LGBTQ+ Books Releasing this August (2025)
- Swords & Sapphics team
- 1 hour ago
- 19 min read
Whether you're soaking up the last of summer or ready to curl up and watch the leaves turn, the queer books releasing this August will be sure to keep you happy! Here are some of our most-anticipated reads this month.
Kicking us off on the 5th, enjoy a YA cosy fantasy with a splash of sapphic romance with Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire by Don Martin!
WELCOME TO FOXFIRE
The rules here are simple:
Don’t look in the trees.
Don’t whistle in the woods at night.
Don’t answer if you hear your
name called.
And remember . . . everything wants.
Verity Vox is a witch-in-training who has never met a problem her spells can’t solve. But when a cryptic plea for help sends her to the forgotten coal mining town of Foxfire, she soon learns even magic has its limits.
Verity discovers a curse was laid years ago by a traveling magician who vanished into the ancient Appalachian hills to seek greater power. Crops won’t grow. Bellies go hungry. Even treasured possessions fall apart. What’s worse, people have gone missing amidst rumors that they’ve sought out the magician who is lying in wait for those foolish or desperate enough to strike a deal with him.
The witch must break the curse, find a missing girl, and solve the mystery of what’s really under the mountain before the town falls forever into the clutches of the monster lurking in the hills.
Return to Ali Williams' Godstouched universe with Chase Me in the Woods, an erotic sapphic fairytale retelling out on the 5th!
In Ireland, freed after being trapped behind the Veil, the fae are reasserting their powers and indulging their desires...
I hide in my cottage in the woods, and try not to let the trauma of my past inform my present. But when that past comes back to haunt me, I turn to the red wolf to keep me safe.
For that red wolf is The Morrígan, an ancient Irish goddess who has no qualms about destroying anyone who threatens me…
Chase Me in the Woods is a sapphic Little Red Riding Hood retelling where the woodcutter gets his comeuppance, and the wolf goddess gets eaten out.
Read a collection of tales set in Hawai'i with Extinction Capital of the World: Stories by Mariah Rigg, also on the 5th.
Magnetic, haunting, and tender, Extinction Capital of the World is a stunning portrait of Hawai’i—and a powerful meditation on family, queer love, and community amid imperialism and environmental collapse.
In ten vibrant, affecting stories, Mariah Rigg immerses readers in contemporary Hawai’i. By turns heartbreaking and hopeful, these stories of love, longing, and grief are fierce dispatches from a state haunted by the specter of colonization, a precious biome under constant threat.
An older man grapples with the American-weapons research conducted on a neighboring island that reverberates through his entire life. A pregnant woman seeks belonging while poaching flowers in the rainforest with her partner’s mother. Two teenage girls find love during a summer spent on Midway Atoll. A young woman returns home to O’ahu following a breakup and reconnects with her estranged father and the island itself.
Linked by both place and character, Rigg’s stories illuminate the exotification and commodification of Hawai’i in the American mythos. Extinction Capital of the World is an environmental love letter to the Hawaiian Islands and an indelible portrayal of the people who inhabit them—marking the arrival of an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.
Dip your toe into queer horror This Is My Body by Lindsay King-Miller on the same day.
A gripping, emotional, and darkly funny queer horror novel about family trauma and possession, for fans of Rachel Harrison and Catriona Ward.
Single gay mom Brigid always thought that cutting ties with her extremist Catholic family was the best thing she could have done for her daughter, Dylan—and for herself. But when Dylan starts having terrifying fits of unnatural violence, Brigid can’t shake her memories of a girl from her childhood who behaved the same way . . . until Brigid’s uncle, Father Angus, performed an exorcism.
Convinced that her daughter is suffering from demonic possession, Brigid does the thing she told herself she’d never she goes home. Father Angus is the worst person she knows, but he’s also the only person who can help her daughter.
But as Brigid starts to uncover secrets about Father Angus, that long-ago exorcism, and her family’s past, she realizes that she and Dylan have never been in more danger.
This Is My Body is a piercing journey into religious trauma and childhood shame, building towards a heart-pounding twisty climax that will spin your head all the way around.
And if you still need more queer horror, The Faceless Thing We Adore by Hester Steel releases on the 5th too!
