I absolutely loved, and I've been so looking forward to this, and for some reason have not picked it up yet. But this is another satirical trans horror graphic novel, I believe, about a cult. It looks very fun. It's set after the dissolution of the United States of America, and it's been academic, who is supposed to be studying this kind of isolated cult, and he ends up pulled into it, and that is going to be a great time. Another one that's been on my TBR for ages is Feast While You Can by Michaela Clements and Anjuli Dada. This is a horror romance sapphic book, and I've heard that it is very strange and sexy, and I love horror romance. I think it is such a fun combination to make horror a little sexy. It is off-putting in the best way, and this one is a bit of a folk horror story.

4:17There is, I believe, a possession angle, as well as this star-crossed enemy's televers complicated sapphic romance, so that is definitely high on my list this month. Another is You Weren't meant to be human by Andrew Joseph White. I have really enjoyed the Andrew Joseph White books that I've read, the YA Trans horror and thrillers that I've picked up, so the spirit bears its teeth and compound fracture. Those were both fantastic. This is an adult horror novel about an alien invasion, and about a trans man who is impregnated, and that is the main source of horror, but it's also this kind of insect alien group that want him to keep this pregnancy, which is not what he wants to do, so this looks very

5:21unsettling, very body horror, and I know that Andrew Joseph White can really write books that disturb me, so I'll have to build up to that one. Today's episode is brought to you by Nightstand and app for readers. If you're looking for a new, unique experience when it comes to reading apps, something that kind of cuts down on the other noise of apps and lets you focus on what you want to focus on, which is your reading and the books you want to log, Nightstand is for you. So Nightstand is a new app for readers, available now in the Apple App Store. With Nightstand, you can track your TBR, remember all of the books you finish, create reading goals, manage your book club, reads, and more. Nightstand is unique because there are no friend connections to manage, or other reviews to way through. With the app, you can create social posts to share books you love, or you can send a book recommendation to a friend via text right from the app. Also, all caps, also.

6:23Nightstand is private and ad-free. We love to hear it. You can learn more and get the link to download the app in the Apple App Store by going to Nightstand, www.dashapp.com, forward slash book riot. Again, that's Nightstand-app.com, forward slash book riot. And because we love y'all, there's a code you can use, it's book riot, go to the site, make sure download the app, and thanks again to Nightstand for sponsoring this episode. Today's episode is brought to you by Sora. Now, if you love Libby, and you are a parent and or a teacher of a pre-K through 12 student, Sora needs to be a part of your life. It's a reading platform built exclusively for pre-K through 12 schools, with this privacy, security, compliance, protections, classrooms actually need. For teachers, you can assign and monitor reading with confidence. It has built-in tools like pronunciations, vocabulary support, and annotation that supports

7:29comprehension, not just access within text. So kids can read, but they can also learn more intentionally from what they're reading. For parents, it means a safe school-approved way to encourage reading at home, because all e-books and audiobooks in Sora are selected by your school, so you can trust that they are age and grade appropriate. So like I said, if you love Libby, you're going to love Sora. Make sure to check out Sora, and thanks again to Sora for sponsoring this episode. Today's episode is brought to you by Jay and Cheney, Terry Maggert, and Ethan Fult. The best lit RPG, Fantasy Sci-Fi, and horror. If you would like something that's like, we are Legion, like the Bobaverse series meets Old Man's War, this is for you. So Van Tudor spent his childhood on his grandfather's farm, listening to fantastic stories of spaceships and monsters, princesses and galactic knights, and empires.

8:30He thought they were all made up, only meant to entertain until the day he inherited the family farm, and discovered the truth. Grindad really was a legendary starship pilot, and every adventure really did happen. And perhaps most importantly, hidden beneath the old barn, vans like to see it inheritance awaits. It's a starship. And with the help of an Android bird named Perry, who doubles as a combat AI, Van sets out for the stars in search of answers. And Destiny is calling girl. This is for fans of the expanse, the long way to a small angry planet, the murder bot diaries, Firefly, basically all of the best sci-fi set out in space of the last like 20 plus years. If you like any of those things, you're going to like Backyard Starship. Backyard 1 Destiny is calling by Jay and Cheney and Terry Maggert. Make sure to pick it up. And thanks again to AtheanVolt for sponsoring this episode. And of course, I have a couple of Chuck Tingle books on my TBR, Barrier Gays and Fabulous

9:34Bodies. I have just accepted at this point that I will read any horror book that Chuck Tingle writes, because I was skeptical, I'll be honest. And then I read Camp Damascus and I liked it and I read Lucky Day and I kind of thought it was brilliant. I think it is such an interesting take on bisexuality and by erasure. So now I'm just on board. I will follow him wherever he wants to write in the horror realm at least. So I'm behind on two books. One of them is about a scriptwriter who is being pressured to kill off a gay character that's Barrier Gays. And he finds that that is easier said than done. And these Barrier Gays kind of are trying to get their revenge. So that sounds great. And then Fabulous Bodies kind of similarly seems to me about a queer body coming back to

10:35life, but this is about a fashion influencer by day and Greia Fropper by night who steals the body of this famous queer icon except that the body wakes up. And now the description says it's a supernatural joyride where drive meets beetle juice. So hard to know what to expect for that, but I'm on board. And then this one is more horror adjacent, I think, but it is the midnight shift by Chun Sunran translated by Jean Peng. And this is a vampire murder mystery. It is set in Korea. And it's about a detective who is looking into the cases of these elderly people who have died supposedly by jumping out of windows, but it turns out the vampires are involved. And the detective runs into this mysterious woman who is trying to track down her ex lover

11:39Lily. And they are working together to figure out what is happening. And I can't resist a sapphic vampire novel. And this being a murder mystery gives it a different angle, which should be fun. And finally, I believe this one has been talked about on the podcast before, Slasher Summer by EL Chen, which is supposed to be a campy love letter to the Slasher films of the 1980s. So it is about this friend group who grew up in a town known for a horror movie called Slasher. And they decide to get back together after many years at the cabin where the movie was filmed. And they find that someone is trying to bring the movie to life. And this has, I believe, several different queer characters, different kinds of representation. But it looks like such a fun time.

12:40I think this would have been great to read in the summer as well, because I feel like Slasher movies are such a summer thing. But I am keeping it to my October reads. And the cover looks like a VHS. And it looks very nostalgic. So if you're a fan of kind of campy 1980s slasers, I really think this is one you should know about. So that is one of the, it's the last one I'm going to talk about today. I literally have, I think, 30 to 40 months on my TVR, which is absolutely ridiculous. And most of them are queer horror. But I am grateful to live in a time of abundance for queer horror. You know, you got to find the good things about our current timeline. And that is one of them. Thank you so much to our sponsor. And thank you for listening for more recs or general bookishness. Check out bookride.com. And don't forget to check out our full stable of podcasts at bookride.com slash listen

13:44or just search book ride on your podcast player of choice. You can find a list of the books I mentioned today in the show notes by visiting bookride.com slash all the books. And if you're a fan of all the books and all the more books and you want to show us some love, please leave a rating or review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. We really appreciate it. And your reviews help other book lovers to find us. If you want to find me, you can do that at lesbara.com for my sapphic book blog. That's l-e-s-b-r-a-r-y.com. And in the meantime, happy reading. Pink Panther is here. Coaching Spotify are teaming up to bring music and soul together. And they want you to be part of it. Grab your friends and head to the tabby tour, hitting cities around the country with live performances from special artists, exclusive experiences and personalized products, and discover

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