Folk horror is my favorite horror subgenre. Well, to be exact, it’s in a two-way tie with gothic horror. These folklore inspired-stories where (often rural) isolation looms ever closer, where sinister rituals have become the norm, where mysterious creatures hover on the edges of woods or in the depths of the ocean, and where long-held superstitions drive the plot forward, satiate my penchance for tales where the impossible becomes possible, where folk stories take center stage, and when the curtain of rural life is peeled back to reveal an underlying darkness.
These books, on top of sharing those elements, have something else in common: queerness is at the center. All the main characters in these books stand outside of the heterosexual paradigm; this has a freeing effect on perspectives, relationships, and plot points. Because, as M.L. Rio once said, “When you don’t kind of adhere to the rules of hetero mono normativity, anything can happen. It just opens up the world of fiction in a whole different way.” From novels about beasts roaming the surroundings of a university campus to a girl who longs to be part of the sea, these books are living proof of that.
English (US)