It’s a tale as old as time: break up with your shitty boyfriend, travel to a foreign country to find yourself . . . end up in a sex-fueled commune worshiping an angry God. When Aoife stumbles across the Farmstead, she finds everything she’s been missing—a community that loves her, sexual freedom, a greater purpose. She could actually be happy here. . .
If it weren’t for the teenager they keep locked up in a cabin with no windows. Or the mysterious rot spreading through the farmland. Or that some of her new friends talk about their leader Jonah with more fear than love.
When the god wakes up and it all goes wrong, it’s only Aoife who has the power to choose what will become of their tiny reality. Awkward, clumsy Aoife, who was always told she was weak, and is just now realizing the depths of her strength—and the pleasures of her rage.
Ghost Fish by Stuart Pennebaker promises a haunting coming-of-age novel on the same day.
A tender coming-of-age novel about a young woman haunted by her sister’s death, who starts to believe that her beloved sibling has returned to her—in the form of a ghost fish, for fans of Sweetbitter and Our Wives Under the Sea.
Alison is mired in loneliness and grief. Freshly twenty-three and mourning the loss of her younger sister, who has drowned at sea, she’s moved out of her hometown and into a cramped apartment on New York’s Lower East Side. Now she’s living the cliché, barely making rent as a restaurant hostess and avoiding her roommates, while watching the bright, busy passersby from her bubble of grief. She doesn’t need originality; she just needs to be alive. So why does she feel she isn’t truly living?
Until late one night, when she rounds the corner and sees a shape in the air—a ghost. And how strange, it looks like a fish. What is it? Alison knows, without hesitation: it is her beloved sister, finally returned to her side. Safe in a pickle jar filled with water, the ghost fish goes wherever Alison does: in an alcove at the restaurant; in a tote bag on the subway; in her room at night as her roommates chatter outside. She knows she has to keep her safe from the world, the way she didn’t before. She knows that, together, they will never be lonely again. But as Alison’s new life in New York begins to grow, and as she navigates the murky waters of dating, friendship, and desire, she must ask: what if her sister is keeping her away from a life outwardly lived?
With tenderness and heart, stretching from New York, New York to Key West, Florida, Ghost Fish is a meditation on grief, loneliness, and the strange, kaleidoscopic ways we help ourselves—and those we love— through it.
Gwenhyver is back with another sapphic fantasy romance! Theseus and the Sky Labyrinth releases on the 7th.
Navigate the labyrinth,
Kill the beast.
Don’t fall for the princess…
Simple, right?
Theseus should know better than to try to impress a princess. And yet… here she is, in a sky labyrinth — an architectural wonder, a prison, a death trap, a maze of masks and monsters — where things are seldom what they seem.
Theseus might have made a name for herself in the monster-killing business, but in the labyrinth-dwelling Minotaur, she might just have met her match.
'Theseus and the Sky Labyrinth' is a standalone novel set in the 'Jasyn and the Astronauts' universe. Like the Jasyn series, it is a sapphic, swords & sorcery in space reimagining of myth where the skies are a wonder and love can move the heavens.
We can't wait to pick up Like Salt And Whisky by Merlina Garance on the 8th, a second chance romance featuring trans, genderqueer, and bi rep!
When Miles arrives in Edinburgh for his first holiday in years, the last thing he expects is to run into his long lost childhood friend Aileena. Ten years ago, he fled the UK to settle in France, running from his homophobic father and his family’s toxic wealth, cutting off all ties with his previous life in the process. Including Aileena.
Hiding his wounds behind a layer of make-up and sass, Miles gets caught between the nostalgia of their teenage years and Aileena’s beauty, and falls in love with her all over again. Between the hurdles of a long-distance relationship and Aileena’s struggles with her transition, they have much to overcome.
This time, if Miles doesn’t want to break both their hearts, he might have to open up and show his true self.
Easier said than done.
The fourth instalment of Rebecca Thorne's Tea and Tomes series drops on the 12th! Don't miss Alchemy and a Cup of Tea, and if you can't get enough of Kianthe and Reyna, listen to our episode with Rebecca here.
USA Today, Sunday Times, and Indie bestselling author Rebecca Thorne brings the Tomes & Tea series to a delightful, cozy close for our beloved lesbian book- and tea- sellers.
