Julie Gourinchas

someone please please PLEASE give me an upmarket speculative novel set in a travelling circus. a slightly more literary, fresh new take on THE NIGHT CIRCUS. bonus points if strong sense of aesthetic or historical anchoring. pls!!! #mswl

rewatching Flanagan's (incredible, jaw-dropping) Midnight Mass and if anyone can comp to this show ... I would like to see it, please #mswl (this is your October version of "Julie is once again on the hunt for literary vampire stories")

idk this is kind of a #mswl vibe … liminal spaces … nineties neon coding … speculative horror … mmm yes

screaming sobbing clawing at the walls ... #mswl in every way that matters !!!!!!!

once again (the Interview with the Vampire rot is still rotting...) I am desperate for dark, gothic, literary takes on vampires in my inbox #mswl

big #mswl energy

#mswl

just watched the latest @JazzaStudios video and he dropped the word "Da Vinci-punk" and hello, #mswl in a big way

I really really really *really* feel horrormance is about to be the next ✨big thing✨ in pub, so – my #mswl is looking hungry for any literary/upmarket versions of that, love stories with dark, twisted, tragic beats (someone comp me IWtV or so help me god!!!) 🖤🩸🦷

yes hi I would like some monstrous, yearning love stories please #mswl

some things I am *not* looking for atm (an anti-MSWL if you will):

- crime or military anything
- contemporary romance
- [usually] first-person voice (I'm sorry – it's a hard sell for me, but not impossible!)
- high/epic fantasy
- space-faring sci-fi (unless the hook is fresh!)

I'll add more as I go, but I want to highlight again how much VOICE, PROSE, + ATMOSPHERE are really the things that draw me into a story. I want to hear your character's voice ringing in my head. I want to feel the mist curling at my ankles. I want to live in your world!!

#mswl

- magical realism
- literary fiction that feels *playful* and *joyful* about the genre, rather than snobbish and gatekeep-y. I have no fear of the weird or wacky, so long as it has something intelligent and important to say.
- fiction about unconventional relationships

#mswl

- anything set in a part of the world different to the US, Canada, or the UK (or, if set in the UK, set in the north of England, northern Ireland, rural spaces, etc)
- fresh, different takes on monster stories (vampires!!!! pls) that explore aspects of humanity

#mswl

- folklore and mythological retellings, particularly non-Eurocentric/non-Greco-Roman/non-Christian traditions
- neo-western
- unconventional, unreliable, unlikeable narrators and central characters
- trans and queer joy, but also trans and queer rage
- diverse perspectives

#mswl

- speculative fiction
(I prefer grounded, literary sci-fi + fantasy. few secondary worlds, but rather our world steeped in liminal magic and/or technology. anything creepy, toothy, gritty, strange, something that sends a shiver down your spine.)
- steampunk everything

#mswl

in terms of GENRES and NARRATIVES, I love:

- dark academia
- horror
- gothic, esp. regional gothic
- character-led literary fiction
- historical + alternate history, particularly 19th and 20th century and particularly focused on international, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ stories

#mswl

first, I'm someone who's always been gripped first by VOICE, WRITING STYLE, and PROSE. so I'm looking for:

- anything in the book club, upmarket, literary spaces
- lush, poetic writing – or sparse, bare prose
- deep and intricate world/lore-building (when applicable)

#mswl

#mswl PLEASE AND THANK YOU !!!

vampires in the 90s with all the hazy, summery nostalgia that comes with the pre-digital age. vampires locked away in remote mountain ranges. vampires haunting small villages, but people haunting back. vampires!!!