Sage Nestler's Blog

Interview with Author Rachel Harrison for Her Upcoming Novel, “Play Nice”

Rachel Harrison’s novel, Play Nice, comes out next week on September 9, 2025. It was easily one of my favorite reads of the year! Even though I haven’t been able to read many books, I feel like each one hit me on such a deep level. It honestly felt like Play Nice was written for […]

Interview with K.L. Cerra, Author of “Such Pretty Flowers”

Interview with K.L. Cerra, Author of “Such Pretty Flowers” I had the pleasure of interviewing author K.L. Cerra recently, who wrote the sapphic Southern Gothic thriller/horror novel, Such Pretty Flowers! This novel is a treat for fans of botanical horror (although if you have trypophobia like me, be forewarned that it plays a part in […]

A Queer, Brutal, and Heart Wrenching Take on Gothic Horror

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna Van Veen Synopsis “I’m in your blood, and you are in mine…” The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy’s twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband’s grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity […]

ARC Review: Pink Horror Paired with Folk Horror Has Never Been So Good

The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne Synopsis

So what if Sadie hears talking dead animals and a strange, comforting male voice in her head? The therapist insists these are just symptoms of PTSD. It makes sense considering that she hid under the bed and watched as her best friends were slaughtered.

But the murders were seventeen years ago, back when her name was Sabrina. Now, she’s Sadie: a perfectly normal 29-year-old. She works as a physical therapist assistant and lifts weights with her boyfriend, Lucas, who’s the sweetest, most considerate man—as long as he’s not angry. But when Lucas spontaneously agrees to join a couples trip to a cabin in the woods, the visions get worse, a strange figure stalks her during the night, and that male voice in Sadie’s head keeps calling, asking her to do things she’s never fathomed.

Sadie’s not sure if it’s her paranoia or something else entirely . . . But she is sure of one thing—this time, she’s not going to sit idly by as everything starts to unravel.

Overall Rating

5/5

Spooky Rating

3/5

Gore Rating

3/5

Quick Take

The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is one of the best horror novels I have read in quite some time. It is definitive of what Pink Horror is and should continue to aim to be. The folk horror aspects paired with PTSD representation were beautiful and heartbreaking. I felt like this book was a weird and scary accurate portrayal for many of my own experiences. It has a deep place in my heart.

Tell Me More

The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne is a folk horror novel rooted in PTSD and trauma. It highlights how many friendships amongst young girls can be toxic. If you are the “odd one out,” you are often subject to bullying. Growing up in this position left me with a lot of trauma I still have to sift through, and The Mean Ones made me feel seen.

The novel focuses on Sabrina – the sole survivor of murders in a cabin where she lost her two best friends when she was younger. Having changed her name to Sadie, she is now a physical therapist assistant and weightlifter with her boyfriend, Lucas. Their relationship is steady enough – as long as nothing makes Lucas angry.

Sadie/Sabrina experiences strange voices and images that others cannot see, and her therapist is convinced that these are symptoms of her PTSD. Yet, after committing to a couple’s trip with Lucas and their two friends, her visions get worse.

I don’t want to spoil anything because there are some amazing twists and turns throughout this novel. But I will say that I loved how Schlote-Bonne used folk horror as a scare factor, AND a sense of strength in “otherness.” The novel takes the reader back and forth between the past and present to highlight the terrors that Sabrina’s “friends” put her through. This style reveals what happened to them, incorporating folk horror elements, and highlighting the toxicity in Sadie’s current relationship with Lucas. The real-world horror presented throughout The Mean Ones had me in tears. Being assigned female at birth often puts many of us in traumatic situations and relationships. Schlote-Bonne handled these difficult topics with ease, while providing a finale that captures the genre while providing a macabre sense of relief. Sadie/Sabrina’s story will stay with me as steadfast as Schlote-Bonne’s first novel, Such Lovely Skin, did. She is becoming a master at creating horror that captures real life horror with the inexplicable without sugarcoating anything. Please read The Mean Ones, I beg of you.

*Thank you so much to Creature Horror for the ARC!

Content Warnings from Storygraph

Graphic

Murder, Blood, Child death

Moderate

Bullying, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts

Minor

Domestic abuse

Review Scales for Reference

HELP NEEDED: Street Team Sign-Up

HELP NEEDED:  Street Team Sign-Up Hello, Everyone, We are in need of folx to join our street team for our next publication through my publisher, Pride with a Bite: “Waxing Off – A Novella” by E.E.W. Christman! Any and all help is appreciated. When you fill out the form, you can select what you would like to help […]

HELP NEEDED: Street Team Sign-Up

Hello, Everyone,

We are in need of folx to join our street team for our next publication through my publisher, Pride with a Bite: “Waxing Off – A Novella” by E.E.W. Christman! Any and all help is appreciated. When you fill out the form, you can select what you would like to help with, including the cover reveal, ARC review, etc.