Reyna and Kianthe have no trouble ruling the Queendom, battling evil alchemists, and rescuing adorable baby dragons, but can they save their town from the ravening influx of.... tourists?!?
On the night of her kidnapping, all Reyna wanted was a relaxing cup of tea. She didn’t expect to be dropped in a hidden cell, but what the hells. She’s flexible.
When Kianthe “rescues” her wife, she expects they’ll be back at New Leaf having tea by noon. But there’s a problem: an alchemy circle marred Reyna’s cell. What does a radical group of alchemists want with the Queendom’s newest sovereign… and why did they think they could get away with this?
To make matters worse, Kianthe and Reyna’s hometown is having its own problems. Word of New Leaf Tomes and Tea―and its celebrity owners―has finally spread, and tourists are flooding into Tawney. As their friends struggle with the sudden influx, Kianthe and Reyna have to face a bigger conundrum than rogue alchemists: the fact that closing their bookshop might be the only way to save their town.
Things can’t just be simple, can they?
Alexa Milne's The Cat Who Went into the Woods is a paranormal romance releasing on the 12th.
Even a cat needs a hero.
Harry Katt has always been the love-em and leave-em sort. He likes his life, he likes fun, he likes sex, he loves his family, and he loves being a cat. He’s not seeking anything permanent and has no desire to settle down like his brothers, Thom and Rich.
Ted Woodward’s one attempt at a relationship ended in disaster. Ted isn’t his real name. In fact, he has no real name. Now he’s in Cumbria, living in a cabin in the woods, for his own protection. Ted may appear ordinary, but in reality, he is unique. All Ted wants to do is take care of his forest and stay out of trouble, but he should not exist, and the shifter world has differing views on how to deal with him.
Harry and Ted would appear, to anyone who have met them, to have nothing in common. But when Harry falls down a mountain side, and Ted gives him the kiss of life, both men experience a powerful need to discover more about each other. However, while they attempt to build a relationship, other influential forces in the shifter world seem determined to keep them apart.
Enjoy an extra dose of paranormal on the same day with The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-ran, translated by Gene Png.
A bestseller in Korea, a biting, fast-paced vampire murder mystery exploring queer love and the consequences of loneliness.
When four isolated elderly people commit suicide back-to-back at the same hospital by jumping out of the sixth-floor window, Su-Yeon doesn’t understand why she’s the only one at her precinct that seems to care. Dismissing the case as a series of unfortunate events due to the patients’ loneliness, the police force doesn't engage. But Su-Yeon doesn’t have the privilege of looking away. Her dearest friend, Grandma Eun-Shim, lives on the sixth floor, and Su-Yeon is terrified that something will happen to her next.
As Su-Yeon begins her investigation alone, she runs into a mysterious woman named Wanda at the crime scene. Wanda, hot on the trail of her ex-lover, Lily, gives Su-Yeon the answer: a vampire did it. Su-Yeon is skeptical at first, but then a fifth victim jumps from the window and her investigation reveals the body was completely drained of blood. Desperate to discover the cause of the deaths, Su-Yeon considers Wanda’s explanation—that something supernatural is involved.
The Midnight Shift is a gripping mystery, overflowing with commentary about societal isolation and loneliness, the sharp knife of grief, and the effects of marginalization, perfect for readers of Cursed Bunny; Woman, Eating; and A Certain Hunger.
Or dive into dark fantasy with the sequel of K.M. Enright's Mistress of Lies, Lord of Ruin.
LOVE WILL BE THEIR RUIN
It has been six months since the failed coup led by Isaac De La Cruz, and Shan LeClaire is struggling under the mantle of Royal Blood Worker. Left with a dwindling blood supply and a ravenous nation whose thirst will drown them, Shan is forced to turn to darker means to fill the need. And that is only the start of the horrors her Eternal King asks of her.
Now Councillor to the King, Samuel is trapped in a labyrinthine world of politics and bylaws. Crushed by the knowledge that he can never change things from within, Samuel breaks from Shan, turning to her rebellious brother to help him rescue the disgraced Isaac de la Cruz from the King's dungeons.
Despite his newfound freedom, all is not well with Isaac. His actions have consequences, the dangerous magic he experimented with changing him from man to monster. But a monster might just be the only thing that can stand up to the Eternal King. Embracing the beast within, Isaac will see this broken nation shattered-even if it would cost the love of those he holds most dear.
