Thanks to NetGalley and a host of wonderful young adult authors for the opportunity to review this fantastic anthology Night of the Living Queers. It is a collection of spooky stories taking place on Halloween and a very special one at that—a blue moon. The teenagers in the stories are BIPOC and while they are proud of their choices it isn’t really the message behind the book. I appreciate that. The scary stories told by each author was fun and so entertaining that I will be looking forward to reading their other work. If you’re looking for something fun and scary to read for Halloween I recommend this book.

Like any story collection, there were stories I liked more than others - but this was such an incredible line up of authors that I couldn't help but be interested!

There is a really interesting link between the horror genre and queer culture through out history, and so I was really intrigued to see what a YA anthology could bring to the conversation and I'm so glad I picked this up!

Overall, the stories were creepy and atmospheric and also important. Releasing at the perfect time, right at the beginning of spooky season - I'd totally recommend picking up Night of the Living Queers if you're looking to diversify your horror reading this fall!

When I read that Kaelyn Bayron had a short story and Night Of The Living Queers I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it with the exception of a couple of stories this is definitely a great anthology. I thought with it being Halloween themed this is going to be a fun bunch of stories about gouls monsters ETC and for the most part that’s true but there’s a couple of stories that rather than being scary or attempting to be under horror there about wanting to fit in and not being excepted by one case her mother and then another case the wider world. The stories were still under the Halloween theme just not horror based 010 this is really a great book and one I totally recommend if you love Halloween, horror and short stories from awesome writers you definitely need to read night of the living queers there’s a couple of stories that I would pay just for those but in the same thought do you get them and a few more totally awesome love anthologies! I want to thank Net Galley and Saint Martin’s press for my free ARC copyplease forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I love YA horror and when I saw that there was a new YA horror anthology I knew I had to have it. When I noticed
that it was centered around queer characters I was nearly falling over myself to read it. It was everything I could have wanted and more. The book had all the fun creepy vibes that I love about YA Horror and every story was so much fun. I really loved the story by Leyla Mendoza, but I loved all of them. I'm excited to see more books like this.

After reading Alex Brown's folk horror anthology The Gathering Dark last year I knew I would have to read this anthology as soon as it was announced. This is a fun, creepy, spooky collection of stories that would be perfect to read near the end of September to set the mood for Halloween. My favorite stories were "Guested", "Hey There, Demons", and "Save Me From Myself". I recommend this for anyone who wants a spooky, not-so-scary read for Halloween.



***Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an eARC of this book in exchange for my review. ***

Night of the Living Queers is an awesome YA horror anthology that exclusively features queer authors of colour putting fresh takes on classic horror tropes and tales, allowing for new spins on these archetypes.

The entire concept of this anthology is so incredible to me. Horror is a space dominated by tropes and a long history of exoticisation and exclusion, so to see these queer authors of colour reclaim the space and put their own stamp on it is amazing. In particular, some of them wove in discussion around these intersectional identities into the very fabric of their stories, while some left it as naturalised representation. Both methods were impactful.

Anthologies are always slightly tricky to review, as their content is so varied. So when I say this was a very consistent and consistently great anthology at that, I mean it as some of the highest praise I will give an anthology. Every author delivered some solid scares and plenty I was left pondering over after the end of their story. I would happily read more of each of these fleshed out worlds, whether they involved some impressive world-building or were quieter, more intimate and character-focused snapshots.

However, you always have favourite stories. Here, my standouts were Guested by Rebecca Kim Wells; The Three Phases of Ghost Hunting by Alex Brown; Nine Stops by Trang Thanh Tran and Save Me from Myself by Ayida Shonibar. These all had excellent twists and turns and characters that really left their mark on me. I have already ear-marked these as authors to watch, if I did not already have them on my radar.

Night of the Living Queers is a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining and solid anthology perfect for the spooky season, as the night grows cold and the shadows loom large.

This anthology novel featuring LGBTQIA+ representation was an amazing read. The authors did a great job with representation. Each story was unique and well written. There was something likeable about the many different characters.

I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology of horror tales. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

This one was a little too graphic for me, which is more of a personal preference, but that kept me from being able to finish the whole book. I do think many readers will love this for spooky season reading because it had those vibes!

I am a fan of all things spooky, so when I saw a Queer YA anthology with all the stories taking place during a blue moon on Halloween night , I jumped on it. The anthology contains 13 spooky tales, all staring QPOC leads! Ranging from down right chilling , unsettling, and paranormal to slightly silly. For the most part I really enjoy all of them, there are only one or two that didn't work for me, whether it had to do with the story itself or the writing style. My favorites included an abandoned hotel you can never leave, justified revenge, a poltergeist and a teenage demon, a pizza loving ghost, magic, Chinese legends, Ouija boards, and body swapping.

