10 Chilling Queer Horror Books to Read this Winter
Best enjoyed by a cosy fireplace
by Lana Thorn & Alex Secilmis 12 December 2025
Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
A Lovecraftian relationship horror story set in the Swiss Alps, Heuvelt’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed Hex (a brutal witch story beloved by Stephen King, Mike Flanagan, and the like) is another chilling hit. After an ill-fated trip to Mount Maudit (literally “Cursed Mountain”), alpinist and travel journalist Nick returns home disfigured and traumatised to his boyfriend, Sam. Unable to recognise his partner in both appearance and character, Sam decides to bring Nick back to Switzerland to face the evil that has taken hold of him.
For lovers of: body horror, Lovecraft, tragic romance
The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
An apocalyptic fairytale and a thoroughly twisted retelling of The Little Mermaid, The Salt Grows Heavy is a brutal novella with dashes of cult horror and cannibalism. This 2023 offering from Cassandra Khaw, who won the Bram Stoker award for their collection Breakable Things, follows a mute mermaid who leaves her abusive prince husband and goes on the run with a non-binary plague doctor. When they stumble across a strange, snow-covered forest filled with bloodthirsty children, the pair must embrace their darkest urges in order to survive.
For lovers of: mermaids, unlikely romance, magical realism
This is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau
A taut, gripping psychological thriller, Marcaeu’s novella has the reliably atmospheric setting of a remote, snowed-in cabin—in which the fraught relationship between Miller and her estranged mother, Sylvie, begins to definitively unravel. The story starts with lingering resentments and sharply observed family drama, before simmering and building towards an explosive finale
For lovers of: Misery, psychological horror, complex mother-daughter relationships
The Black Hunger by Nicholas Pullen
Pullen’s debut is a daring work of historical horror fiction that pulls from Stoker and Wilde. Set against the backdrop of The Great Game, the sprawling plot centres on John Sackville, a man at death’s door who looks back on the dark events that brought him to a prison cell. It’s a riotous epistolary novel that has everything from a queer romance to a Buddhist death cult.
For lovers of: Gothic horror, historical fiction, doomed polar voyages
Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
Set on a 1930s Arctic expedition, Paver’s bestselling 2010 novel is a modern successor to foundational ghost stories by writers like MR James and Susan Hill. Our protagonist is Jack Miller, a civil servant who, fed up with his job, joins a year-long expedition to the Arctic. They’re bound for an abandoned mining settlement in Spitsbergen (situated between Greenland and Norway), but the captain is inexplicably nervous about the docking at their destination. As Jack and the rest of the crew will soon learn, the captain’s trepidation is more than justified.
For lovers of: classic ghost stories, historical fiction, Arctic adventures
Grey Dog by Elliot Gish
Gish’s queer feminist historical horror novel is a tantalising slow-burn rife with female rage. Schoolmistress Ada Byrd travels to the remote town of Lowry Bridge for a teaching position where no one will know her troubled past. When the strangeness of her new home becomes apparent in more than just some of the locals (cue dead birds falling from the sky), Ada must face the trauma she ran from and confront a new force that calls her name from deep in the forest.
For lovers of: sapphic longing, female rage, creepy kids
Black Flame by Gretchen Felker-Martin
A new novella from transgressive trans horror author Gretchen Felker-Martin (whose debut, Manhunt, is being adapted for television by Lilly Wachowski), Black Flame is a disturbing descent into queer horror madness. In 1980s NYC, closeted lesbian Ellen restores films at an archive. When one day she discovers a print of an infamous 1930s German exploitation film long believed to have been destroyed by Nazi fire, the celluloid begins to speak to her identity and desires with alarming resonance.
For lovers of: Cult cinema, obsessed protagonists, haunted film narratives
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
Skyrocketing to #2 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List, The Lamb is a stylish, sinister debut from author and filmmaker Lucy Rose. This Cumbria-set modern folktale follows 11-year-old Margot and her mother, Ruth, whose taboo hungers are just one of the horrors plaguing the protagonist in their grimy cottage in the forest.
For lovers of: Complex mother-daughter relationships, twisted coming-of-age stories, cannibalism
Leech by Hiron Ennes
With excellent world-building and heavy atmosphere, Ennes’ debut is an enticing work of contemporary Gothic fiction. We begin in an icebound castle, followed by an steampunk mystery involving a missing body, warring parasites, and a mysterious medical institute.
For lovers of: Post-apocalyptic stories, fungal horror, Gothic sci-fi