Lord of Ruin is the addictive sequel to Mistress of Lies, a dark fantasy romance with sizzling spice, vampiric blood magic and cutthroat politics.
Sapphic romance readers will love Toni and Addie Go Viral by Melissa Marr!
Mistakes Were Made meets Delilah Green Doesn't Care in a charming lesbian romance from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr
Hot new author and her lead actress stun fans in a secret wedding―is it all a publicity stunt? Or something more…
On a whim―and hoping to pay off the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt her grifter father left behind―Victorian history professor Toni Darbyshire sells her lesbian detective novel in a massive deal. Suddenly thrust into the overwhelming new world of publishing, plus a television adaptation, Toni’s life gets even more complicated when her one-night stand turned pen pal (and the namesake for her main character) shows up in person for casting of the show.
Aspiring actress Addie’s had a crush on the professor ever since she watched her lectures on the Victorian era to prep for a stage role. Now, getting cast in Toni’s TV series could be her big break. But Addie’s in over her head when promo pictures of their fake Victorian wedding go viral. She could lose more than just her heart … and her historically accurate underthings.
On the 14th, enjoy cosy litRPG romantasy Retrieve the Relic by Jaz Pate, featuring a butch/femme pairing, and demi, lesbian, Latina, and mental illness rep.
You are Tilda Snubbs, and this was supposed to be a simple treasure hunt.
Find the relic. Get your reward. Maybe flirt with your hot elven guide along the way. Easy.
Except the forest is cursed, your animal companion is the only one keeping you grounded, and the closer you get to the prize, the more it starts feeling like you’re what’s being hunted. Your guide is asking too many questions. I think the relic wants you too.
Sure, you could walk away. But you’ve come this far. And your prize at the heart of a ruin is calling.
This isn’t just a treasure hunt anymore. But if you’re lucky, it might just be love that leads you to something priceless.
Retrieve the Relic is a cozy sapphic LitRPG novella within the Love & Loot universe about cursed treasure, dangerous longing, and the slow, terrifying magic of letting yourself be loved. With turn-based combat, flirty banter, and one very emotionally supportive pig, it’s perfect for fans of Baldur’s Gate 3 romances, Legends & Lattes, She-Ra, and queer fantasy. In this adventure, the loot talks, the pigs tank, and the love is optional… but likely.
Kindling by Bonnie Woods is releasing in the US and Canada on the 19th and features a fat, bisexual main character and queer side characters!
Sparks will fly, even without firewood…When city-girl Harper arrives in the Caledonian Forest in Scotland, her hopes for her holiday are quickly dashed. She’d planned a whimsical, autumnal writing retreat, to finish her novel. But ghosted by her scammer rental host, she discovers that the cosy log cabin she’d booked for her solo getaway does not actually exist. Miles away from any hotel, she wanders through the woods until she finds the hot local woodcutter Fraser.
The last thing Fraser needs right now is a pretty girl distracting him, but he can’t leave Harper stranded. So he reluctantly allows Harper to stay in his tiny lumberjack’s cabin for the night. He will sleep at his house outside the forest, then return tomorrow to turf Harper out so he can get back to his strenuous task of splitting logs for the locals’ firewood.
But once Harper sees Fraser's axe swing, she is determined to cut through his gruff exterior. She has a feeling this man might be the perfect cure for her writer’s block.
Fraser can’t help inviting Harper to extend her one-night stay to two, then three, then four. And with every tree he fells, he's starting to wonder if he's falling harder.
This spicy autumnal romance features a HEA ending with BookTok's hottest lumberjack love interest.
We are SEATED for a new sapphic Dana Hawkins romance with The Ex Effect!
Morgan Rose has always been the girl with the plan. Color-coded calendars, backup plans for her backup plans, and a wedding business that’s her entire world. Only one woman ever managed to derail Morgan’s organized life and shatter her heart in the process. But Morgan doesn’t think about Frankie Lee anymore.
Until Morgan meets the photographer hand-picked by her latest clients and discovers that Frankie is not miles away in New York like she thought. She's back in Spring Harbors, looking infuriatingly good, and Morgan's carefully ordered world descends into chaos.
