Definitely will purchase this book when it is released. I loved it all. I couldn’t get enough. 10/10

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ARC which I received in exchange for an honest review!

I read a lot of YA thrillers/mysteries/horror books so when I saw this book and especially the title, I knew I had to read it. It was a fun anthology and several of the stories were pretty scary. There were some that weren’t scary but they were still fun reads.

All I ask for are more anthologies with these authors!

Covering a wide variety within the genre, there is something for every type of reader - from pirate ghosts in malls to decaying hauntings in decrepit mansions. This is perfect for queer readers who have grown up with RL Stein, invoking similar feelings of spine-chilling fear and ghoulish delights.

The best way to read this is on a train in the late evening, the clouds dark from a storm and thunder rattling the windows.

(I am a Macmillan employee. NetGalley provided a copy pre-employment. All opinions are my own.)

This anthology was comprised of short stories from YA authors for the Halloween season. The only requirements for the stories were that the tale had to happen on a blue moon on Halloween and that there was an element of queerness to it. The stories weren't too frightening, which, a scaredy cat like me was grateful for. Some of them were even a bit silly and fun, like "Hey There, Demons" by Tara Sim, where a young boy accidentally summons a demon (who turns out to be really hot) in order to exorcise a poltergeist that is haunting his home.

A few of the stories have homophobia in them in various degrees. "Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle" by Kosoko Jackson deals with a teen who had gotten beaten up and is able to seek revenge. There are also some suicidal thoughts, such as in "Save Me From Myself" by Auria Shonibar. So, please, be aware of that if you want to pick up this book.

Overall, the stories were entertaining. There were a couple that seemed to drag along or just didn't seem to connect with me. "Welcome to the Hotel Paranoia" by Vanessa Montalban was one of those. I honestly don't remember the premise after finishing the book.

If you like spooky reads that have queer characters, then this would be a great pick for the fall.

Did someone say Horror & Queer representation in the same sentence? Hello, Hi it's me I am so here for that!!!
This group of stories did not disappoint and I loved the concept that all of these stories were happening on the same blue moon Halloween night. What I loved, even more, was that all the stories were written by BIPOC/LGTBQIA+ authors that want to thrill and chill us with these stories centered around queer and diverse characters. This book is geared toward the YA audience with its Are You Afraid of the Dark vibes. None of the tales were terrifying or gave me nightmares but I can imagine that for a young adult, it would definitely be fun, spooky, and entertaining. I think my favorite stories from the book were Leyla Mendoza & The Last House on the Lane and Hey There, Demons, but I definitely enjoyed all of the stories to some extent. I wish I would have had a book like this growing up as I have always loved horror novels, and I hope this is the start of a trend of more queer and diverse representation, particularly in the horror genre. It will be so amazing for the young adults coming up to be able to see themselves represented in the type of books they love to read.

A sharp collection of queer YA stories by BIPOC authors that all take place on a blue moon occurring on Halloween, this is a perfect collection of spooky tales for the season.

From teens at a party in a presumably haunted house, to summoning demons, or speaking to gods, there is a beautifully terrible spread of stories here. Each of the 13 short stories bursts off the page and brings vivid characters to life, even with just a few short pages to work with.

While I knew of a few of the authors, there isn't one story I loved most because they were all amazing. I cannot wait to add this one to my physical shelf later this year!

There are some fun and even scary tales in this book! All have some inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters even if they are not strictly LGBTQ+ stories.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING QUEERS is a YA horror anthology that explores how Halloween can be more than just candies and frights, but a night where anything is possible. Each short story is told through the lens of a different BIPOC teen and the Halloween night that changes their lives forever.

Creepy, inventive, entertainingly, and not just for Halloween.
Highly recommend.

Night of the Living Queers is an anthology with 13 stories with the common thread of Halloween night, Blue Moons/ 2 moons.

I did not think I would be scared reading some of these stories, but the jokes were on me because I woke up with nightmares. Two of my favorite stories were Guested ( A unique story, and I would read a full-length novel to this story because I am still intrigued.) I also loved The Three Phases of Ghost Hunting.

Some stories were scary, and some were funny (at least funny to me.) Some had Wizards, Ghosts, Demons, and some unknown creatures. I am sure there is something for everyone in this book.
I rate this book 3 stars. The romances seemed displaced in some of the stories, with the characters recognizing it was not the right time to confess one's love for another.

