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Cosmic Dyke Patrol
Lor Gislason's COSMIC DYKE PATROL, in which a lesbian couple who hunt entities face their biggest challenge yet when a giant skull bear is summoned into their world, pitched as HELLBOY meets STEVEN UNIVERSE
Unknown Binding
First published February 10, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 23, 2026
This is a very emotional but also very fun read about grief and queer love and the deeply, deeply porous boundaries between worlds and bodyminds. This is a temporally-weird story that rewards multiple readings, and I loved the way the ambiguous timelines mimicked the griefworlds Marcy, Haz, and Stevie are all living in. I wish we had gotten to spend more time in Marcy's POV!!
February 12, 2026
TL;DR: Queer, horny, heartfelt, and absolutely soaked in goo, Cosmic Dyke Patrol is the rare “romantic body-horror action adventure” that actually delivers: feral host-and-creature symbiosis, brutal set pieces, and cosmic pests that don’t play nice. It sticks the landing with found-family tenderness without sterilizing the weird or sanding off the gore.
Lor Gislason (they/he) is a non-binary writer who’s been very explicit, across interviews and their own site, about centering body horror and writing from a neurodivergent perspective, with a taste for “goopy” transformation that is not just gross-out but identity-adjacent. Their earlier work includes the novella Inside Out and editorial work like Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror, which positions them squarely in the modern queer body-horror lane where embodiment is both weapon and theme. Interviews with the Horror Writers Association and Deep Cuts underline the same through-line: a commitment to bodily transgression, a fondness for cosmic dread, and a pragmatic, craft-forward approach to making extreme imagery emotionally meaningful. That background shows up here as confidence with viscera and an insistence that intimacy and horror can share the same page without cancelling each other out. If you’re looking for why this book feels so comfortable being horny, heartfelt, and disgusting in the same breath, the answer is: this author has been building toward exactly this blend.
This book opens like your life is already on fire and the landlord is asking for rent anyway. Harriett is face-down in the dirt, leg absolutely trashed, staring up at a swirling storm and a flayed-skull Bear Thing trying to chew through an occult barrier while her partner Mars is unconscious nearby. She looks at the situation, takes inventory, and offers the only scientific conclusion available: “This fucking sucks.” It’s a perfect mission statement for a novel that is, in equal parts, romantic, horny, gross, and weirdly tender about the people who keep choosing each other in the middle of cosmic garbage.
The premise, once the book rewinds and starts laying track, is delightfully direct. Stevie has a house problem, except the “rats in the walls” era escalates into floating orbs, strange activity, and green mush creeping out from under the washer. Their mom Kathy dismisses them with the kind of disdain that could sandblast paint. So Stevie calls a service that sounds fake as hell and turns out to be real: Out Of This World Pest Control, run by two punky, queer women in battered coveralls who do not blink at the phrase “portal in your basement.” Haz (Harriett) and Mars (Marcy) show up with gear, ritual know-how, and the weary confidence of people who have seen the universe do grosser things than your laundry room.
The book’s biggest win is that it actually delivers what it promises on the tin. “Romantic body horror action adventure” is not jacket-copy spice here. The creature mechanics are feral, specific, and consistently used as story fuel. Kezi, the entity that becomes central, is not a vague “mysterious presence.” It’s a living, communicating being with needs, humor, and an unnerving kind of innocence that makes the gross parts feel even grosser, because you keep being reminded there is a personhood in the slime. The symbiosis angle is where the goop becomes emotionally legible: healing that feels like assimilation, intimacy that is literal invasion, identity bleed that reads as both gift and risk. When the book goes for it, it fucking goes for it.
Structurally, it’s multi-POV. You get close third-person sections anchored in Stevie’s anxiety and guarded hope, Haz’s competence-with-cracks, and Mars’s layered mix of swagger, exhaustion, and responsibility. Then Kezi’s voice enters as its own flavor, with a linguistic cadence that makes you feel the translation process happening in real time. It’s an effective way to make “alien” feel less like tentacles and more like cognition. The POV rotation also helps the romance land, because the attraction between Haz and Mars is not just told to you; it’s reinforced by how each of them watches the other under stress, how banter turns into caretaking, and how the physicality of the job keeps forcing them into moments that are half adrenaline, half devotion.