Morgan has just 87 days to pull off the wedding of her career, and she’s not going to let Frankie derail this opportunity. She will not be distracted by Frankie’s new haircut or the shadowy dips between her shoulders and biceps. And she won’t care about Frankie’s unfairly salty attitude when she left Morgan.
But some sparks never die, and as the wedding approaches and the tension between Morgan and Frankie grows, can they face up to the mistakes that pulled them apart, or risk it happening all over again?
A perfectly spiced romance about learning that the best love stories are worth fighting for… twice. The next unputdownable read for fans of Ashley Herring Blake, Alexandria Bellefleur, and Haley Cass.
Or if YA is your preference, grab Jake Maia Arlow's new sapphic romance, Leaving the Station!
Sometimes, looking at him was like looking in a fun-house mirror.
Zoe’s life has gone off the rails.
When she left Seattle to go to college in New York, she was determined to start fresh, to figure out what being a lesbian meant to her, experiment with clothes and presentation away from home for the first time.
Instead, she lost touch with her freshman orientation friend group, skipped classes, and failed completely at being the studious premed student her parents wanted her to be.
But the biggest derailment of all? Her newly minted ex-boyfriend—and the fact that she had a boyfriend to begin with. When she met Alden, he made her feel wanted, he made her feel free. He made her feel . . . like she could be like him, which was exciting and confusing all at once.
So, Zoe decides a second fresh start is in order: she’s going to take a cross-country train from New York to Seattle for fall break. There, no one will know who she is, and she can outrun her mistakes.
Or so she thinks, until she meets Oakley, who’s the opposite of Zoe in so many ways: effortlessly cool and hot, smart, self-assured. But as Zoe and Oakley make their way across the county, Zoe realizes that Oakley’s life has also gone off the rails—and that they might just be able to help each other along before that train finally leaves the station.
Also on the 19th comes middle grade fantasy Goat Magic by Kate Wheeler!
Destinies collide when a village goat herder meets the palace princess in Goat Magic!
Trill, a spirited goat herder with a unique ability to communicate with her flock, yearns for a life beyond mountain pastures. Her “goat magic” feels common compared to the sorcery taught in the city’s prestigious magic schools, which are off-limits to her. Meanwhile, Princess Alya, known as the “Ordinary Princess” and heir to the kingdom of Capeya, doubts her own royal potential.
Their worlds collide when an assassination attempt on the queen leaves Alya cursed to transform into a black goat each sunrise. Seeking refuge in Trill's goat herd, Alya discovers her new friend's hidden talent is her only hope to break the spell. Together, they embark on a perilous journey back to the castle, facing treacherous foes and uncovering a web of betrayal and rebellion.
As Alya battles to reclaim her throne and restore order to Capeya, the girls discover a deep connection, their shared experiences forging an unbreakable bond. When Alya comes face to face with the ones who betrayed her, will she have what it takes to take back the crown and rule an unstable kingdom? Will Trill find confidence in her magic and the growing affection she has for her friend?
With fast-paced action, enchanting magic, and a budding romance, Goat Magic is a captivating debut novel perfect for fans of fantasy adventure.
'Tis the season for witchy dark academia! Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders is out on the 19th.
In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic.
A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic--with very unexpected results--in this relatable, resonant novel about family, identity, and the power of love.
Jamie is basically your average New England academic in-training--she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. But she has one extraordinary secret: she's also a powerful witch.
Serena, Jamie's mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. All she has left are memories.
Jamie’s busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn't know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path.
Now it's up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives.
This Vicious Hunger by Francesca May is a sapphic dark fantasy releasing on the 26th.
From the author of Wild and Wicked Things comes a dark gothic fantasy about two young women struggling to find the freedom of choice in a world where their path feels predetermined. Turning to each other, they soon find themselves sinking deeper into a world of beauty, poison, and the insatiable quest for knowledge.
Thora Grieve finds herself destitute and an outcast after the sudden death of her husband only a few weeks into their marriage, but a glimmer of hope arrives when a family friend offers her spot at a university to study botany under a famed professor. Once at the university Thora becomes entranced by a mysterious young woman, Olea, who emerges each night to tend to the plants in the professor's private garden.