Welcome to Hotel Paranoia by Vanesse Montalban ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Visitor by Kaylnn Bayron ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Breif INtermission by Sara Farizan ⭐⭐⭐
Guested by Rebecca Kim Wells⭐⭐
Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Three Phases of Ghost Hunting⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Nine Stops by Trang Thanh Tran⭐⭐
Layla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane by Maya Gittelman⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
In You to Burn by Em X. Liu⭐⭐⭐⭐
Anna by Shelly Page⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hey There, Demons by Tara Sim⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Save Me from Myself by Ayida Shonibar⭐⭐⭐⭐
Knickknack by Ryan Douglass⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for an electronic ARC of this novel.

Night of the Living Queers is a fun horror anthology with a focus on queer characters. It sounded like fun, and it was! 13 short stories of varying lengths and subjects. They weren't super scary (I was expecting worse, I'm not a big horror fan) but scary enough.

I really enjoyed this and hope people find this fun set of stories!

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Night of the Living Queers
By: by Kalynn Bayron; Alex Brown; Vanessa Montalban; Rebecca Kim Wells; Kosoko Jackson; Trang Thanh Tran; Maya Gittelman; Em X. Liu; Shelly Page; Tara Sim; Ayida Shonibar; Ryan Douglass; Sara Farizan

Publication date: August 29, 2023

Night of the Living Queers is a collection of short stories all written by queer authors of color. All of the stories take place on Halloween during a blue moon but are all independent stories.

Over all this YA horror was a fun read, I would recommend it to people just dipping their toes in the horror genre. There were a few stories I loved and a few I didn’t enjoy which is why I gave this anthology a 3.5 star.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

The fact that this anthology exists, featuring so many astounding authors—some, writers that I have admired for so long—and centering such explicitly queer main characters of colour, is once again proof to me that the future of YA horror is so bright (in a dark and spooky way, of course) and I'm so excited to watch it continue to grow.

I really do think all of these stories are each such an amazing addition to the horror genre. Quite a few of them actually freaked me out, and I felt a sense of relief wash over me when I finally turned my light back on; I didn't even realize the stories had put me so on edge. They also all had so much depth and substance to them. I could read this anthology over and over again, and discover something new every time, so it definitely passed the test for me. When I find myself getting excited, flipping back and forth between pages to remember specific details or try to see if a theory of mine holds up with other earlier scenes or passages, that's when I know the author(s) executed their craft masterfully.

I'm also so in love with every single main character in this book. I wanted to reach out and hug each one of them, and I think it's so incredibly difficult, as an author, to get your reader deeply emotionally invested in your characters in 15-20 pages at most. But in each story, I felt almost immediately connected to its protagonist, which made the whole experience that much more visceral.

Although I really did love so many of these, I do have a favourite story: Save Me From Myself by Ayida Shonibar. Honorable mentions go to Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane by Maya Gittelman and In You to Burn by Em X. Liu.

I do, however, have one rather large critique about this. As much as I loved all the different themes that were explored in the stories, and as interesting as it was to see all the different types of horror and subgenres that the authors picked to write (paranormal horror, monster horror, psychosocial horror, horror comedy), the entire thing as a whole felt a bit... lost. The main elements that tie all these stories together are 1- that they feature queer main characters of colour, and 2- that they are set on Halloween during a blue moon. And I love both of these things so much, but I wish there had been a more specific and concrete link throughout the anthology.

I had a problem transitioning from one story to another, it felt a bit jarring and uncoordinated. If all the stories had been specifically about the experience of being a queer person of colour, or if they just so happened to have QPOC as main characters but all discussed one specific theme such as grief, or if they had all at least been under the same subgenre of horror, I think it would have worked better for me.

It felt very odd, sometimes, jumping from an extremely emotional story to a horror comedy back to something heavy and devastating. And it made some of the stories feel almost incomplete? Because it seemed like there was no reason for all these stories to be in the same anthology together, a lot of them I thought would have worked even better as their own novella. I was often times not completely satisfied by an ending, because I new I would have to reposition myself in a completely new tone and setting, and I wouldn't be able to continue exploring that specific message in the rest of the anthology. Had there been a collective, overarching theme, I think this could have been a 5-star read.

That being said, I still really did love it, and I absolutely recommend it!

