Our Autumn Recommendations!

As the leaves turn brown and the days get shorter, we’re reminded that autumn is the season for winding down after a busy and exciting summer… and that means, spending time watching films, reading books, listening to music. So if you’re looking to get cosy, or a little spooked this autumn with some queer media, then we’ve got the perfect curated list of recommendations for you.

Take a look at some of the top recommendations from our staff team of queer media you can get stuck into during this October and November period, whether you’re celebrating Hallowe’en (‘Gay Christmas’…) or just wanting to feel all those crisp autumnal feels.

For cosy, rainy days inside

📙 Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree is the perfect high fantasy, low stakes novel to cosy up with on a rainy day. Set in the fictional town of Thune, the novel centres on an orc who has retired from adventuring and wants to set up Thune’s first ever coffee shop. Read this if you want a queer romance novel with a backdrop of pastries, coffee, and fantasy.

📙 Fun Home, Alison Bechdel is a tragicomic, autobiographical, graphic novel about Bechdel’s relationship with her closeted gay father, and her own coming out journey. The story revolves around a gloomy, Victorian house and a family-run funeral home, and as Mark tells us, briefly launched as a wholesome queer broadway musical. The perfect read for some light gothic queerness, which navigates complicated family dynamics.

🎵 we fell in love in october / October Passed Me By, girlinred is the perfect EP to accompany any autumnal walks or cosy days in, if you’re wanting to feel all the feels about Sapphic/WLW relationships.

🎬 Sense and Sensibility, Georgia Oakley is fresh out in cinemas this year, and Ness was delighted to inform us that ‘the film has a trans/nb actor in it, officially making it queer media’, plus it has some ‘cosy vibes’, which makes it truly autumnal. Nonbinary actor Elliot Summer stars Mr. Palmer in this 2026 adaptation. So, Sense and Sensibility is one to watch whilst it’s in cinemas!

Things that make us shiver…

📙 Manhunt, Gretchen Felker-Martin is a terrifying, visceral, and gruesome post-apocalyptic horror novel about a virus that turns people with high testosterone into violent monsters. Often described as stomach-turning or relentless, it truly is a milestone trans horror novel.  ‘Proceed with caution,’ says Reb.

📙 The Little Stranger, Sarah Walters is unsettling and creepy rather than a traditional jump-scare horror novel. Michelle recommends The Little Stranger alongside The Night Watch, as ‘renowned queer author Waters brings the spookiness to spooky season with both these novels, with hauntings, chills and darkness, both internal and external.’

🎵 Preacher’s Daughter, Ethel Cain if you’re looking for an album to accompany your horror readings this year, Preacher’s Daughter is the perfect place to start. It’s a gothic, southern concept album that tells a disturbing story about religion, trauma, and survival, created by renowned queer artist, Ethel Cain. Warning: the album gets more sinister the more you pay attention to the lyrics…

Gothic & Gay

📙 What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher and the full ‘The Sworn Soldier‘ series is Ness’ go-to recommendation for the gothic and gay fans out there. As Ness says, ‘The Sworn Soldier series by T Kingfisher is a series of queer gothic/horror novellas; the first one is What Moves The Dead which is a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher‘.

📺 The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) is the perfect miniseries if you’re looking for a haunting, gothic-turned-sapphic show to watch. It tells the story of an au pair living in a haunted house and is based on the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Expect slow-burn, creepyness, and intense emotions.

If you’re looking for something nostalgic…🥹

📺 Buffy (1997-2003) is the ideal throwback show to get stuck into during spooky season. The show follows the life of Buffy Summers, a young vampire slayer, and is heralded as a landmark for LGBTQ+ representation in TV, with later characters being introduced as queer. ‘OLD now but a classic’, says Mark. (And Angel vs Buffy is the OG bisexual dilemma…)

🎬 The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is a cult classic that deserves a rewatch during every Hallowe’en period. Rocky Horror is a musical horror-comedy about a young couple who meet Frank-N-Furter, an eccentric, self-proclaimed ‘sweet transvestite’. Expect unapologetic sexuality, gender nonconformity, and more! The perfect seasonal singalong show.

🎬 Hocus Pocus (1993) is another cult classic serving as a fantasy-comedy about a trio of villainous witches. This camp and theatrical film was recommended by Natalie due to ‘the multitude of iconic and highly quotable moments!’. A safe and nostalgic spooky watch for this autumn.

🎵 Dusty… Definitely, Dusty Springfield is a classic soul album from LGBT+ icon Dusty Springfield. Recommended by Jean for the autumn season due to the song ‘Spooky‘ which is ‘very groovy!’

Traditional Horror Turned Queer…

📙 Our Hideous Progeny, C. E. McGill is queer and feminist retelling of Frankenstein, which serves as a spiritual sequel to Mary Shelley’s original 1818 masterpiece. The novel features a prominent sapphic romance alongside other LGBTQ+ themes.

🎬 Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, 2026 came out this year just in time for the spooky season, and put an amazing, explicitly queer stamp on the slasher genre (a genre already known for it’s camp and drama). This satirical horror centres on identity, queer desire, the history of the slasher, and subverts the genre’s historical tendency to villainise queer and trans identities. It also has an elite movie soundtrack that is ideal for an autumn playlist.

🎬 They/Them, 2022 follows a group of LGBTQ+ campers who arrive at a conversion therapy camp. Recommended by Michelle ‘as it’s the result of the filmmaker’s wish to centre queer characters in the slasher genre’ with the warning that ‘like the best scary movies, the real horror is the psychological torture…’

Bonus Recommendations

(Because we have too many more to recommend!)

• 📺 Agatha All Along (2024)
• 📺 Interview With the Vampire (2022-)
• 📺 What We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024)
• 📙 Maeve Fly, CJ Leede
• 📙 Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas
• 📙 Things We Say In The Dark, Kirsty Logan
• 📙 Monstrilio, Gerardo Sámano Córdova
• 📙 Black Flame, Gretchen Felker-Martin
• 📙 Benothinged, Alvar Theo
• 🎬 Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost (1999)
• 🎬 I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

No matter what your plans are, and whether or not you get through any films, books, or albums, we hope you have a wonderful, restorative autumn!