The Sapphic Squad discussion

so, i never truly logged here (sorry! just getting around on understanding on how to use goodreads properly and being obsessed with it) but i wanted to share my experience reading all sapphic horror books i can put my lil gay hands on. theres a characters limit so will try to be brief!
--carmilla by sheridan: 5 stars, shes the og for a reason if you havent read this just do. i am still on a high from this book and looking for a good retelling of it (been failing miserably, honestly dont even want to talk about it)
--dowry of blood: 5 stars. a dracula retelling that is just so good, nobody does it like her. still think about the characters from this book and will def reread this.
(now all my let downs, and yes, its the majority of the books i have read)
--hungerstone: dont even bother, so so so boring and repetitiveness! i dot have a lenghty review on it
-- an education of malice: also dont even bother, its also a carmilla retelling but it litereally doesnt make sense because carmilla isnt a vampire for the majority of the book (i have read better wattpad fanfictions and if you want a silly carmilla retelling i will reccomend the carmilla webseries on youtube. its a trainwreck and very bad but the kind of bad you CANNOT put down, very fluffly and silly)
-- house of hunger: its a meh for me, it has an interesting backstory and stuff however i was fully expecting a romance and it IS NOT THE CASE. also think the author just loses the plot trying to set the gothic atmosphere. would not NOT recommend it but dont go into it expecting romance, just creepy and some gay activity spread through out it, maybe a hit or miss?
i will read a long time dead next (literally uploading it into my kindle as i type this) sooo i will make another entry on here? idk lol. i have some others that i am looking foward to reading but i do space my sapphic gothic reads because sometimes it just all mumbles into one mess in my head. if anyone has another recs i will gladly accept them! i do have a list with all my sapphic books (that i will read or have read) that are in desperate need of good company

Personally as far as sapphic horror goes, I've enjoyed:
- She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (set in Vietnam, haunted house/parasite)
- Wilder Girls by Rory Power (abandoned boarding school, body horror)
- A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee (psychological horror, boarding school, dark academia)
- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (sci-fi, necromancy)
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (short stories, not all horror iirc but some were pretty freaky. Machado also has an awesome illustrated translation of Carmella if you haven't read it!)
- Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire (technically a sequel but chronologically first? mad science)
- Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power (mysterious family hometown)
- Chlorine by Jade Song (psychological horror, mermaids kinda, athletic obsession)
- Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen (reality TV, cryptids)
- The Restless Dark by Erica Waters (true crime convention where they're trying to solve it)

Plain bad heroines def fits the category and is great

Eyes Guts Throat Bones - Moïra Fowley-Doyle

This book altered my brain chemistry. It's a selection of sapphic short stories that vaguelly fit within the 'categories' stated in the title and they're just so fucking good. I found something great about literally every story but they range a lot in theme and setting, except for the fact that every one focuses on sapphic relationships. Some of them are very horroresque, there's some body horror elements in some of the stories, others are just haunting and full of yearning. No one seems to have ever heard of this collection but I am obsessed.

^ i would like to extend that to EVERY book by moira fowley doyle