Finding some new authors from this anthology was the best part. Spooky Season is almost here. I would recommend anyone looking for something Spooky to pick this one up.

Thanks, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I will post my review on Youtube. Goodreads and Tik Tok on (8/1/2023) @allthisnerdyness

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for allowing me to read and review this book early.
This is a fun collection of short stories anyone into spooky tales would enjoy! This book combines horror short stories from many different authors so each one has a different style and tone. This is what really kept me interested throughout the book, since it was a bit of a change with each new story. I enjoyed certain stories more than others, 'Nine Stops' by Trang Tranh Tran and 'Hey There, Demons' by Tara Sim were my favorites, but overall found them all very creative and fresh. I am always endlessly surprised by how much interesting plot and suspense certain writers can fit into a smaller word count. This will be a great read for the Fall and especially October!

I had a really great time reading this book overall. It has a very distinctively spooky atmosphere that made me feel cozy, and in the Halloween spirit smack dab in the middle of summer. Each stories promise was very unique and included some of my favorite horror and Halloween elements, such as Ouija boards, vampires, and haunted houses. I really appreciated that the authors did not hold back anything emotionally for their young adult readers, and wrote in ways that were engaging for an adult like myself. Some of my favorite stories included the first one with the haunted house (great atmosphere!) and the babysitter, who (tries) to save her kids from ghostly possession. I’ll probably give this book a more specific rating of 3.5, because although I did like the majority of the stories, the endings seemed very rushed in many cases. Additionally, I really felt that there was a little too much “telling” and not enough “showing” when it came to the writing. I often felt that the stories began really strong and intriguing, but would lose my interest as supernatural elements were revealed. I think they were just too short for my taste.

Night of the Living Queers is a YA collection of 13 stories that are equal parts scary, fun, and emotional.

A unique blend of stories that will keep the reader engaged and excited for the next, this collection is for all readers looking for a spooky night in. All the stories are centered around what might and can happen on Halloween night, not just the typical haunts and horrors but the emotional and physical spooks that are often found in the dark.

I loved the diversity of the characters, and the “horrors” in each of the stories. I liked how each of the sotries felt like a separate entity yet part of the whole. This is a wonderful place to start if you are looking to discover new to your authors as well as new stories.

Just remember to light the candles, pull the blinds and get that blanket tucked in tight (the monsters can’t get you then, it is like THE rule).

I received an ARC via NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and I am leaving an honest review. 3.75 stars.

Every anthology is a grab bag of stories and Night of the Living Queers is no exception. All thirteen stories take place on Halloween night during a blue moon. These stories have a variety of horrors on display, from vampires and ghosts to pod people and more region-specific myths! All of these had some decent tension, even if some were more horror-comedy than pure horror, which I am not complaining about.
There are also a variety of queer and racial identities within these pages. There’s a little something for everyone.
I no longer rate each story in anthologies, but I do have some favorites from this one!
• “The Three Phases of Ghost-Hunting” by Alex Brown – Hunting for a pirate ghost in a mall, what more could you want? This was probably my favorite of the sillier stories.
• “Nine Stops” by Trang Thanh Tran – Unsettling viral videos and grief. Gorgeous language and it really creeped me out. I’ll definitely be picking up Tran’s debut novel after reading this.
• “Knickknack” by Ryan Douglass – The ghost of a clown hellbent on revenge continues as an urban legend in this short story. I think this was the characters that sold the story for me. I really like YA stories that have characters not 100% sure of their queer identities, which this story features (along with trying to save people from a killer clown. Love an author that can pull both off!)
I rated this anthology 3.5 stars. A solid anthology of YA horror stories that has helped me find authors I’ll be keeping me eye out for!

As it mentions in the Introduction, Halloween is one of the few times in the year where people who identify as queer don't feel the need to hide who they are, instead showing "the best parts of themselves." And I loved that the creators of this anthology embraced this and made it the central theme.

The anthology includes 13 short stories featuring queer characters and their wild encounters on this popular holiday. If you are squeamish, have no fear, there is nothing gory. But there are definitely some creepy themes within which run the gamut of the paranormal genre - vampires, ghosts, demons, etc.