The book sets a hook with that Sunday-night disaster and then earns its way back there through escalating encounters, each one nudging the stakes up without feeling like a videogame level select. Scene selection stays practical: investigations, circles, containment attempts, fights, aftermath, regrouping, then back into the mess. If there’s a soft spot, it’s that the “charming found family” register is genuinely charming, which means the narrative sometimes chooses warmth in moments where a colder book would twist the knife. That is also, to be fair, the point. This is not misery tourism. It wants the tenderness.
The horror is satisfyingly physical. A lot of modern “creature” books either go full fog-machine vibes or full splatter with no rhythm. This one has rhythm. It builds dread by making the rules feel concrete, then showing you the cost of those rules in motion. When things attack, the action reads as spatially clear. When things heal, it’s not clean magic; it’s biology-adjacent, messy, and a little violating even when it’s saving someone. The “eldritch” element isn’t just a word slapped on a monster, either. The dimension-hopping concept is treated like a weird ecology. Something slips through, it tries to survive, it adapts, it feeds, it changes the environment, and then the environment fights back.
Underneath the gore and flirtation, the book is really about chosen family as an active practice. Stevie is someone who has been trained, by Kathy and by history, to expect dismissal, and the plot keeps testing whether they can accept care without bracing for the bill. Haz and Mars are professionals, sure, but the story keeps peeling back the way “helping” becomes personal when you keep showing up. Kezi, oddly, becomes the book’s clearest embodiment of that theme: a being who survives through connection, who learns love through exchange, who makes the line between “monster” and “member of the household” feel uncomfortably thin.
If you want a ruthless gut-punch that leaves everyone spiritually flayed, this is not that book. It’s too invested in charm, in recovery, in the small domestic beats that make the big cosmic beats matter. But if you want queer romantic body horror that is unashamedly horny and unashamedly heartfelt while still getting truly nasty with its creature logic and set pieces, Cosmic Dyke Patrol is a fucking good time. It’s the rare “action adventure” horror that doesn’t turn the horror into seasoning. The goo stays on the plate, the feelings stay in the body, and the ending manages to be soft without pretending the universe is.
Read if you want queer romantic body horror that’s actually body horror: symbiosis, healing-as-invasion, identity bleed, and goo that earns its screen time.
Skip if you prefer slow-burn atmospheric dread over kinetic fights and escalating weird encounters.
Lor Gislason (they/he) is a non-binary writer who’s been very explicit, across interviews and their own site, about centering body horror and writing from a neurodivergent perspective, with a taste for “goopy” transformation that is not just gross-out but identity-adjacent. Their earlier work includes the novella Inside Out and editorial work like Bound in Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror, which positions them squarely in the modern queer body-horror lane where embodiment is both weapon and theme. Interviews with the Horror Writers Association and Deep Cuts underline the same through-line: a commitment to bodily transgression, a fondness for cosmic dread, and a pragmatic, craft-forward approach to making extreme imagery emotionally meaningful. That background shows up here as confidence with viscera and an insistence that intimacy and horror can share the same page without cancelling each other out. If you’re looking for why this book feels so comfortable being horny, heartfelt, and disgusting in the same breath, the answer is: this author has been building toward exactly this blend.
This book opens like your life is already on fire and the landlord is asking for rent anyway. Harriett is face-down in the dirt, leg absolutely trashed, staring up at a swirling storm and a flayed-skull Bear Thing trying to chew through an occult barrier while her partner Mars is unconscious nearby. She looks at the situation, takes inventory, and offers the only scientific conclusion available: “This fucking sucks.” It’s a perfect mission statement for a novel that is, in equal parts, romantic, horny, gross, and weirdly tender about the people who keep choosing each other in the middle of cosmic garbage.
The premise, once the book rewinds and starts laying track, is delightfully direct. Stevie has a house problem, except the “rats in the walls” era escalates into floating orbs, strange activity, and green mush creeping out from under the washer. Their mom Kathy dismisses them with the kind of disdain that could sandblast paint. So Stevie calls a service that sounds fake as hell and turns out to be real: Out Of This World Pest Control, run by two punky, queer women in battered coveralls who do not blink at the phrase “portal in your basement.” Haz (Harriett) and Mars (Marcy) show up with gear, ritual know-how, and the weary confidence of people who have seen the universe do grosser things than your laundry room.
