Book Recommendations: Gorgeous, Gruesome, and Downright Unsettling: Three Queer Horror Reads to Keep You Up at Night

Some books belong to cozy mornings with coffee. These belong to midnight.

Just because it’s November doesn’t mean you have to stop reading horror. If you’re looking for stories that combine eerie atmosphere, queer identity, and deeply human emotion, this trio of new YA horrors should go straight to the top of your fall TBR (or all year because we read queer all year but also spooky!). A Feast for the Eyes by Alex Crespo, Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng, and Roar of the Lambs by Jamison Shea all explore what happens when beauty turns haunting, when fame and faith curdle into fear, and when the monsters you meet might just know your name. They’re all out now – check out below why they deserve to be on your TBR!

A Feast for the Eyes

by Alex Crespo
Published by: Peachtree Teen
on October 7, 2025
Bookshop
Goodreads

Sawkill Girls meets Twin Peaks in a page-turning queer supernatural thriller, where four teens must track down a local cryptid that’s feeding off secrets, before their own hidden truths are exposed.
“Alex Crespo thrills with a meticulously crafted page-turner. A feast of twists, tension and secrets.” —C.S. Pacat, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Rise
On the dreary Oregon coast, an all-seeing beast—known as the Watcher—lies in wait. When Shay and her girlfriend, Lauren, get into a fight over whether to go public with their clandestine relationship, they awaken the creature. Although Lauren is badly injured, the girls escape with their lives but can’t shake the feeling of the creature’s eyes tracking them.
Meanwhile, aspiring photographer Zoe is desperate to put together a portfolio worthy of earning a scholarship to attend art college. Her photography teacher praises her skill but urges her to select more daring subjects for her submissions—a tall task when Zoe's camera acts as a barrier between herself and the rest of the world.
As rumors swirl about Lauren's injuries, Shay remains steadfast in that the Watcher is to blame, not her. She asks for Zoe’s help in snapping a photo of the local legend. Proof would help Shay clear her name and certainly be daring enough for Zoe’s scholarship. Together with their friends Jack and Parker, they set out to expose the Watcher before its ever-creeping eyes cast the secrets they’re all keeping from the town—and one another—into the light.
Eerily atmospheric and as piercing as a pair of eyes on the back of your head, Alex Crespo's LGBTQ+ supernatural thriller is a poignant story about the prices we pay to keep our secrets hidden—sometimes for good reason. Through creeping tension and mounting horror, readers will furiously turn the pages with their breaths held.
Perfect for readers who love:-Sapphic yearning-Popular girl/ Unpopular girl romance-Slow Burn-Secret Relationship-Small Town with a Dark Secret-Found Family-Eldritch Abomination-Hunter Becomes the Hunted

A Feast for the Eyes by Alex Crespo

Secrets have teeth in Alex Crespo’s queer supernatural thriller. Set in a small town haunted by something hiding in the woods, four teens are forced to hunt down a cryptid that feeds on their secrets. The premise sounds classic, but Crespo delivers it with cinematic pacing and a quiet ache for connection beneath the horror.

This one feels like Sawkill Girls meets Twin Peaks, a moody, fog-covered page-turner where the supernatural danger mirrors the cost of keeping parts of yourself hidden. The writing hums with unease, and the characters’ queerness isn’t a subplot; it’s the pulse that drives the story.

Read if you love: small-town secrets, found family, and monsters that know your lies.

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng

Take the cutthroat world of K-pop competition, add a dash of folk horror, and you get Linda Cheng’s Gorgeous Gruesome Faces. A disgraced idol enters a mysterious new show hoping for redemption but instead finds something far darker than stage politics, something that demands sacrifice.

Linda’s novel is as glittery as it is gory, exploring obsession, beauty standards, and the cost of survival in an industry that thrives on perfection. The pages drip with tension, neon light, and a creeping dread that builds until the final act. It’s a rare blend of pop culture and body horror that somehow makes you question what “pretty” even means.

Read if you love: performance horror, sapphic tension, and stories that turn glamour into a weapon.

Roar of the Lambs by Jamison Shea

If you prefer your horror with a gothic edge and a heartbeat of prophecy, Jamison Shea’s Roar of the Lambs will deliver. Psychic visions, apocalyptic undertones, and a group of queer teens facing something ancient and hungry; it’s a story that feels like standing on the edge of revelation.

Jamison’s prose is lush and rhythmic, the kind that feels incantatory. Every chapter hums with doom, faith, and queer resilience. It’s horror that refuses to separate fear from identity, asking what salvation means for those the world would rather silence.

Read if you love: supernatural dread, queer spirituality, and lyrical, terrifying storytelling.