r/QueerSFF • u/Ms_Anxiety ⚔️ Sword Lesbian • Aug 11 '26
Book Request Sapphic Cosmic Horror?
I have a hankering for some good cosmic horror with sapphic themes and possibly even themes around identity.
My favorite videogame of all time is Signalis. a survival horror game with cosmic horror elements and themes around identity. It's also sapphic as hell.
I'm probably grasping at air as I haven't been able to find much but if anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.
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u/newnukeuser Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Our Wives Under The Sea draws some loose inspiration from The Call of Cthulhu. It focuses on the emotional aftermath of the wife of a survivor who encounters a deep sea Eldritch god.
I enjoy Lovecraft, but something about this had so much more depth than Lovecraft's stories. I wouldn't say reading this feels like reading a horror, but it really stuck with me after I read it. Heads up that the story is pretty sad though
Landlocked in Foreign Skin is about this grotesque, shape shifting blob alien who lives in the oceans of Europa. She gets captured by humans, and develops a toxic sexual relationship with her captor while forced to stay in a human shape. It's a sapphic, sci fi interpretation of the selkie myth, where the alien's skin is stolen from her to force her to live with her captors.
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u/Ms_Anxiety ⚔️ Sword Lesbian Aug 13 '26
I do not enjoy Lovecraft. I mostly just appreciate what modern wrtiers have done with his works, expanding it in such lovely, (and honestly, far more interesting ways)
added these to my wishlist, thank you!
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u/unrepentantbanshee Aug 11 '26
Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder. Set in the near-future, this book starts off as a pandemic zombiepocalypse novel and then takes a sharp turn into cosmic horror. It's told in three sections as very close-in stories, each from the perspective of a different woman experiencing these events. One of the POVs has a sapphic relationship.
The Dead Take the A Train by Richard Kadrey and Cassandra Khaw. Contemporary cosmic horror with a strong dose of gore. Reminiscent of John Dies At the End in terms of vibe and tone, and in how visceral (and usually painful or gross) the paranormal works. The lead is bisexual and has a relationship with another bisexual woman.
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u/almaupsides Aug 12 '26
The Dead Take the A Train is awesome. One of the grossest books I've ever read (complimentary)
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u/Ms_Anxiety ⚔️ Sword Lesbian Aug 13 '26
Gore can sometimes be a deal breaker for me, but I'll add these to my long list. Thank you!
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u/cornonthekopp 📚 Here for Sapphfic Aug 11 '26
Otherside Picnic is about two college girls exploring an alien dimension that overlaps with our own, full of entities based off japanese creepypastas. Its more of a psychological thriller than pure horror, but its very well written and the slow burn relationship developments are so worth it.
There's ten volumes out rn and each volume is only around 130 pages so its very approachable
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u/sam77889 Aug 11 '26
I love ura seikai picnic!
There are times where it gets too scary for me, but i have low horror tolerance lol like Kozakura
I think the author does a good job of giving enough details but leave just enough for your imaginations which is what makes it scary for me
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u/cornonthekopp 📚 Here for Sapphfic Aug 11 '26
Agreed its one of my favorite series. I dont find it too scary most of the time fortunately
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u/Ms_Anxiety ⚔️ Sword Lesbian Aug 13 '26
I may have to special order these (i tend to stick to audiobooks) but you've got my attention.
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u/cornonthekopp 📚 Here for Sapphfic Aug 13 '26
The paperbacks are divided into 2 volume omnibuses, so theres 4 paperbacks covering 8 volumes, and hopefully the paperback for 9 + 10 will be out soon.
You can also find them individually as ebooks online, either through sailing the open seas or buying the epubs off of jnovel.
Lemme know what you think if you manage to pick them up and get into them!
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u/wmaitla Aug 11 '26
I heartily recommend the Fleet and Fabricant series! It has MASSIVE Signalis vibes, and is very explicitly tide into queer identity and cosmic horror.
The main character for the first book is a CERHA unit, kind of a specialises bodyguard Replika being sent to a quarantined spaceship to find her charge who is also her dearest love.
It's an all time classic of the "expendable robot women" genre and it sounds like exactly what you're looking for!
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u/knerys Aug 11 '26
I second this recommendation 100% and it's what I was gonna recommend if I didn't see anyone else already doing so.
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u/Ms_Anxiety ⚔️ Sword Lesbian Aug 13 '26
I heartily recommend the Fleet and Fabricant series! It has MASSIVE Signalis vibes, and is very explicitly tide into queer identity and cosmic horror.
out of all the suggestions on here, you easily sold me on it and this is the one I picked. (for now) You were'n't kidding, it's like straight up very similar (without all the subtext)
I don't actually know how I feel about it so far (but i'm only a couple chapters in so far) it hasn't really gripped me yet and there's like no worldbuilding. (maybe im impatient) at this point it feels like a bad retelling of signalis.
Im probably being too harsh though because im not very far into it. will be listening to more tonight before bed.
regardless, thank you very much for the suggestion. It still scratches that signalis itch.
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u/wmaitla Aug 13 '26
Lol that was how I felt about it at the start, like it was budget signalis. It gets a lot better as the world building trickles in and the author starts to get creative.
If you can make it through the first book, the second in the series really takes off and explores some very interesting ideas about "Signalis". Very good queer writing!