The book’s biggest win is that it actually delivers what it promises on the tin. “Romantic body horror action adventure” is not jacket-copy spice here. The creature mechanics are feral, specific, and consistently used as story fuel. Kezi, the entity that becomes central, is not a vague “mysterious presence.” It’s a living, communicating being with needs, humor, and an unnerving kind of innocence that makes the gross parts feel even grosser, because you keep being reminded there is a personhood in the slime. The symbiosis angle is where the goop becomes emotionally legible: healing that feels like assimilation, intimacy that is literal invasion, identity bleed that reads as both gift and risk. When the book goes for it, it fucking goes for it.
Structurally, it’s multi-POV. You get close third-person sections anchored in Stevie’s anxiety and guarded hope, Haz’s competence-with-cracks, and Mars’s layered mix of swagger, exhaustion, and responsibility. Then Kezi’s voice enters as its own flavor, with a linguistic cadence that makes you feel the translation process happening in real time. It’s an effective way to make “alien” feel less like tentacles and more like cognition. The POV rotation also helps the romance land, because the attraction between Haz and Mars is not just told to you; it’s reinforced by how each of them watches the other under stress, how banter turns into caretaking, and how the physicality of the job keeps forcing them into moments that are half adrenaline, half devotion.
The book sets a hook with that Sunday-night disaster and then earns its way back there through escalating encounters, each one nudging the stakes up without feeling like a videogame level select. Scene selection stays practical: investigations, circles, containment attempts, fights, aftermath, regrouping, then back into the mess. If there’s a soft spot, it’s that the “charming found family” register is genuinely charming, which means the narrative sometimes chooses warmth in moments where a colder book would twist the knife. That is also, to be fair, the point. This is not misery tourism. It wants the tenderness.
The horror is satisfyingly physical. A lot of modern “creature” books either go full fog-machine vibes or full splatter with no rhythm. This one has rhythm. It builds dread by making the rules feel concrete, then showing you the cost of those rules in motion. When things attack, the action reads as spatially clear. When things heal, it’s not clean magic; it’s biology-adjacent, messy, and a little violating even when it’s saving someone. The “eldritch” element isn’t just a word slapped on a monster, either. The dimension-hopping concept is treated like a weird ecology. Something slips through, it tries to survive, it adapts, it feeds, it changes the environment, and then the environment fights back.
Underneath the gore and flirtation, the book is really about chosen family as an active practice. Stevie is someone who has been trained, by Kathy and by history, to expect dismissal, and the plot keeps testing whether they can accept care without bracing for the bill. Haz and Mars are professionals, sure, but the story keeps peeling back the way “helping” becomes personal when you keep showing up. Kezi, oddly, becomes the book’s clearest embodiment of that theme: a being who survives through connection, who learns love through exchange, who makes the line between “monster” and “member of the household” feel uncomfortably thin.
If you want a ruthless gut-punch that leaves everyone spiritually flayed, this is not that book. It’s too invested in charm, in recovery, in the small domestic beats that make the big cosmic beats matter. But if you want queer romantic body horror that is unashamedly horny and unashamedly heartfelt while still getting truly nasty with its creature logic and set pieces, Cosmic Dyke Patrol is a fucking good time. It’s the rare “action adventure” horror that doesn’t turn the horror into seasoning. The goo stays on the plate, the feelings stay in the body, and the ending manages to be soft without pretending the universe is.
Read if you want queer romantic body horror that’s actually body horror: symbiosis, healing-as-invasion, identity bleed, and goo that earns its screen time.
Skip if you prefer slow-burn atmospheric dread over kinetic fights and escalating weird encounters.
June 8, 2026
3,5⭐️ this was pretty fun (and gross) actually
Read
March 15, 2026So sweet and so gross
May 17, 2026
Starting with the title, what is there not to like? Lor has a style I really enjoy: its casual and we get right into the story, no muss no fuss. Stevie has a certain...issue in their house; they hire a cosmic-horror pest-control team (who are also a couple--and one of the couple's aunt is in the process of slowly turning into a tree. Read the book to find out about that.) and pretty soon, all three of them are friends and stuck trying to fix the issue in Stevie's house together. Four, counting the little sentient ball of slime who has the power to link minds and telepathically communicate with you.
The dynamic between Mars and Haz is cute and there were some places the story took me that I was not expecting! Lor's writing is always a good time, and if a more adult Steven Universe-vibed tale sounds like your jam, you should absolutely check this out.