Something that I really like about anthologies is that although they’ll have a theme that the stories center on, you don’t typically get summaries for any of the short stories, so you go in completely blind, which to me, makes the experience more fun. Of course, I knew that the stories would involve some classic horror tropes as mentioned in the summary, and that element of surprise made each story really interesting. I would sit there and think to myself “okay, are they going to go in the direction that I’m expecting? Or are they going to subvert expectations?” and that made it all the more interesting.

However, I did, in general, want the collection to be scarier. Some of them gave me chills and/or creeped me out, but I found most of them pretty tame. Which does make sense considering the title says “terror delight”, but I could’ve done with some more intense horror. That’s completely subjective though, and what I personally think is tame could be just the right amount of horror for someone else!

I definitely had fun while reading this anthology, but I found that the stories were either a hit or miss for me — the ones that really hit hit and the ones that didn’t fell pretty flat. That being said, my favorite stories were Welcome to the Hotel Paranoia by Vanessa Montalban (4 stars), The Three Phases of Ghost Hunting by Alex Brown (4 stars), and Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane by Maya Gittelman (4 stars).

Other ones that I enjoyed were Nine Stops by Trang Thanh Tran (3.5 stars), In You to Burn by Em X. Liu (3.5 stars) and Anna by Shelly Page (3 stars).

Overall, I found Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror Delight to be an entertaining read and I enjoyed the variety of stories. If you’re a fan of horror and short story collections, I would recommend checking this one out during the spooky season!

- If you're dipping your toes into the horror genre like I am, NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a good place to start. Some of the stories are legitimately scary, but many of them are funny and fun, too.
- As with any anthology, some stories hooked me more than others, some felt complete, some felt incomplete. There were a couple that I would definitely read full-length novel versions of though.

I got an ARC of this book.

Another ok anthology. The only story that really stood out was by Kalynn Bayron. It isn't shocking, because she is incredibly. So that story alone is enough to get the book. The other stories might be good, but hard to live up to one of the best authors I have met. Though there were some bigger names in this one. Trang Thanh Tran is an author I just bought a book from in the last week (I liked her story, can't wait for the novel!)

Not the scariest stories, but the queer elements were lovely. Sometimes just having a queernorm world is enough to overlook a lack of scary. It is nice to exist and be safe from queerphobia just for a little while.

So I suggest giving it a try.

2.5 Stars

Short story collections, particularly those with various contributors, have proven a good way for me to dabble in the works of new-to-me authors. While Night of the Living Queers didn't quite give me as much as others of this sort have done, I did find one stand-out story by Kosoko Jackson. "Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle" was a thoughtful, poignant story that was the most well-written of the bunch, demanding more of the characters and the story.

Many of the other offerings were more juvenile — bordering on cartoony — than I'd like, even for a young adult collection. They were fine, but I was hoping for a few more exceptional stories than the early one. Still, this is a light and playful collection of Halloween-centered stories that many will enjoy for those fun palate cleansers that are definitely needed.

I’m not even going to lie, horror isn’t usually one of my go to genres. I was interested in this book solely because of the title at first. I also love that all of the stories are queer (which duh makes sense because of the title) and am ready to get in the mood for spooky season. Ultimately I have no regrets, this collection of stories was so entertaining and I loved it.

As with most anthologies there were some stories that were stronger than others but ultimately they all worked well together. The vibes for this are definitely spooky and a little unsettling but not overly scary. My favorite was probably The Visitor by Kalynn Bayron, which definitely left me with more questions than answers in the best way.

Thank you to the publisher, NetGalley, and the authors for this gifted eARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The stories in this anthology have a couple things in common: they're all horror stories about queer POC teens dealing with monsters, ghosts, mayhem, and other horrific elements during a blue moon that falls on Halloween. Other than that, they are all very different. Some are written in a lighter tone with comedic bits thrown in (I especially loved seeing the obvious Ghost Files references in a few), while others are more atmospheric and traditionally horrific. Some how happy endings. Others...do not. But all of them are very fun, and this is the perfect anthology to pick up around Halloween to get a couple chills and thrills without having to commit to a longer book.

It’s rare that I read an anthology and find that I enjoy ALL of the stories. I thought that all of these were good and many of them were great!! It was always such a delight to be reminded anew with each story that they were queer with bipoc characters. They were also just so thoughtful and creative. Some like “welcome to hotel paranoia,” “the visitor,” “save me from myself,” “Guested,” and “Anna” legit made me gasp at the final word and others like “Layla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane,” were just absolutely beautiful and so well written and thoughtful (this one was probably my favorite!). This was such a cool take in that they all took place on Halloween / during Halloween but not all of them were spooky or creepy. Some were almost like rebirths. I really enjoyed this!!

Thank you so much to netgalley, St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review! I hope that everyone else enjoys it as much as I did.