Guest post written by This Dark Paradise author Erin Luken
Erin Luken was a longtime resident of New England until she finally abandoned winter for year-round sun in California. When not writing or working, she enjoys being active outdoors, preferably in the mountains. Erin writes speculative stories about morally questionable queer girls doing their best in a brutal world. Her debut novel THIS DARK PARADISE, a YA Fantasy, is coming from Bloomsbury in Fall 2024.
About This Dark Paradise: In this YA fantasy debut perfect for fans of Hotel Magnifique and These Violent Delights, a girl visits the enchanted island of her dreams only to discover that its magic is horribly cursed.
As an author, a frequently asked question I get is why I chose to write the book I did. And although I can give a more eloquent answer to that when needed, my answer boiled down to its most simplistic form is just: “I like creepy things, and I like girls.” I wanted to write a book for my teen self—a girl who’d loved fantasy as a kid but had moved onto an obsession with horror and who was into other girls but didn’t know yet that that is what those feelings were. So This Dark Paradise is a book that starts as a fantasy following con artist, Lucia, who poses as a tour guide to gain access to an exclusive enchanted island in order to steal its magic, but it quickly slips into horror when on the first day of her tour, she comes across a gruesome corpse and realizes there are sinister secrets at play on the seeming paradise. And on the romance side, Lucia knows she likes boys (her ex boyfriend, Antony, is from the island and is still around complicating her life and making her question her decision to end their relationship), but over the course of the story also discovers her attraction to girls in the form of her island host’s mysterious and alluring daughter, Calista.
When I started This Dark Paradise in 2017, there weren’t many YA books out there for a baby sapphic who loved horror. Luckily, since then, the category has exploded, and there’s now a fantastic variety of options. So if you are also into girls who like girls and horror and want to line up some spooky reads this Halloween, here’s a starter sampling of some of the excellent choices out there (in no particular order).
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
If you’ve got a soft spot for creepy islands with horrific secrets, Sawkill Girls delivers. The island of Sawkill Rock’s idyllic rural vibes hide an ancient evil that has been stealing young women away for decades, and this is the story of the three girls, Marion, Zoey and Val, who come together to defeat it. It’s got explorations of grief and of trauma, but ultimately, it’s a celebration of girls and their strength and the transformative power of female friendships and sapphic relationships. The relationship between Marion and Val is complex, compelling, and key. As a bonus on top of the sapphic rep, not only are the friendships between Marion, Val and Zoey also well developed, Zoey is also queer, bringing in exploration of her asexuality.
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran
Lovers of a classic haunted house story shouldn’t miss She is a Haunting. Cleverly using the horror to explore its powerful themes of the impact of colonialism, the story follows Jade, a Vietnamese American girl reluctantly spending the summer with her father in Vietnam at the old French colonial home he’s fixing up to be a B&B. Of course, soon enough, the eerie happenings begin, and Jade determines to prove there’s something truly wrong with the house before her family becomes its next victims. In the midst of the haunting, though, there’s sapphic feels to be found as closeted bisexual Jade is drawn to both the edgy “bad girl” niece of her father’s business partner and a gorgeous ghost bride.
The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould
Readers who want more ghosts (and, really, who doesn’t?) this time with ghost hunters need to check out The Dead and the Dark. Delivering themes of grief, loneliness and unresolved trauma that pair perfectly with ghosts, this story is about Logan, the daughter of two gay ghost hunting reality show stars whose return to their hometown finds them blamed for a teen boy’s mysterious disappearance. To clear their names, Logan teams up with Ashely, the ex of the boy who’s gone missing who can see his ghost, to discover the truth of what’s happened. Logan is a lesbian, and although their relationship starts off with a lot of understandable animosity, there’s a slow burn romance that ultimately blossoms between them.
Off With Their Heads by Zoe Hana Mikuta
The rest of the books on this list take place in our world or a slightly altered version of it, but if you’re seeking more horror in a fantasy world, Off With Their Heads should be at the top of your list. An Alice in Wonderland retelling with Korean-inspired worldbuilding that truly captures the dark, weird atmosphere of the original, it delivers its horror in spades—I found this one of the most disturbing on my list here in the very best of ways. This is the story of two girls, Icca and Caro, who are framed for a horrifying tragedy and must battle monsters in the terrifying forest of Wonderland to save themselves. Here there’s an lovers-to-enemies arc rather than a romance—Icca and Caro are ex girlfriends who now hate each other, but there’s still plenty of twisted sapphic passion to be found in their obsessive hate.
This Ravenous Fate by Hayley Dennings
No horror list would be complete without a vampire book, and for that spot, 2024 has gifted lovers of lesbian vampires with This Ravenous Fate. Set in 1920s Harlem and including themes of race and class, it follows vampire Layla and vampire hunter Elise who must team up to investigate a series of mysterious murders, but of course, Layla and Elise just so happen to have some complicated history. From their relationship, we get a fun childhood-friends-to-enemies-to-lovers arc providing all of the tension and angst and yearning that could be hoped for.
Found your next read on this list? Great! But this list is by no means exhaustive, so I hope either way you’ll use these suggestions as a jumping off point to explore the incredible choices for sapphic horror that we’re fortunate enough to have out there in the world today.