The dynamic between Mars and Haz is cute and there were some places the story took me that I was not expecting! Lor's writing is always a good time, and if a more adult Steven Universe-vibed tale sounds like your jam, you should absolutely check this out.
Read
January 26, 2026I remember Lor telling me the title of this book a few years back, and I wanted it in my hands right that second. Finally having read Cosmic Dyke Patrol, I can say that it was worth the wait!
The big highlights:
-Fun, weird, interdimensional horror
-Well-developed characters who I really cared about (and a great meet cute, too!)
-Hot (and sometimes very strange!) sex scenes
-Rad dialogue (something Lor excels at)
The book feels a little like a prologue to a larger story, but that might just be me wishing we got more time with the patrollers. Not really a critique though--just something worth noting!
The big highlights:
-Fun, weird, interdimensional horror
-Well-developed characters who I really cared about (and a great meet cute, too!)
-Hot (and sometimes very strange!) sex scenes
-Rad dialogue (something Lor excels at)
The book feels a little like a prologue to a larger story, but that might just be me wishing we got more time with the patrollers. Not really a critique though--just something worth noting!
March 10, 2026
You can't turn down a book with a title like this!
I know Gislason is the Monarch of Goop and so to expect messiness, but I didn't realize they would also write such an emotionally, ooey-gooey sappy journey! This book surprised me in the best of ways. It's love and found family and community. It's grief and loss and learning how to move forward and keep living with those things. And yes, it's messy and goopy and sexy.
Thoroughly enjoyed the weird ride Gaslason took me on!
I know Gislason is the Monarch of Goop and so to expect messiness, but I didn't realize they would also write such an emotionally, ooey-gooey sappy journey! This book surprised me in the best of ways. It's love and found family and community. It's grief and loss and learning how to move forward and keep living with those things. And yes, it's messy and goopy and sexy.
Thoroughly enjoyed the weird ride Gaslason took me on!
February 10, 2026
I love lor gislason's work and was very excited to start reading "Cosmic Dyke Patrol," which also has one of the most awesome titles ever. The story focuses on Harriet and Marcy who are partners in life and in ghost hunting. For folks who loved the all-female Ghostbusters remake that came out a few years ago, this book will definitely appeal. Although the time jumps and point of view shifts took some adjusting, it was cool to get to know Stevie, who starts seeing orbs, green mush, and other odd things, then enlists the help of Marcy and Harriet, and then joins them in their ghost hunting eventually. (Content warnings from transphobia and genderphobia). I loved the comedy horror, as well as the supernatural hunting activity, and more of the relationship between Harriet and Marcy, how they first got together, Marcy's aunt Kathy, and so much more. The grief of the characters. All of their complexities. We need more trans and queer representation in horror, and this book has it in spades. It's gripping, funny, has lovable characters, and I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!
March 6, 2026
Cosmic Dyke Patrol is an absolute fun filled romp through interdimensions, but don't let that fool you - it's full of great characters, found family, and moments that will rip your heart out. It will leave you wanting more time with these characters! If you're intrigued by the idea of this book, check it out - you won't be disappointed.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
March 14, 2026
I impulse ordered this book after reading the title: Cosmic Dyke Patrol. That's pretty much everything I like!
This book is queer AF and definitely focuses on found family. Mars and her family have always had "gifts" and were able to see beyond the veil. With her newfound friends, Mars must contend with an open portal which belches out a friend shortly followed by a horrific foe.
This book is queer AF and definitely focuses on found family. Mars and her family have always had "gifts" and were able to see beyond the veil. With her newfound friends, Mars must contend with an open portal which belches out a friend shortly followed by a horrific foe.
February 10, 2026
Disclaimer: I received an ebook-copy from the author.
Stevie has a pest problem. What starts out as rats in the walls soon escalates into orbs bouncing around their house and persistent feelings of loneliness in the basement. Thankfully, an Out Of World Pest Control offers a quick solution to their problem. Except the portal still doesn’t close and Stevie finds themself getting closer to not only the world of Peteys (PTs - the creatures passing through our world), but also the women, Haz and Mars, running that organization as they have to move in with them until their basement situation is fixed.
One of the main things this book does really well is how it sets up the characters. We get to know them through their interactions with each other, sometimes with flashbacks to their past (such as how Haz and Mars met), sometimes through the desperate actions taken in the face of danger to protect someone you love. I loved how Stevie’s relationship with the PT Kezi developed and grew and how Kezi learned to adjust to different boundaries as it is now stuck in a world completely unlike its own. I also really enjoyed how it shows the way grief can get you stuck in the past, freezing you in time and leave you unable to move on.
