Summerween Book Recs: Blood & Beasts

What happens when your body turns against you, or becomes something more?

This week, Summerween gets visceral. These three books explore transformation in the rawest, most literal sense: fangs, fur, and fury. Whether you’re turning into a werewolf after top surgery, navigating vampire politics at twelve, or discovering your town’s supernatural legacy is written in your blood, each of these stories confronts identity, power, and becoming, sometimes painfully, sometimes beautifully, always with bite…

The Transition

by Logan-Ashley Kisner
Published by: Delacorte Press
on September 30, 2025
Bookshop
Goodreads

A transgender teen’s post-op recovery is derailed when he is bitten by a werewolf and his body begins to change. A thought-provoking page-turner that will haunt you for days!
Hunter’s life is at a turning point: After years of fighting his father for it, he’s gotten top surgery. He’s finally starting to feel comfortable in his own skin . . . only to be attacked by a strange creature in his backyard.
The encounter should kill him, but his best friend Gabe intervenes, and Hunter is able to walk away from the incident with his life—and new body—mostly intact. Still, something isn’t right. First, his wounds are healing quickly—too quickly. Then there are the feverish nightmares, the sudden return of his period, and his teeth . . . they’re falling out of his head.
Enter Mars, Hunter’s other best friend. A horror movie devotee, Mars points out the obvious: That mysterious creature was a werewolf, and Hunter is becoming one too—unless they can figure out a cure, which basically means they have to kill the creature that bit him.
Now, Hunter, Gabe, and Mars are in a race against time. A voice that could only belong to the creature itself is worming its way into Hunter’s head, and as the days pass, it’s only getting louder. It promises revenge on Hunter’s transphobic peers if he succumbs to his lycanthropic transformation. Or he can reject the monster and fight alongside his friends before the body—and life—he’s fought so hard for slips away for good. The choice is Hunter’s.

Blood & Beasts

The Transition by Logan-Ashley Kisner

Hunter has just had top surgery and is finally starting to feel at home in his own body, until a werewolf attack changes everything. His wounds heal too fast. His senses sharpen. His body shifts in ways he can’t explain. As a voice begins whispering in his head, promising revenge and power, Hunter and his friends must hunt the creature that bit him before he loses himself for good.

A trans-centered, body-horror-packed werewolf story about control, rage, friendship, and what we become to survive.

Tropes: trans werewolf, body horror, ride-or-die friendship, queer rage
Pair it with: silver jewelry, a full moon, and a promise to hold on.

Blood Moon by Britney Lewis

Mira Owens doesn’t believe in werewolves, not anymore. Not even after her mom disappeared years ago, leaving behind only questions. But then college begins, a strange boy named Julian Santos starts acting like he knows more than he’s saying, and a Blood Moon rises. Mira finds herself caught in a war between wolves and vampires, and her family’s past might be the key to it all.

A thrilling, high-stakes paranormal romance full of supernatural lore, secrets, and deadly desire.

Tropes: forbidden romance, werewolf vs. vampire, hidden legacy, fated connections
Pair it with: long hikes, old legends, and a kiss that comes with consequences.

Defanged by H.E. Edgmon

Lux Priddy is just like any other 12-year-old, except he’s also a vampire. When a human-led group tries to “cure” kids like him, Lux escapes and finds a secret underground city of so-called “bad” vampires who see him for who he really is. Now, with the cure becoming mandatory, Lux has to decide: hide who he is, or fight for the right to stay true to himself.

A sharp, emotional story about autonomy, belonging, and refusing to be fixed when you were never broken.

Tropes: vampire society, identity and resistance, underground rebellion
Pair it with: fake fangs and a not-so-fake sense of self.

Up next week: Haunted & Hallowed – haunted houses, creeping bogs, and the places that never let go.