The first two stories were decent but nothing special and didn't quite give me the creepy vibe I was looking for. There were also a couple stories in the second person point of view which I am really not a fan of. Other than that there were some REALLY good stories in this collection. Over all I would definitely recommend it to others. Any time you have an anthology with multiple authors you are likely going to get a mixed bag and you will enjoy some over others but I'd say in this case the good outweighs the bad.

“𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓. 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒓. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒐𝒇𝒇. 𝑨𝒔 𝒊𝒇 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒍𝒅, 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒎 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚.”

This YA horror anthology that features queer authors of colour sounded like a perfect read in the days leading up to Halloween.

Anthologies can be hit or miss sometimes, as you are not always going to connect with each author or story equally. Overall, there was lots to like about this collection. The thread tying these stories together is each features a queer character of colour on Halloween night during a blue moon, a rare feat. The blue moon in each story makes everything feel different, reflecting how the characters themselves feel different. They are all generally spooky stories, filled with ghosts and the unknown. A few stories stood out to me, in particular. The drive-in theatre setting of “A Brief Intermission” with visiting ghosts felt like watching an old black and white classic horror movie. “Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane” is a powerful story less about scares and more about belonging and finding hope. “Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle” is an emotional story of being robbed of safety in your own skin, with proof that humans are scarier than anything beyond the grave. Finally, “Hey There, Demons” was a super fun tale of poltergeists, demons, and siblings. I loved the main characters Noah and Kody! The downside to a short story collection is that there are elements that I wish were explored a little bit further or sometimes they end in a way needs a little more explanation.

Night Of The Living Queers is an anthology about confronting ugly truths, challenging perceptions, of love, loss, acceptance, and bravery. It’s a vast and inclusive collection perfect for spooky season and I think will mean a lot to teens. Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the ARC!

I always find it difficult to provide a rating for an anthology.

It just seems wildly unrealistic to expect to connect with every single story from over a dozen different authors, all with completely different styles and perspectives.

So I’m taking a cue from some of my anthology aware bookish friends: if an anthology has a handful of stories that speak to me and that I would recommend to other readers, then that’s a win.

And with that criteria in mind, “Night of the Living Queers” was a win for me.

“Night of the Living Queers” is a timely collection of scary stories all written by BIPOC authors, and tied together with the same Halloween full moon.

How witchy and celestial.

Not every story works for me, but I was especially blown away by Kalynn Bayron’s vampiric tearjerker “The Visitor” and Kosoko Jackson’s emotionally raw “Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle.”

Perfection! Seriously, what a wonderful selection of authors. This is a perfect spooky season read. LGBTQIA+ and anthologies are super popular with my readers, so I’m really excited to book talk this!

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- a collection of queer horror that is deep, dark, and eerie for the Halloween season. with a wonderful taste in authors, this collection allows you to be immersed in the horror, the thrills, and the eerie stories that will leave you wanting more.

3 stars

I am not a huge horror reader nor am I much of a short story reader, that said I enjoyed a number of stories in this collection. I found it really cool and a little creepy that all these stories took place on the same halloween night.

My favorite was Hey There, Demons by Tara Sim. This was the first thing I've read by Tara, and I am looking foward to picking up more of their work in the future. It made me feel some type of way and I wish that there was more to the story.

My least favorite was Knickknack by Ryan Douglass but that is because I hate clowns.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think this is a really good anthology! Some of the stories were amazing and some weren't that great, which I think just happens when you read a short story collection by lots of different authors. I really appreciated the trigger warnings on some of these, and I did have to skip a couple because some of these are really heavy.

Night of the Living Queers by multiple authors is such a fun and freaky anthology of horror stories with a BIPOC queer twist. The stories were all so much fun to read and I loved seeing a different side of some of my favorite authors like Kalynn Bayron and Tara Sim. The Visitor and Anna were my favorite tales but I enjoyed all of them. If you're looking for something creepy and queer, this book is a winner!

Loved all these scary stories with queer protagonists. Each and every story was well written, some suspenseful, some outright creepy, but overall, a spooky delight to read in October!! Some urban legends , some mythos, some nightmarish folk tales, every one prepared to haunt your socks off.

This was a fun anthology all about spooky and horror taking place under the light of a blue moon. There were some stories that I really enjoyed like the story of the Guests and the story of the video that you MUST watch to the end (talk about bone chilling) but I think my favorite was the story of a boy summoning a demon and ending up something more (what can I say, I’m a sucker for romance even with spookiness).