The story is also told through multiple POVs, allowing us to follow each character during different intense and intimate moments and made them all feel very fleshed out in a way I really enjoyed. I especially adored how Kezi’s POV was narrated in a different style, both underlining its alienness and where its deep desire for connection comes from.
All in all, this novella weaves together grief, romance, possession and alien invasion horror as well as action in a really incredible way, telling a really satisfying story about found family and queerness.
Tw: crossing of boundaries (possession/to save someone’s life), deadnaming, emotional abuse, grief, gore, injury, misgendering, parental death, self-harm, vomit
Stevie has a pest problem. What starts out as rats in the walls soon escalates into orbs bouncing around their house and persistent feelings of loneliness in the basement. Thankfully, an Out Of World Pest Control offers a quick solution to their problem. Except the portal still doesn’t close and Stevie finds themself getting closer to not only the world of Peteys (PTs - the creatures passing through our world), but also the women, Haz and Mars, running that organization as they have to move in with them until their basement situation is fixed.
One of the main things this book does really well is how it sets up the characters. We get to know them through their interactions with each other, sometimes with flashbacks to their past (such as how Haz and Mars met), sometimes through the desperate actions taken in the face of danger to protect someone you love. I loved how Stevie’s relationship with the PT Kezi developed and grew and how Kezi learned to adjust to different boundaries as it is now stuck in a world completely unlike its own. I also really enjoyed how it shows the way grief can get you stuck in the past, freezing you in time and leave you unable to move on.
The story is also told through multiple POVs, allowing us to follow each character during different intense and intimate moments and made them all feel very fleshed out in a way I really enjoyed. I especially adored how Kezi’s POV was narrated in a different style, both underlining its alienness and where its deep desire for connection comes from.
All in all, this novella weaves together grief, romance, possession and alien invasion horror as well as action in a really incredible way, telling a really satisfying story about found family and queerness.
Tw: crossing of boundaries (possession/to save someone’s life), deadnaming, emotional abuse, grief, gore, injury, misgendering, parental death, self-harm, vomit
April 8, 2026
I was really excited to read this because the title is incredible, but I was honestly disappointed. It has great representation and sex positivity, which I appreciate, but there is a character that I read as child-like that was put into a sexual situation which made me very uncomfortable. I don't think it was supposed to be read that way, I think it was more of an innocent character that doesn't have experience being a human and is learning about the world, but I still didn't like it. The book as a whole is great conceptually. I love the idea of a "pest control" style supernatural service. However, the comical vibes are lost almost immediately. Given the title, I assumed it would be more ironic in tone, but everyone is just traumatized and having a bad time.
It definitely could have used another round of edits. There are a number of typos and inconsistencies. I found myself re-reading many sentences because I didn't understand what was being described or I didn't know who was talking. In a universe where different dimensions exist and those dimensions don't parallel the known universe, the descriptions need to be grounded in what the reader can understand, and I felt the writing was too abstract.
The story doesn't build on itself. It feels disjointed, like things are happening and they technically lead into the next event, but I don't know why it had to happen that way. Any flashbacks we get seem irrelevant or hollow, never really giving us a deep, intimate view of the characters. And then the ending is so unsatisfying. It becomes an unearned and arbitrary gore-fest.
I don't mean to sit here and shit on this book, it has good bones, and maybe it's because I'm reading The Archive Undying at the same time that I'm being particularly critical, but I wanted more from this book, a lot more, and I didn't get it. But at the end of the day, I'm glad it exists and I'm glad to have read it.
It definitely could have used another round of edits. There are a number of typos and inconsistencies. I found myself re-reading many sentences because I didn't understand what was being described or I didn't know who was talking. In a universe where different dimensions exist and those dimensions don't parallel the known universe, the descriptions need to be grounded in what the reader can understand, and I felt the writing was too abstract.
The story doesn't build on itself. It feels disjointed, like things are happening and they technically lead into the next event, but I don't know why it had to happen that way. Any flashbacks we get seem irrelevant or hollow, never really giving us a deep, intimate view of the characters. And then the ending is so unsatisfying. It becomes an unearned and arbitrary gore-fest.
