Twisted Horrors: A Queer Horror Anthology

by River Gardner, Aiden E. Messer, Wesley Winters

A queer anthology compiled of queer authors around the globe.

From sci-fi to trans to revenge, you'll find a mesh of horror in these 25 stories.
Featuring stories
Sirius
Aiden E. Messer
Luc Dantes
Wesley Winters
Enoli Lee
Christina Bergling
S.C. Mills
Mo Medusa
M. Lopes da Silva
TT Madden
Taylor Z. Adams
Anton Cancre
John M.
Robb Basham
Aliya Bree Hall
Corey Niles
C.R. Langille
Allister Nelson
Jude Deluca
Julia Aaron
Kirsten Craig
River Gardner

Genres: Anthologies, Horror

419 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 9, 2025

About the author

River Gardner (she/they) is an author from Central Alabama. She lives with her two children and husband, along with an army of cats. In her spare time, she likes to draw, read, and play video games.
She enjoys writing dark romance, horror romance, and horror. Her debut novella, Good-Bye, Valentine came out in February of 2024, and she’s since published two other novellas and two anthologies.
You can find her on Instagram to keep up to date on upcoming works!

Reviews

[Stuart Knott · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Twisted Horrors: A Queer Horror Anthology” does exactly what the title promises: brings you a selection of horrors and twisted stories from the minds of some of the indie scenes best queer and non-binary talents. River Gardner has assembled quite a team of contributors, with names like Sirius, Aiden E. Messer, Robb Basham, and Kirsten Craig all being very familiar to me and prominent voices in the community. River’s goal with this collection appears to be to tackle a broad spectrum of queer horror, with stories ranging from traditional slashers, to revenge fantasies, to more surreal tales. River’s own story, “The Last Supper”, which closes the collection, is perhaps the most impactful tale of queer revenge in the collection. There’s a sense that River is using their writing to achieve a sense of catharsis, delivering a story in which a transgender protagonist finally gets the chance to avenge themselves against their bigoted family. I can only imagine that some in the LGBTQ+ community have felt the same way, experienced the same judgement and isolation from friends and family, so to read a story where a transgender character goes ham with a fire axe is a great, gory way to say “I am who I am! Accept it!”

The collection starts strong with Sirius’s “Sleepless Maestro”, a stirring tale of an unquiet, overly critical spirit looking to complete their masterpiece, and things only pick up with the decidedly Faustian “Cuspids” by Julie Aaron (which also nicely touches up a nigh-universal fear of the dentist) and the supernatural murder/mystery “Lovely Waitress Fights” by Jude Deluca. Kirsten Craig delivers a queer perspective on the traditional slasher genre, depicting a crazed, knife-wielding maniac who potentially serves as a manifestation of bigotry and hatred, while Christina Berling brings the gore and leans into bizarre body horror with “Break A leg”, a fun, bloody story of a stage performance gone hideously wrong! Allister Nelson treads a more fantastical path with “Belladonna”, C.R. Langille horrifically describes how dismissive and self-absorbed bystanders can be when someone else is in danger, and Aliya Bree Hall’s “All That Glitters” delivers a story of a queer girl striking back against the oppressive, suffocating island community she’s forced to live with.

Luc Dantes appears numerous times in the collection, though I was most impressed by “The Suffering Savant”, which follows a serial killer in a post-apocalyptic world. Some stories also end with a song or songs that inspired them, which was a nice touch, or notes from the authors detailing their personal journeys, and the entire collection is finished off by a striking cover and some macabre visuals throughout. In this day and age, we definitely need as much queer representation in horror and writing as we can get and River’s certainly doing the community proud here. While some stories are naturally better than others, and the lengths vary throughout, I was impressed by the variety on off and the different aspects of the queer community that were represented. Even better for me, since I seem to have less and less time on my hands, “Twisted Horrors: A Queer Horror Anthology” was a breeze to read, with many stories making the most of their word limits and moving at a brisk, punchy pace that delivered more than a few gut punches throughout.

[Alex Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology, curated by River Gardner, is amazing. The stories cover such a wide range of themes, style, and sub-genres. Easily one of my favorite collections l've read this year, especially considering how critical and relevant these stories are in the current climate.

Well done, authors!

And that cover by Drew Huff is just gorgeous - as is all their artwork!

Anyway - go buy it!