Quaint Folk by Karella, Bitter

Quaint Folk is a sharply satirical queer folk horror novel that peels back the idyllic veneer of a seemingly perfect island town to reveal the rot beneath, from Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Bitter Karella.

"The folk horror I always wanted: queer, funny, bloody, and outrageous in the best way." --Laura Cranehill, author of Wife Shaped Bodies

From the outside, it looks like Jessica has the perfect life. She's a stay-at-home mom, married to a man with a respectable job, raising a son they adore. Her family is as wholesome as all-American pie. But deep down, Jessica knows there's something wrong with her; she knows she can't escape her past.

When her husband's job has them move abroad, Jessica thinks this is her chance for a fresh start. On the remote island of Hasenhurst, the modern world can't get in. The people there grow their own herbs, make their own jam, and mind their own business. They believe in folk tales and the power of dreams. They tell visitors, we're a quaint, quiet people.The right sort of family would do well here.

Jessica is determined to be the right kind of person for a family--and a life--like this. But as she tries to befriend the townsfolk and learn their ways, she soon realizes that beneath the town's cozy idyll, something sickly-sweet and rotten lays buried ...

"To experience Karella's cheerfully unhinged fiction is to surrender to a spectacularly fierce and uncompromising literary force. Quaint Folk astonished me with its charming, mythical weirdness threaded with genuine moments of pure tenderness. A bold, potent brew of all the best elements of folk and queer horror." --Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

Author: Bitter Karella
Publisher: Run for It
Published: 10/06/2026
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.53w x 0.86d
ISBN: 9780316581943

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/03/2026 pg. 1
Publishers Weekly 08/03/2026
Booklist 09/01/2026

About the Author
Bitter Karella is the writer and horror aficionado behind the twice Hugo-nominated microfiction comedy account @Midnight_pals, which asks what if all your favorite horror writers gathered around the campfire to tell scary stories. His work has appeared in Seize the Press, Tenebrous Press's Your Body in Not Your Body, and Ghoulish Books' Bound in Flesh. She also dabbles in cartooning and text game design.