I don't mean to sit here and shit on this book, it has good bones, and maybe it's because I'm reading The Archive Undying at the same time that I'm being particularly critical, but I wanted more from this book, a lot more, and I didn't get it. But at the end of the day, I'm glad it exists and I'm glad to have read it.
August 22, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 𝓻𝓪𝓽𝓮
🌶️🌶️🌶️ - 𝓼𝓹𝓲𝓬𝓮
🔥🔥🔥 - 𝓹𝓵𝓸𝓽
🩸- 𝓰𝓸𝓻𝓮
🖤 𝓶𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼🖤
Stevie, Kezi, & Harriett
🖤 𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓼🖤
📕paranormal
📕homophobia
📕extraterrestrial spice
📕found family
📕trauma
🖤 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀🖤
I went into this book completely blind, thinking it was just going to be a nice little paranormal romcom type story with some heavy extraterrestrial action… and then the spice kicked in and I was absolutely seated. Gislason delivers in this intergalactic romance that has everything you’re looking for in an unconventional, out-of-this-world paranormal romance that does not skip on the heated chemistry, the emotional trauma, and the overall new connections made through harrowing circumstances.
*spoilers*
At the beginning of the week, Stevie starts to notice odd things occurring in her apartment. They started off small, sounds in the walls and colorful orbs that floated in the air. Enough to make their mother speculate things were all in their daughter’s mind. After doing some research to figure out what it was, because obviously it wasn’t a poltergeist or vengeful spirit, they discover an ‘Out of the World Pest Control’ group and thinks that just might be the solution to their problem while their mother is away. After discarding the problem into a jar, they give Stevie a hug before leaving
Time Skip! But a year before the mess details, when Harriet first met Mars. See, they happened to meet because Harriet worked at an auto shop and Mars’ car just so happened to break down, needing parts they would have to order. But they quickly discover that they were meant to meet each other at that specific time, creating sparks between them. And after Harriet’s father finds her pills, he kicks her out. But Mars sees this as an opportunity and immediately invites her into her home.
Things progress with Stevie’s ‘little problem’ as they are met by an intergalactic goo type substance named Kezi that can communicate in more ways than one with them, if you get what I mean. And with the portal not closing like it should, multiple organisms are sneaking in from the world of the Peteys, leaving them to deal with getting rid of them. Plus the fact that you get to read the story from multiple POVs lets you understand the characters from their own perspectives.
And soon their found friendship has them living under one roof. It has themes of tragedy, homophobia, trauma, and hardships with new connections and a stronger relationship by the end. It’s equal parts spicy and action-packed, as you keep flipping the pages wondering how it’s all going to come to an end. Which is ultimately the best part! Gislason delivers in this intergalactic paranormal romance.
🌶️🌶️🌶️ - 𝓼𝓹𝓲𝓬𝓮
🔥🔥🔥 - 𝓹𝓵𝓸𝓽
🩸- 𝓰𝓸𝓻𝓮
🖤 𝓶𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼🖤
Stevie, Kezi, & Harriett
🖤 𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓼🖤
📕paranormal
📕homophobia
📕extraterrestrial spice
📕found family
📕trauma
🖤 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀🖤
I went into this book completely blind, thinking it was just going to be a nice little paranormal romcom type story with some heavy extraterrestrial action… and then the spice kicked in and I was absolutely seated. Gislason delivers in this intergalactic romance that has everything you’re looking for in an unconventional, out-of-this-world paranormal romance that does not skip on the heated chemistry, the emotional trauma, and the overall new connections made through harrowing circumstances.
*spoilers*
At the beginning of the week, Stevie starts to notice odd things occurring in her apartment. They started off small, sounds in the walls and colorful orbs that floated in the air. Enough to make their mother speculate things were all in their daughter’s mind. After doing some research to figure out what it was, because obviously it wasn’t a poltergeist or vengeful spirit, they discover an ‘Out of the World Pest Control’ group and thinks that just might be the solution to their problem while their mother is away. After discarding the problem into a jar, they give Stevie a hug before leaving
Time Skip! But a year before the mess details, when Harriet first met Mars. See, they happened to meet because Harriet worked at an auto shop and Mars’ car just so happened to break down, needing parts they would have to order. But they quickly discover that they were meant to meet each other at that specific time, creating sparks between them. And after Harriet’s father finds her pills, he kicks her out. But Mars sees this as an opportunity and immediately invites her into her home.