My favorites from the stories were The Visitor by Kalynn Bayron, Nine Stops by Trang Thah Tran, Hey There, Demons by Tara Sim.
***The Visitor - this one is based on a father and daughter who love Halloween. Why? It all has to do with "the visitor", and the twist at the end definitely packed a punch. Loved it!
***Nine Steps - this reminded me of The Ring, which has the threat of death if the viewer stopped watching a video. I liked the build in this story and the creepy ending that requires some imagination on the part of the reader. What really happened next?
***Hey There, Demons - how do you get rid of a poltergeist? Invite a demon into your world. While the theme seems dark, this was actually a lighter story and had an unusual meet cute.

Overall, this was a fun anthology and would be the perfect October read, if you love Halloween as much as I do.

4 out of 5 stars!

**HUGE thank you to Wednesday Books for granting me an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!**

Thirteen queer authors of color contribute spooky short stories centering queer BIPOC teens on a blue moon falling on Halloween. Specific types of hauntings include vampires, ghosts, corrupt technology, demons, goddesses, and killer clowns. As the intro says, "This anthology allows [the writers] to reclaim that narrative and celebrate the complexity of our long-denied humanity. It is meant to showcase our stories and is intentionally set during Halloween, a time when we are most visible."

I absolutely adored this anthology! While I didn't jive with every single story (more based on my personal preferences than lack of writing skill), they were overall wonderful. Queer and/or trans horror is my favorite niche! It's always important to center BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ voices, but it's especially crucial in genres like horror where these identities are particularly underrepresented -- and where harmful stereotypes abound. It's refreshing to pick up a book and know my queer and trans identities won't be the butts of jokes or framed as bad, and I imagine that BIPOC readers will feel similarly.
It was a pleasant surprise seeing authors I already know and love (looking at you, Kalynn Bayron!), but possibly the best part was discovering new ones to check out. I immediately grabbed "She Is a Haunting" after reading Trang Thanh Tran's story, and cannot WAIT to explore more from Shelly Page, Kosoko Jackson, Tara Sim, and Ayida Shonibar!
Some of the stories deal with very heavy topics, so please see the trigger warnings I've listed below.
All in all, "Night of the Living Queers" was a delight that I will be buying when it releases!

Welcome to the Hotel Paranoia
CW: Past parental death, past bullying, underage drinking, drug use, dead bodies, being trapped
Rep: Sapphic and unspecified BIPOC main character, sapphic LI
The Visitor
CW: Past parental death, grief, stalking, home invasion
Rep: Black sapphic main character with a dark-skinned girlfriend
A Brief Intermission
CW: Rats, blood, gore, hospitals, microaggressions, teen death, past car crash, conservative worldview,
vomiting, possession
Rep: Persian lesbian main character
Guested
CW: Estranged sibling, brief mentions of divorce and a parental death, possession, implied depression
Rep: Reader and love interest are sapphic and Korean
Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle
CW: Hate crime (physical attack), chronic pain, use of the f-slur, blood, police failings, toxic friend, mention
of past murders and abuse, depictions of death
Rep: Black gay main character, implied Achillean secondary character
The Three Phases of Ghost Hunting
CW: Possession
Rep: Filipina sapphic main character, Chinese sapphic love interest
Nine Stops
CW: Past grandparent death, paranoia, grief, murdered sibling (mentioned), anti-Asian hate crime
resulting in death, internet addiction, past aneurysm, racism, misogyny, gory animal cruelty resulting in
death, blood, cannibalism, rodents and insects, being trapped
Rep: Vietnamese main character and side character, Dominican side character
Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane
CW: Past parental death, toxic Christianity, transphobia, controlling parents, brief mention of whitening
cream, brief mention of plastic surgery
Rep: Reader is Filipino and transmasc, genderfluid side character
In You to Burn
CW: Fires and fire-related injury, underage drinking and smoking, bullying, blood, death
Rep: Chinese sapphic main character and love interest, Chinese side character
Anna
CW: Relationship problems, home invasion, being trapped, child abuse
Rep: Black sapphic MC and girlfriend, Black side characters
Hey There, Demons
CW: Past parental death, brief child injury, underage marijuana use, panic attack, blood
Rep: Indian achillean main character, achillean love interest
Save Me from Myself
CW: Suicidal ideation, death, past parental separation, intrusive thoughts, mental illness, grief
Rep: Bengali sapphic main character, South Asian sapphic love interest, South Asian side characters
Knickknack
CW: Past family murder, past stunt-related death, alcoholic parent, cheating parent, parental neglect, child
kidnapping, underage drinking, past bullying, attempted murder
Rep: Black gay main character, Puerto Rican achillean love interest

Thanks for the opportunity to read this anthology! This review will appear on episode 21 of my podcast. It will drop on Monday, August 14. I'll also post the review on Goodreads that day and promote the episode across Instagram and Threads. The review will also appear on my website (link attached).