I will say there were several stories I skipped because I wasn’t vibing with the writing and I greatly appreciated the trigger warning for one of the stories which I subsequently skipped.

Overall a good anthology with some fun stories intermixed!

This is one of the better anthologies I have read. I'm very picky about anthologies. I enjoyed The Visitor by Kalynn Bayron and it made me more excited to read Bayron's thriller that came out recently.
Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle by Kosoko Jackson was rougher than I anticipated! A revenge story that will stay with me. Jackson really is a talented writer. If you love anthologies, spooky season, and are looking for a queer rec, check this one out.

This book was quite interesting! I think it was perfect for spooky season. The stories were a mixed bag for me. Some of them I absolutely loved + some dragged on a bit but overall would still recommend.

As usual for short story collections, I'm skipping the CAWPILE method and doing more of a recap/overall impression. I actually finished this one Sept 30th, but all of the short stories are united under the concept of a blue moon happening on Halloween, which is about as rare as a Friday the 13th happening in October, so it felt appropriate to post the review today, instead.

Right off the bat, I was impressed by these YA stories. They feature BIPOC LGBTQIA+ main characters, which is great for representation because (as the editor points out in the introduction) that's so rarely shown in horror. Diverse representation only shown in contemporary fiction is better than nothing, but it isn't actual diverse representation- give us BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ main characters in all the genres (I'm still waiting for those historical fictions with diverse MCs that aren't just victims of colonization).

The first 12 stories are well-written YA with mostly great pacing. Some take a 'less is more' approach to spookiness (my personal favorite), others are explicitly gory. The full range of things that go bump in the night is here, as well. And there's a lot of diversity in the overall vibe and endings, too. Some are more allegorical, some are tragic, most involve character development even though they're short stories for a YA audience. I was charmed by the range of these authors and stories.

Only one (the last one) disappointed me, which may be a new record for "number of YA short stories in an anthology that I enjoyed". The final one just felt phoned in (poor writing, poor plot, poor pacing).

If you like creepy short stories with a teen MC and realistic representation (aside from the paranormal stuff, of course), you'll probably enjoy this collection.

The second half was overall better than the first half, but not all the stories were created equal, so I reviewed them all.

1. Welcome to Hotel Paranoia by Vanessa Montalban - 3⭐ - there was a strange narrative distance that kept me feeling rather detached and not particularly invested. I felt like we spent too much effort on the other people and not enough on Chrys and Anabel.
2. The Visitor by Kalynn Bayron - 3⭐ - the themes of grief were undeniable, and they suffused Toya's and her father's characters. But it felt like there was a lot of kind of "nonsense" horror movie tropes for the lead-up that both didn't make sense and didn't pay off by the end when the story took a wholly different turn than I expected.
3. A Brief Intermission by Sara Farizan - 4⭐ - this was a fun one! The characters were clear and the situation was unique enough to be memorable - the setting of a drive-in theater is the kind of thing that immediately immerses you.
4. Guested by Rebecca Kim Wells - 3.5⭐ - I wasn't a big fan of second-person POV for this one, just because Nina was so clear that having the "you" pronoun just muddied things. I really enjoyed the story itself, though, and I think the choice of second person does pay off in the end, but it just didn't fit that well through the majority.
5. Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle by Kosoko Jackson - 3⭐ - this one was heavy, and made of a different kind of horror. The prose was kind of stiff, which I wasn't particularly fond of, and each of the side characters were introduced with one trait to remember in place of giving them a personality.
6. The Three Phases of Ghost-Hunting by Alex Brown - 3⭐ - it was a little ridiculous and probably the wrong story to follow Kosoko Jackson's. Daisy and Iris are cute but the tone of the story just didn't fit the vibe of the rest of the stories so far; nothing was unsettling or eerie.
7. Nine Stops by Trang Thanh Tran - 4.5⭐ - not really sure I understand why it ended that way but this was the best story so far. It was well paced with the punctuation of the subway stops, dug into detail in all the right places, tense and unsettling with enough "real-life horror" that it just worked.
8. Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane by Maya Gittelman - 4.5⭐ - oh this one felt like the magic of Halloweentown full of hope and self-discovery and resilience, but make it queer and Filipino. My only gripe is that (while it worked better here) I didn't particularly love the use of second person. I wanted to see a bit more of Leyla's individuality shine through.
9. In You to Burn by Em X Liu - 4⭐ - Liu has a very dynamic writing style full of jagged edges. This one was a little bit too long, I think, but I appreciate what it intended to accomplish.
10. Anna by Shelly Page - 4⭐ - This story had a great balance of real life drama (the girlfriend) and the supernatural. The character is clear and dimensional and there's enough of a hint at something more.
11. Hey There, Demons by Tara Sim - 3.5⭐ - kind of a slow start but I liked Kody and the pronouns (which sounds kind of like a band) and we really get to see in a very short story Noah transitioning from feeling invisible to being seen.
12. Save Me From Myself by Ayida Shonibar - 4⭐ - I've been bamboozled. This story took me for a whole ride and then shoved me out of the moving train. The ending was quite unexpected. Though I appreciate the content warnings and enjoyed seeing even glimpses of South Asian culture, gods, and beliefs.
13. Knickknack by Ryan Douglass - 3⭐ - I appreciate that this story didn't take itself seriously (because the premise was ridiculous) but I honestly couldn't get behind it at all. Like I really liked Noah and Leo's dynamic, but what was even the point of Brennan and Kayla? Walking exposition? It was weird.