Things progress with Stevie’s ‘little problem’ as they are met by an intergalactic goo type substance named Kezi that can communicate in more ways than one with them, if you get what I mean. And with the portal not closing like it should, multiple organisms are sneaking in from the world of the Peteys, leaving them to deal with getting rid of them. Plus the fact that you get to read the story from multiple POVs lets you understand the characters from their own perspectives.
And soon their found friendship has them living under one roof. It has themes of tragedy, homophobia, trauma, and hardships with new connections and a stronger relationship by the end. It’s equal parts spicy and action-packed, as you keep flipping the pages wondering how it’s all going to come to an end. Which is ultimately the best part! Gislason delivers in this intergalactic paranormal romance.
May 15, 2026
This was a fun, sweet little weird tale about lesbian paranormal investigators (well, really paranormal pest control). I went into this expecting something a little more horror, and while it does have its monsters this is mostly a story about how people relate to each other and the problems in their lives. It was nice to see something sweet like this (and with good trans lesbian representation) that can still hit hard with moments of body horror. A lot of the goopy lesbian weird fiction is pretty traumatic and this feels more like something I would recommend to someone having a rough time--it might even be, dare I say it, 'cozy body horror'. I really liked the xenofiction elements with Kezi and, without spoiling anything, where that ends up going.
I do wish it was a little longer and that it explored more of the paranormal side of things, but that's a good problem to have. Another reviewer said this almost feels like the first in a series and I'd agree with that.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I do wish it was a little longer and that it explored more of the paranormal side of things, but that's a good problem to have. Another reviewer said this almost feels like the first in a series and I'd agree with that.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
January 24, 2026
Fun premise, unfortunately mediocre execution. The characters and their relationships had a lot of potential but the book only sketched out the basics-- EXCEPT! For Kezi. Kexi and Stevie (Veevee?)'s relationship felt a lot more in-focus. I think, having to explain Kezi's whole other dimensional Thing the author was more willing to get in depth about the experiential and experimental nature of the pair's shared experiences. I wish I cared as much about Kathy as Kezi's mentor, despite Kathy getting more than a single scene and getting multiple mourning scenes.
January 30, 2026
I was immediately drawn to this book by the cover art and title, and while I enjoyed the story, I wish the characters had been developed more. I wanted to have more time to get to know each character, and to learn more about the world Kezi came from. This was a sweet book about queer found-family, I would just love to have even more of it! I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
April 7, 2026
received as a BookSirens arc in exchange for an honest review
Cosmic Dyke Patrol is a fun, clever, and heartfelt exploration of goop in all its forms and the strength we find in community. The characters are predominantly queer and with varying identities, experiences, trauma, and knowledge. This allows them to support each other in unique and relatable ways and parallels the overlapping and folding dimensions that interact with our own and spew forth the occasional creature.
Cosmic Dyke Patrol is a fun, clever, and heartfelt exploration of goop in all its forms and the strength we find in community. The characters are predominantly queer and with varying identities, experiences, trauma, and knowledge. This allows them to support each other in unique and relatable ways and parallels the overlapping and folding dimensions that interact with our own and spew forth the occasional creature.
April 6, 2026
I love the premise of this and how willing it was to run with a fun idea. There’s a lot going on for a novella though, and between all the time jumps, perspective switches, and necessary worldbuilding there’s not enough space for everything to be as fleshed out as I wanted. I really liked the characters and the found family vibes and the surprise monster fucking, though.
April 12, 2026
Picture this: Ghostbusters but they're lesbians in a found family polycule seeking to return transdimensional monsters to their homeworlds...and Slimer's their little telepathic buddy. People turn into trees, even. This one absolutely rules. I recommend this one for a one-day easy breeze of a read.
March 8, 2026
A quirky and fun queer adventure with some real heart. This book is a great time.
March 23, 2026
hilarious & icky & horny & sweet & lovely
April 12, 2026
Is there such a thing as cozy cosmic horror? Lor Gislason makes a solid case for yes here.
May 7, 2026
Delightfully weird and so queer
May 13, 2026
What a delightful and heartfelt novella! Also quite goopy, as I have come to expect from Lor.
Great characters, fun premise, and excellent execution!
And I appreciated the AMAB Nonbinary rep. <3
Great characters, fun premise, and excellent execution!
And I appreciated the AMAB Nonbinary rep. <3
June 13, 2026
(3.5) A little gooey for my tastes, but ymmv. I still enjoyed reading this.
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