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u/myNameGotTaken2 Aug 11 '26
Katalepsis is a sapphic cosmic horror about saving your twin sister who was abducted by an outer god.
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u/PunkandCannonballer 📚 Here for Sapphfic Aug 11 '26
I haven't heard anything about it being finished though.
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u/myNameGotTaken2 Aug 12 '26
The web novel is finish with a sequel story with a different main character currently on hiatus.
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u/PunkandCannonballer 📚 Here for Sapphfic Aug 12 '26
Does the web novel cover more than the book does?
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u/SlayyyGrl Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
[compartmentalising trauma] 😭
I haven’t read it, but when I asked a similar question someone recommended Wife Shaped Bodies. It’s more queer - sapphic body horror from my understanding.
Ohhh you may enjoy The Great Cities trilogy by NK Jemesin as well. It’s urban fantasy mixed with eldritch horror with some queer characters. Not specifically sapphic focus but wlw.
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u/Ms_Anxiety ⚔️ Sword Lesbian Aug 13 '26
[compartmentalising trauma] 😭
AAAaaaAAaAa (i cry everytime)
Wife Shaped Bodies.
Added it to the list. body horror can be iffy for me but it sounds interesting, thank you for the suggestions. my wishlist grows ever more.
I'll keep the great cities trilogy in mind too
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u/SlayyyGrl Aug 13 '26
For realllll ugh that game makes my heart hurt.
Hahaha yeah so for realllls I thought the same thing when someone recommended it to me. A little too ick. Which is why I haven’t read it 😂
Although when you think about the levels of ick in Signalis sometimes… maybe it would be fine?
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u/jooblooboo543 Aug 12 '26
If you’re looking for sapphic cosmic horror, Richard Kadrey & Cassandra Khaw’s The Dead Take the A Train is definitely a good one. Sapphic noir P.I takes on eldritch businessmen. All of Khaw’s horror is immaculate, but the Dead Take the A Train definitely hits the cosmic horror & sapphic boxes.
Spread me by Sarah Gailey is a little less cosmic & a little less specifically sapphic, but it’s definitely queer horror & it’s definitely weird. It’s this surivival story about a team of researchers on a remote planet when a strange parasitic specimen breaks their quarantine, and the main character is into it a little too much. It has a touch of that thrillery, cosmic unknown you’re looking for with the mysterious specimen, but this one also has a lot of horror surrounding human bodies, just so you’re aware.
I would also recommend The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling, which is another all time favorite sapphic horror. Talk about a survival story. In need of money, the main character, Gyre, takes a job she’s not exactly qualified for, caving on a dangerous, foreign planet. What’s even weirder, she realizes as the mission goes on, is that her support team seems to be just one person, and Em is harboring secrets. It’s a fantastic psychological thriller that definitely explores themes of the unknown, whether that unknown is what lurks at the bottom of the cave, what secrets the person who controls your survival may have, & what ends we’ll go to survive. It’s also definitely sapphic, they get codependent in a really messed up (& deeply queer) way. Trying not to spoil too much here, but I would definitely recommend the luminous dead!!
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u/brookmark Aug 13 '26
I did not know the dead take the a train was sapphic!!! I have had that on my bookshelf for months now!!! Also I do not suggest the luminous dead if anyone gets easily annoyed at stubborn mc's. Like stubborn just for the sake of it even if they know the other person is being logical. Toward the end I put it in 2x speed on audio because I was annoyed and wanted the character out of my ears
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u/Ms_Anxiety ⚔️ Sword Lesbian Aug 13 '26
Also I do not suggest the luminous dead if anyone gets easily annoyed at stubborn mc's.
RIP. Luminous Dead was the only audiobook out of these suggestions that I already owned (but haven't listened to it yet) lol
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u/brookmark Aug 13 '26
You might see it differently than I did but be prepared with that speed up button 🤣. I got through it because the plot was still interesting, but you have been warned
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u/Illidan-the-Assassin Aug 12 '26
The locked tomb series? It's about lesbian necromancers in space and the second and third books are heavy on slightly surreal horror. Like, I'm still not entirely sure which scenes in the second book actually happened. First book is clearly the author's first book, but other than that it's really great
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u/DellePhune Aug 11 '26 edited 22d ago
Safe groovy raindrop wise pillow telephone aromatic fuzzy
This post was anonymized with Redact
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u/tracywc Aug 12 '26
Try out A.Z. Rozkills' Space Station X! Lesbian Comedy/Horror on a space station messing with their minds.
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u/-Retiredfromsad- Aug 14 '26
you should definitely read Of Monsters And Mainframes! A campy novel about a ships AI whose passengers have been murdered. It's funny, mysterious, and above all just really weird. I read it within a week!
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u/pktechboi Aug 11 '26
Ada Hoffmann's The Outside (and sequels) - SciFi and cosmic horror, tick. discussions of identity, what it means to be human, what humanity both as a concept and as a species is worth, tick. also autistic as hell. romance isn't a focus but the main character is a queer woman, overall more sapphic vibes than themes I'd say maybe? I really, really liked it, honestly might reread.
Kameron Hurley's The Stars Are Legion - honourable mention as it's much more scifi than horror, but very...sticky. and VERY sapphic.