This was very entertaining! As per usual with anthologies, some stories are stronger than others and I did feel that the prose got a little clunky and awkward in places but not enough to ruin my enjoyment. The exploration of coming out through the lens of horror was very interesting and I could see this being a fun, spooky read for young teens exploring that aspect of themselves.

This anthology is for all of the kids who felt like they didn't fit in but on halloween, the night when nothing fits in the way it's supposed to, we finally felt free. to all the kids who were drawn to halloween because we're all finally allowed to be a little weird, because the rest of the year it's frowned upon. The love for halloween and all things spooky is really Felt in this through every single story. Honestly such a delight!!

Did I just finish these thirteen creepy blue moon stories moments before midnight on the evening of a Blue Supermoon while a thunderstorm starts overhead… yeah not joking, that’s for real what is happening right now.
And I didn’t even try to time it as I didn’t even know about Blue Supermoon until yesterday and I started reading after my hubby went to bed… so yeah are things feeling a little bit creepy right now?! They sure are.

Not unlike the stories in this book. Most are quite queer, quirky, and will make you quiver.

Story #1 - Welcome to the Hotel Paranoia by Vanessa Montalban
A fairly cliche horror story. Only really briefly relevant that the main gal is queer; but that was fine with me.
No real exciting twist or horror here; but the story set a mood that seems appropriate to kick off this anthology.

Story #2 - The Visitor by Kalynn Bayron
Sweet little story about why it’s important to obey the rules.

Story #3 - A Brief Intermission by Sara Farizan
Not really all that scary to me. Just lacked real substance.

Story #4 - Guested by Rebecca Kim Wells
By far the creepiest and best story so far.
Lacks any real ‘queerness’ to it; but I don’t even care because the concept and idea here is brilliant AND the execution is spot on.

Story #5 - Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle
Finally a story where the gayness of our lead character is a major factor to the overall story.
A very sad, but well written story that rings of the kind of vengeance many likely wish upon those who’ve done them serious harm.

”Playing with the dead seems like a pretty loose interpretation of fun, but what else do I have planned?”

What else indeed…

Story #6 - The Three Phases of Ghost-Hunting by Alex Brown
Adorable, very YA or even MG. Super cute lesbians to round off the package.

Story #7 - Nine Stops by Trang Thanh Tran
This female author is taking the world of horror by storm. If you don’t know her name yet then note it now. She’s gonna be huge!
A clever will story with a twist I can’t help but love. Sadness in this story as well as our lead character copes with grief; but at end of the day it’s the horror you’ll stay for.

Story #8 - Layla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane
”Nothing feels like home when you are not at home with yourself.”

Wow! A brilliantly written trans story that includes some magic to create hope. This is exactly the kind of story I expected in this anthology and I’m so glad it’s here.

