Horror Plus: 7 Books to Explore How Feminist Press Goes Beyond the Genre
Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Specter by Utagawa Kuniyoshi
In the windy month of October, horror in all its forms comes out into the world to shift perspectives and make us question everything. What is monstrous? What should we be afraid of? We love publishing books that explore these questions while also stretching the boundaries of the horror genre. The books on this list discuss gender, class, media representation, and more. They are "horror plus," books that provide important critiques and commentary, starting important conversations.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show broke barriers and social norms as it grew in popularity. The show has been a space for connection to all groups of people, especially queer communities. In this anthology, queer writers dissect these performances, the show’s presentation of queerness and how the show executes its horror motifs such as murder, manipulation, and cannibalism through a modern lens. This dissection of a popular horror musical show through major queer writers of our time provokes conversation and will lead us to ask, how do we enjoy or move forward with a contentious movie?
Blood Feast by Malika Moustadraf, translated by Alice Guthrie
A collection of short fiction stories, Moustadraf weaves in chilling narratives of dystopian rites of passage from scheming to pass a virginity test to the truly frightening attempts of a man to secure medical treatment. Moustadraf pens stories which are haunting and sharp to commentate on the gendered body, social class, illness, double standards, and desire in Morocco and in doing so stretches the boundaries of this collection beyond genre into a provocative collection that will leave you thinking and staying in Moustradraf’s world.
Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes by Anne Elizabeth Moore
Unlike a traditional horror novel, Body Horror by Anne Elizabeth Moore blends cutting criticism of capitalism, the healthcare system, and misogyny with humor that will make you clutch your stomach. Body Horror catalogs the way women’s bodies are constantly under attack from a myriad of abusers and showcases and challenges that attack. There is research to keep you informed, humor to make you laugh, horror to chill your spine. These stories will keep you engaged—and perhaps make you scream in anger—as they break down our current political moment.
Feral by Gabriela Jauregui, translated by Heather Cleary
When their close friend Eugenia is murdered while on an archaeological dig at the ruins of Teotihuacan, her friends Diana, Saratoga, Yunuen must work through their grief to discover the truth of Eugenia’s murder with the aid of her field journal notes. A modern retelling of the Greek tragedy of Iphigenia while set in contemporary Mexico, Feral depicts the story of these four women through grief, friendship, and resistance against gendered violence and extractivism alongside the turbulent imagining of a feral, unlimited future.
Visceral: Essays by Maria Fernanda Ampuero, translated by Frances Riddle
Part horror story, part analysis, part confessional, Visceral combines these elements into a personal essay collection by María Fernanda Ampuero that asks, What does it mean to move within a misogynistic world with a woman's body? The essay collection utilizes Ampuero’s personal memories and horror to travel through stories of colonizers, parents and childlessness, lost innocence, fatphobia, mental illness and more. Illustrating to readers how writing became a way of survival through these events. With added elements of gothic horror this collection is thrilling and a rallying cry to survive.
For the queer community, horror movies hold a contentious position. Historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. It Came from the Closet features twenty-five essays by writers speaking to this relationship, through connections both empowering and oppressive. From Carmen Maria Machado on Jennifer’s Body, Jude Ellison S. Doyle on In My Skin, Addie Tsai on Dead Ringers. The conversations of this collection aim to speak to the relationship between queerness and horror. If you’ve noticed it too, this collection is the perfect foray into exploration.
Human Sacrifices by María Fernanda Ampuero, translated by Frances Riddle
Human Sacrifices is “tropical gothic” at its finest—decay and oppression underlie our humid and hostile world, where working-class women and children are consistently the weakest links in a capitalist economy. If you’re looking for an imaginative, wild and haunting collection, these twelve stories contemplate the nature of exploitation and abuse, illuminating the realities of those society consumes for its own pitiless ends.