Review:

I need to start this one off by saying that typically, I don’t care for anthologies. I like to really dive into a story and usually I have a difficult time connecting with a character when I only get 10-20 pages versus an entire novel with them. That said, I found many of the stories in this collection enjoyable and perfect for the upcoming Halloween season.

What drew me to this book was the title, the fact that the authors were all queer and of color and they were all horror stories - all things I am 100% behind. I knew I had to show my support and help get the word out.

The book contains short stories by several young adult authors including Alex Brown, Shelly Page, Kalynn Bayron, Ryan Douglass, Sara Farizan, Maya Gittelman, Kosoko Jackson, Em Liu, Vanessa Montalban, Ayida Shonibar, Tara Sim, Trang Thanh Tran, and Rebecca Kim Wells. The stories run the gamut from creepy and quirky to goosebump inducing. There really is something for everyone here. We have a creepy, ghosty party at an old hotel, a dead mother who comes back to visit her daughter on Halloween (probably my favorite in the collection), evil clowns and demons who help bullied kids get their revenge.

All are well written and the characters in all the stories are relatable in some way. It’s been a while since I was a gay kid growing up in rural Idaho, but I could see myself in many of these characters. If only I’d had this book when I was a teen. I loved reading horror novels and this would have been exactly the book I would have loved.

This one drops on August 29 and I would encourage you to get a copy to have on hand during this year’s spooky season and pick a new story to creep your friends out with every night.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I was really hoping I would love this anthology especially having it be a horror lgbtq one but unfortunately only a few stories really caught my interest the others were just alright.

#Netgalley #ARC #Nightofthelivingqueers

Night of the Living Queers is a YA anthology comprised of short stories by queer authors of color that all take place on a Blue Moon on Halloween. The stories range from unsettling to a little campy but nothing super scary.

I didn’t rate each story individually but overall, I liked most of these stories. I don’t think any of them were bad. Some felt a little short, like they would have been better if they had been a novella or even a full length novel. Having read from a lot of these authors before, I had high expectations and I’m glad that they were met. I think if I had to pick a favorite from the book, it would The Visitor by Kalynn Bayron. It was the perfect length to be creepy and still open ended enough that it has stuck with me.

I love the representation on this book in not only the characters but the authors. Being able to have this kind of collection in Young Adult horror is so important. I just love seeing horror become a more diverse genre because the stories that come out of the diversity are incredible. I’m also going to keep an eye on these authors they contributed to this collection to see what they do next!

Thank you for this ARC. This novel wasn't bad i just felt it was more middle grade and i expected more horror or creepy aspects of it but i understand that sometimes YA is more middle grade which is great for readers who enjoy that. Some of these stories were good alot of them missed the mark for me i did have a few favorites! Love the cover i think its cute. The message behind this novel is great and im glad these authors got to share a story with alot of diverse characters and stories.

•Welcome to the Hotel Paranoia by Vanessa Montalban- 4.5
•The Visitor by Kalynn Bayron- 4
•A Brief Intermission by Sara Farizan- 3.5
•Guested by Rebecca Kim Wells- 3
•Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle by Kosoko Jackson- 3.5
•The Three Phases of Ghost-Hunting by Alex Brown- 4
•Nine Stops by Tang Thanh Tran- 4
•Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane by Maya Gittelman- 4
•In You to Burn by Em X. Liu- 4
•Anna by Shelly Page- 4
•Hey There, Demons by Tara Sim- 4
•Save Me From Myself by Ayida Shonibar- 4
•Knickknack by Ryan Douglas- 4

A nice collection of YA, horror, LGBTQ+ short stories.

Perfect for those who like a quick-fix of horror.