Thora soon discovers that a mysterious illness prevents Olea from leaving the garden. Hungry for connection, Thora befriends Olea through the garden gate and their relationship quickly and intensely blossoms. The visceral connection between Thora and Olea unlocks an obsessive desire in Thora as she throws herself into finding a cure for Olea's ailment. But is this really love or is it merely lustful intoxication? Thora's finally found the freedom to pursue her deepest desires, but at what cost?
Also on the 26th, don't miss Three Parties by Ziyad Saadi!
A queer Palestinian refugee plans to come out at his elaborate birthday dinner party in this tragicomic modern reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway.
Firas Dareer wakes up on his twenty-third birthday with a sense of today he’ll jump from a Stage 3 to a Stage 6 in his self-determined Coming Out Scale, professing his sexuality to a captive audience of immediate and extended family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and neighbours. But despite the meticulously designed invitations, carefully chosen place settings and floral centerpieces, painstakingly curated playlist, and agonizingly fretted-over menu, factors begin to spin out of his control.
Threatening to thwart his big moment are his younger brother, whose mental fragility requires him to be monitored at all times; his cantankerous grandfather, who’s just completed his third escape from the retirement home; the Dareers’ embittered housekeeper (and Firas’s arch nemesis), who could scoop the story before he gets the chance; his harried boss, who on this of all days calls him into work at the architecture firm, where his colleagues share a talent for butchering his name; and his mother, whose accidental text message may have blown the cover of an illicit extra-marital affair. There’s also the fact that Firas too has found himself in a love triangle of sorts, choosing between soft and steady Tyrese and fiery Kashif, who makes a sport out of demonstrating how Palestinian he is.
As the future Firas has precisely architected for himself slips further out of his grasp, the past comes crashing in like a wrecking ball. Sharp, darkly funny, and full of surprises, Three Parties pays twisted homage to a literary classic, gleefully upends the western coming-out narrative, and sensitively explores the traumas and pressures faced by Palestinian immigrants—all in the span of a single life-changing day.
For some sapphic YA romantasy, add Lady Dragon by A.M. Strickland to your reading list!
Rachel Hartman's Seraphina meets The Priory of the Orange Tree in Lady Dragon, a sapphic YA romantasy from A.M. Strickland.
The age of queens is over . . . unless they can save it..
Since the last war between humans and dragons left the leaders of both species slain—the last human king of Andrath and the legendary dragon queen—both queendoms have been living under a tentative truce: only women will sit on the throne of Andrath, the dragons will have free passage through the human lands . . . and if men ever try to retake the throne, the draconic realm will retaliate.
Samansa and Kirek are two new leaders coming of age in war-scarred lands—Samansa a reluctant human princess and Kirek the favored contender for the draconic queenship. Per tradition, Kirek must undergo the distasteful task of using a mysterious gem called the Heartstone to shift into human form and maintain the strained ties between the species . . . and study human weaknesses, a new and secret task she’s been given by her queen. As the princess and the dragon girl grow closer, they are sent to investigate a potential breach of the treaty and encounter a plot that could reignite an even bloodier war. While fighting to maintain the peace their ancestors fought for and uncovering centuries-old secrets, Samansa and Kirek must grapple with betraying their clashing nations . . . or their unexpected feelings for each other.
Finally, indulge in queer YA horror with Empty Heaven by Freddie Kölsch on the same day.
You are safe, my child. You are loved, my child. You are one with the good earth.
Darian Sabine Arden is haunted by a monster who claims to love her.
Her only respite is the New England village where she spends summers with her three best friends. Kesuquosh is serene and idyllic, and the townsfolk’s odd worship of a godlike scarecrow only adds to the charming local color. But when Darian pays a surprise Halloween visit to her summer crush—a beautiful, unreadable girl named KJ—just in time to see her swept up in a bizarre harvest ritual, she’s forced to admit that Good Arcturus is more than a quaint superstition. He’s terrifyingly real.
Something ancient and sinister lurks behind the dying sunflower fields and glowing windows of Kesuquosh… and in the hearts of the people who live there. Something that doesn’t take kindly to its paradise being threatened. To save KJ—and themselves—Darian and her friends must question everything they thought they knew about their home. And Darian will have to tell the awful truth about the monster that’s been with her all along.
Empty Heaven is a propulsive and original love story, a darkly funny tribute to the power of queer found family, and a haunting exploration of the hidden horrors of beautiful places.
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