r/QueerSFF • u/aster_dern • 21h ago
Book Request Sapphic Creature Features? (sort of specific criterias)
Hi everyone, I decided to theme out my reading months this year, and in order to get ahead of October am asking now. I want to read books with a prominent creature or non-human entity in them- some examples of this might be a vampire, a werewolf, an alien, a demon, a ghost, a Frankenstein-like creature, a fae, a mermaid, a cryptid, zombie, a bug creature, etc. Think Universal Monsters but extended into other creatures as well, non-defined and non-typical creatures are very welcome as well- if the author invented a creature that's awesome and recommendations like that are just as welcome.
Things I would not count as what I'm looking for is stuff like witches or human characters with some sort of change or curable infection that's happened to them that gives them a scary appearance or some superpower of some sort- I do not think I would count for example: 'The Invisible Man' as something that is necessarily fitting the criteria I'm looking for, nor a character that is bestowed powers by some entity- ie. someone is possessed, someone made a deal with a malevolent something and is wreaking havoc but themself is still a mortal person- caveat to that is though that if the creature/entity giving powers actually does show up in the story instead of just via a host. Powers for these characters would I guess mostly be given at birth or at death or if the character becomes biologically into something not human if that makes sense- they can have BEEN a human, but I don't want a creature who still is human.
I think the only human acceptable sort of creature for this particular prompt is if it's something like mass infection by a creature, where the 'creature' becomes more the epidemic rather an individual entity- the creature is the hive mind, not those infected. Hopefully that makes sense- but I'm not sure- an example of that would be: Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin(this is the closest example I could think of but it is a spoiler for the end of this book sort of so be aware before pressing) and I think Spread Me and You're Not Supposed to be Human also operate on that sort of idea maybe.
I'd prefer books that are horror-ish or unsettling but any genre is honestly fine and I do not have a preference on whether the creature is at the center of the story as a protagonist or is an antagonist- I just need that they are prominent within the story- not something that is mentioned in the story but never confronted. I am of course as the title says also specifically looking for these creature feature books that are prominently sapphic, books with at least A sapphic main character and/or side-plot romance even if it is sort of like a cast of main characters and different POVs. Anyways- I know this is a very lengthy post for something kind of easy to ask for- but if anyone has any recommendations it'd be very very appreciated. Hope everyone is having a good week.