What are You Reading in November?

As I planned, I read a stack of queer horror books in October—though nowhere near as many as I wanted to!

First, I finished My Violent Muse by Rosie Sycamore, which is a bisexual dark thriller about obsession, art, and female rage. It is a strange book with a unique voice, and weeks after reading it, I’m still not sure how I feel about it!

During my 24-hour readathon, I got through some queer horror graphic novels, including Mister Magic: The Graphic Novel by Kiersten White, Scott Peterson, Veronica Fish, and Andy Fish. I liked the original book, and I thought it worked well as a graphic novel, too. It’s a sort of extended metaphor about Mormonism, using a lost media children’s TV show. I finished reading this at 5 a.m., and it made me cry, but I’m not sure how much of that was from the sleep deprivation. (Queer religious trauma always gets to me.)

A novel I read in one sitting during the readathon was Fabulous Bodies by Chuck Tingle, and as has been the case with every Chuck Tingle horror book I read, it was zany and gory and heartfelt, all at the same time. It wasn’t my favourite of his, but I still enjoyed reading it. (I actually teared up at the end of this one, too. What is it with horror making me cry lately?)

For my book club this month, I read Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran, which checks off task #6: Read a gothic novel published in the last ten years. My book club and I all agreed that while there were some strong elements—it’s extremely atmospheric, and I loved the toxic romance—the ending let it down.

Finally, I picked up a Native Alaskan horror novel, It Looks Like You in the Dark by Mathilda Zeller, which was creepy and off-putting and surprising. If you like monster horror and psychological horror, give this one a try.

As for my November reading plans, I have a very busy month, so I’m trying to be reasonable. My book club pick is Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne, a cozy sapphic sci-fi novel that completes task #20: Read a book set in space.

Other than that, I’m probably only going to be able to get to some graphic novels. I have the whole How Do We Relationship? manga series by Tamifull out from the library, so I really need to get through that. I’m also hoping to pick up Raging Clouds by Yudori, which looks like a gorgeous historical queer graphic novel.