About the Book

Welcome to Cat’s Cove

A struggling Pacific Northwest fishing town teeming with transphobes and werewolves…but not the ones you are thinking of.  

Drew is a non-binary werewolf, but hardly by choice. Having made a home for themself working in a fish fry joint and trying to hide their secret, their heightened sense of smell leads them to Gab – a female werewolf who is about to change their life in more ways than one.  Coming from a family that did nothing to make Drew feel comfortable in their own skin, their immediate connection with Gab is intimate and unexpected.  

But a collective of TERFs lurks nearby, and an attack makes it clear that they would prefer it if Gab fell in line, and Drew simply ceased to exist.  Little do they know what is coming for them.

Filled with ferocity, carnage, and the enduring power of queer love and acceptance, Waxing Off is a werewolf horror story with heart, and a testament to what it means to fight back, fight for yourself, and fight to exist.

By filling out the following form, you can choose which things you would like to help with, including the cover reveal, ARC reviews, and more.

Street Team Sign-Up

Something’s Coming and It Bites

Hello, Horror Fiends!

We just released our first teaser for the next book we are publishing through my queer horror publishing house – Pride with a Bite. I cannot wait to share more about this project with you all. It is going to come out just in time for Halloween – October 2025!

Four WordsQueerWerewolvesPunchingTERFs

TERF stands for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.” You may know about them due to frequent and vocal anti-transgender author J.K. Rowling. These feminists don’t see transgender females as female or transgender men as men. They have also gone so far as to accuse queer folx of being child molesters, and refuse to give transgender folx basic respect, access to healthcare, or public accommodations.

Learn More Here

This novella is a direct attack against individuals who hold these beliefs – which are so detrimental towards transgender and gender-expansive folx. It is ferocious, sexy, and downright fun. As a transgender individual, I was so excited when author E.E.W. Christman submitted this novella to us for consideration.

Make sure you sign-up for our newsletter to stay on top of this release, everything we are doing at Pride with a Bite, and all things queer horror!

Newsletter Sign-Up

Sage Moon

The Horror Maven & Editor-in-Chief of Pride with a Bite

ARC Review: A Heartfelt and Terrifying All Too Realistic Must-Read

An Early Review of Lucky Day by Chuck TingleSynopsis

Lucky Day is the newest novel of terror from Chuck Tingle, USA Today bestselling author of Bury Your Gays, where one woman must go up against the most horrifying concept of all: nothing.

Vera is a survivor of a global catastrophe known as the Low Probability Event, but she definitely isn’t thriving. Once a passionate professor of statistics, she no longer finds meaning in anything at all.

But when problematic government agent Layne knocks on her door, she’s the only one who can help him uncover the connection between deadly spates of absurdity and an improbably lucky casino. What’s happening in Vegas isn’t staying there, and the world is at risk of another disaster.

When it comes to Chuck Tingle, the only thing more terrifying than a serious horror novel is an absurd one…

Release Date

8/12/2025

Overall Rating

5/5

Spooky Rating

3/5

Gore Rating

3/5

Quick Take

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle is at once a terrifying and heart wrenching portrayal of what staring into oblivion feels like, paired with invalidation of one’s sexuality, and finding some meaning despite a sense of despair and powerlessness. To say that this novel is timely is an understatement.

Tell Me More

Lucky Day is the epitome of what cosmic horror should be.

This book came into my life at the perfect time, in an incredibly weird way.  I started reading it on the same date that the main catastrophic event in the book occurs.  If this wasn’t eerie enough, I feel like the main character’s mindset matches my own.  I marked so many quotes within the book that I could probably just quote the entire thing. 

Where Chuck Tingle gets the ideas for his books, I’ll never know – but this one solidified him in my top 5 favorite horror authors.  While Bury Your Gays is one of my favorite books of all time, this one is right up there with it. 