Story #9 - In You To Burn by Em. X. Liu
Inspired by an Asian folktale, this story was overlayed to be modern but keep a direct connection back to its origin. I really liked it and would love to see it expanded into a full story or novel.
(I should confess I adore Liu and so may be biased. lol)

Story #10 - Anna by Shelly Page
Yes!! It might be cliche and mostly predictable but this is the kind of story I expected and hoped for in this anthology. It’s perfect in its trope use, lesbian romance, small children as the evil (sort of) and the blue moon Hallowe’en setting, all the authors have used, ties it all together

Story #11 - Hey There, Demons by Tara Sim
I should be fair and warn you I adore Tara Sim’s works to date. Go read Timekeeper trilogy if you want the sweetest gay teen boys romance ever (plus some cool clock magic!).
So it’s not surprising I enjoyed this story. Very much in Sim‘s vein with more gay teenage boys (and demons added in for flair).

Story #12 - Save Me From Myself by Ayida Shonibar
I’m not familiar with Kali Maa; but damn if I’m not going to ensure I learn more about this demon, god(dess), deity; because this story of wishing things into reality is fascinating. These body swaps are way better than Freaky Friday; and have more consequences.

Story #13 - Knickknack by Ryan Douglass
Creepy, cute, and courageous. What more can you ask for in the thirteenth story of a queer blue moon thriller/horror anthology?
For it to be a Blue Supermoon minutes before midnight as thunder rolls?
Cause that is literally what is happening in my life right now. No word of a lie!!!
Meanwhile my pitbull is scared and freaking, that’s not disturbing me at all… what timing to end a wonderful anthology!

While I received an eARC of this anthology I can honestly say it will be highly recommended to many by me; and will be getting a print copy in my personal library. I struggle to give anthologies 5 stars… as usually there is at least one story I don’t connect with, like here. This is a solid 4.5 stars and right on the topics you’d expect based on the authors included and the blue moon queer horror focus.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Hotel paranoia; This story is cute and short with a little twisted spooky to it. It gave me nostalgia for the Goosebump days!

The Visitor; wonderfully spooky but not nearly enough. I hope this story gets a full book because I would buy it so quick. Wonderful writing and an absolutely enthralling tale.

A Brief Interruption; a very bizarre tale but not unpleasant… well, a little gory towards the end but I liked it well enough.

Guested; this story is so confusing and I didn’t fully understand anything that was happening. Definitely needed more details about “guesting.” This story is told in second person which was also hard to get into.

Rocky Road with Caramel Drizzle; I loved this story! My heart aches for Julian and I would love to know more about his relationship with Amber- who I kind of hated. This one is so well written and definitely left me craving more.

The Three Phases of Ghost Hunting; a very cheesy tale of Terrifying Bob, the pizza stealing pirate ghost. Pun intended. Cute story, a very elementary read, with the exception of a kiss; which may or may not be appropriate in your household.

Nine Stops; The Ring meets…. Technology? No thats not right either.. this story is messed up in the best way and I’m salivating for more. This is the start to what could be an incredibly haunting horror story or even a somewhat dystopian book! Loved this one.

Leyla Mendoza and the Last House on the Lane; A beautiful tale of life not always being what it seems, and showing that there is a light on the other side of the vines.

In You to Burn; Not too bad. A little pyrotechnic fun, but a bizarre twist at the end

Anna; my mother would beat me if I played with an ouija board, so of course I loved a story about other girls doing just that.

Hey There, Demons; Oh this story might be my favorite so far! It’s classic, but cute, and definitely made me giggle a time or two!

Save Me from Myself- comes with a trigger warning; pretty depressing and leaves you with a giant question mark at the end.

Knickknack; not my favorite. Lacked intrigue and excitement.

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. Night of the living queers is a horror anthology surrounded by the theme of a blue moon on Halloween. Interesting premise, winds up with a lot of stories about Halloween parties that don't end so well.

"Night of the Living Queers" is a well-received anthology that brings together diverse voices to explore queer themes through the lens of horror. I appreciated the representation of different cultures, genders, and sexualities and the mix of tones, ranging from spooky and sad to sweet and funny. Several stories, like "The Visitor" by Kalynn Bayron, "Guested" by Rebecca Kim Wells, "Hey There, Demons" by Tara Sim, and "Knickknack" by Ryan Douglass, were particular standouts for their unique takes, atmospheres, and engaging narratives.

I highly recommend the anthology to those who are horror fans and are looking to explore diverse narratives, especially those featuring LGBTQ+ themes. This collection blends supernatural elements with more human themes like grief, relationships, and identity, striking a balance between entertaining and thought-provoking narratives. Overall, "Night of the Living Queers" is a must-read for those interested in diverse, queer-focused horror anthologies.