Dive into these haunted and haunting books featuring either BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ characters. Annotations from NoveList, unless otherwise attributed. (Created May 2023)
The Salt Grows Heavy
You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three "saints" who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
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View The Salt Grows HeavyThe Graveyard Apartment
After moving to a new apartment complex next to a cemetery, a young Japanese family experiences strange and terrifying occurrences that send the other residents fleeing their homes, ultimately leaving them alone with a dark, evil something, or someone, residing in the basement.
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Availability: No Longer Available
View The Graveyard ApartmentThe Trees Grew Because I Bled There
Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; on-line posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution….
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View The Trees Grew Because I Bled ThereLone Women
A woman heads to Big Sky Country with some unusual baggage—actual, metaphorical, and psychological. (Kirkus)
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View Lone WomenSummer Sons
When his best friend dies of an apparent suicide, Andrew uncovers lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death.
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View Summer SonsOur Hideous Progeny
Determined to follow in the scientific footsteps of her great uncle Victor Frankenstein, Mary Saville and her husband, desperate to be accepted into the scientific community, construct their Creature and Mary finds herself contemplating disturbing questions and unexpected feelings for the hideous progeny she’s grown to love.
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View Our Hideous ProgenyWhen the Reckoning Comes
The dark history of a North Carolina tobacco plantation casts a shadow on 21st-century visitors in McQueen's wrenching debut novel. (Kirkus)
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View When the Reckoning ComesThe Black Guy Dies First
A definitive and surprising exploration of the history of Black horror films, after the rising success of Get Out, Candyman, and Lovecraft Country from creators behind the acclaimed documentary, Horror Noire.
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Availability: Available
View The Black Guy Dies FirstBoys, Beasts & Men
In Nebula Award-winning author Sam J. Miller’s devastating debut short-fiction collection, featuring an introduction by Amal El-Mohtar, queer infatuation, inevitable heartbreak, and brutal revenge seamlessly intertwine. Whether innocent, guilty, or not even human, the boys, beasts, and men roaming through Miller’s gorgeously crafted worlds can destroy readers, yet leave them wanting more.
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View Boys, Beasts & MenBeneath the Rising
Nick Prasad has always enjoyed a quiet life in the shadow of his best friend, child prodigy and technological genius Joanna "Johnny" Chambers. But all that is about to end. When Johnny invents a clean reactor that could eliminate fossil fuels and change the world, she awakens primal, evil Ancient Ones set on subjugating humanity. From the oldest library in the world to the ruins of Nineveh, hunted at every turn, they will need to trust each other completely to survive...
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View Beneath the Rising