Lucky Day begins with an event called the Low-Probability Event, where everything that could go wrong goes wrong in the most bizarre way.  The event, in turn, causes countless deaths, many of which our main character witnesses firsthand.  The book focuses on Vera, a bisexual woman, who is a statistics professor and has just published a book.  As a neurodivergent person, I felt like Vera may have been coded in this way.  Statistics were her passion, and she relied on them for control and understanding of the world.  But after the event occurs, and she witnesses countless deaths, she loses the ability to find meaning or purpose in anything.  She feels like everything she ever thought she knew was wrong, and this sends her to a very dark place. 

The nihilism, grief, and depression representation cut me to my core because I felt like I was seeing myself reflected on the page.  Spending time with Vera’s character made me feel less alone at a time when I am also having a hard time finding the point in anything.

Throughout the book, Vera struggles with her sexuality being invalidated, which makes her feel like her true self doesn’t exist at all.  While Vera struggled with her mother invalidating her, I liked how Tingle included a fellow queer character invalidating her sexuality.  Unfortunately, this is all too common in the queer community – especially of late.  He did so well tackling the difficult subjects of a world gone wrong and feeling meaningless against oblivion.  While there was humor and wit, I will never forget a lot of the gory (and inexplicable) imagery included.  However, the fear of everything we ever thought to be a certain way not being true, and losing that sense of control, filled me with mind-numbing terror.  This also made me realize why cosmic is one of the few sub-genres of horror left that never fails to terrify me. 

Lucky Day is too complex to sum up in a review without going on and on, so just go ahead and read it when it comes out.  I promise you it won’t be a comfortable read, but the best books aren’t.

Rating Scales for Reference

(Click images to zoom in)

*Thank you to Tor Nightfire for the ARC!

Pre-Order: The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne

Hello, Horror Fiends,

I am excited to share with you a pre-order campaign for The Mean Ones by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne! I am in the middle of reading my ARC, and I am absolutely loving it. It is heartbreaking and terrifying in all of the best ways. I can already tell that this is going to be a five-star read for me. Stay tuned for my review!

I read Tatiana’s YA debut, Such Lovely Skin, last year and was blown away by it. Tatiana is such a lovely person and an extremely talented author. She brings a fresh and raw voice to the horror genre, and I love how she incorporates mental health, trauma, and grief into her writing. She does so with ease, which is not something that is easy to do. It blows me away.

Find all of the info you need about The Mean Ones below, including the pre-order link !

Midsommar meets The Final Girl Support Group in this horror novel about a woman who survived cult killings as a child and is striving to be “normal,” but a spontaneous trip into the woods and the voices in her head keep pulling her to the dark side.

So what if Sadie hears talking dead animals and a strange, comforting male voice in her head? The therapist insists these are just symptoms of PTSD. It makes sense considering that she hid under the bed and watched as her best friends were slaughtered.

But the murders were seventeen years ago, back when her name was Sabrina. Now, she’s Sadie: a perfectly normal 29-year-old. She works as a physical therapist assistant and lifts weights with her boyfriend, Lucas, who’s the sweetest, most considerate man–as long as he’s not angry. But when Lucas spontaneously agrees to join a couples trip to a cabin in the woods, the visions get worse, a strange figure stalks her during the night, and that male voice in Sadie’s head keeps calling, asking her to do things she’s never fathomed.

Sadie’s not sure if it’s her paranoia or something else entirely . . . But she is sure of one thing–this time, she’s not going to sit idly by as everything starts to unravel.

PRE-ORDER HERE LEARN MORE ABOUT TATIANA Make a one-time donation

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Come See My Assistant Publisher at Pride with a Bite TOMORROW in Toronto!

If you are in the Toronto area in Canada, come see my Co-Founder & Assistant Publisher, Sarah Laudenbach, from Pride with a Bite TOMORROW!

She will have copies of our anthology, We Bite Back: A Queer Charity Anthology, as well as Lowell Jameson’s premiere poetry collection, Through the Realm of the Vacant Prince, with signed bookplates.

You will also get to see a sneak peek of what we are working on!

Location

5015 Glen Erin Drive

Mississauga, ON L5M 4Z5

(905) 820-8336

LOCATION WEBSITE About Pride with a Bite

Pride with a Bite publishes horror and horror-adjacent works by queer creators, with a focus on novels, novellas, collections, and artwork. Our books are distributed globally in physical stores and through online outlets. We are partnered with bookstores in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, and are part of the Horror Writer’s Association. Our team members are located in the US and Canada.

LEARN MORE Make a one-time donation

Thank you so much for your support! Your donation helps me to keep sharing the beauty of horror, especially works by marginalized creators, with the world.

DonateMake a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate monthlyMake a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate yearly