"Truly wonderful. While the world falls apart, reading horror is like anti-venom, a small offering of poison to counteract a greater poison that seeks to destroy you.”—Lilly Wachowski, co-creator of The Matrix and Sense8 "Witty, often-chilling, compulsively readable, it’s a saga rich with literary references, both implicit and explicit."—Emma Specter, Vogue "Visceral and hypnotic, a novel with stars in its guts. It takes place both in the wilderness and in the new future we are trying to build." —Patricia Lockwood, author of Priestdaddy and No One Is Talking About This "Punchy, strange, and sneakily poignant without trying to be overly ironic, Herculine doubles both as a novel and as trans literary criticism."—Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life "Wildly surprising, slyly funny, and in all ways an excellent novel. Whether or not you’ve ever made a compact with a demon for the thing you wanted most, Grace Byron’s Herculine is the real deal."—Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love "Byron's debut is a haunting portrait of disaffected, dysfunctional adulthood and the human devastation left behind by fundamentalist Christian upbringing. On its face, Herculine is an almost prototypical novel about a young trans woman trying to make it in New York, but with each new nasty revelation, Byron pulls you deeper into a world of paranoid, self-annihilating horror."—Gretchen Felker-Martin, author of Manhunt and Cuckoo “Devious and diabolical, Herculine is a jaw-dropping and completely unpredictable literary bewitchment about trauma, desire, and identity. One of the most artful and stunning debuts I’ve read this year. This book is irreverent, playful, and utterly irresistible.”—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke "Beyond the lovebombing occultists, hobnobbing freelancers, and God-haunted transplants, Herculine is about the search for true belonging—to be accepted not for your identity or status, but for your scars. In Grace Byron's phenomenal novel of trauma, sex, and other night terrors, we see the blood price of utopia, and the sacrifices necessary for salvation."—Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection "Grace Byron's literally unforgettable Herculine pulses with surprise, intelligence, and tension. Here we have a novel of the mind and heart alike, a trans horror story of marooning and discovery that can make the reader both shudder and laugh out loud, and the arrival of a major new voice." —Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of All This Could Be Different '"The horror unfolds in the first person, a wise choice on Byron’s part, as it allows her to deliver the same wry, arch, punch-line-driven prose that propels her best published writing....Having the protagonist speak directly to the reader also lets the author indulge in frequent polemical asides without weighing down the text or rendering her narrative a dull or didactic read."—Harron Walker, The Cut "Biting and eerie."—Clare Mulroy, USA Today "[Byron] never does what’s expected of her, something I’ve come to admire....[she] bends genres, and minds, questioning how we think about transness, community organizing within a nation careening toward fascism, and trauma."—P.E. Moskowitz, SSENSE "This is THAT novel....[Byron's] writing has never ceased to transfix me, to pull me in and prod me and remind me what could be possible—always with something more slyly simmering below the surface. "—Leah Abrams, BOMB “With startling clarity, cynical wit, and an intellectual rigor rooted in a yearning for connection…[Herculine breaks] into the canon of contemporary literature, dissecting American womanhood in our ever-fracturing culture…alternately channeling the ironized, dissociated ennui of the early 2020s post-feminists and bravely embracing cringe when it counts.”—Emmeline Clein, Cultured "Equal parts feral and funny."—Simon Dwihartana, Interview "Byron's talents as a journalist and cultural critic shine though, as the novel dishes contemporary insights with delicious snark, both on the bleak content millification of writing and the pecking order of trans New York."—Brendon Holder, The Whitney Review "Herculine combines the honed social realism of Torrey Peters and Emily Zhou with the splatterpunk flair and power of Gretchen Felker-Martin’s novels. It’s an intricate study of how we narrativise trauma, how we practice faith, and how we build – and mishandle – community, but it’s also a gripping thrill-ride into the unknown."—Eli Cugini, Dazed "[Byron's] prose is laced with zesty gallows humor and a deadpan cynisism born of staring so hard at precarity that laughing at its obviousness is the only sane response....The result is a narrative that flirts with the satanic-panic domestic dread of Rosemary’s Baby and the bucolic unease of Midsommar, delivered with a mordant, satirical bite closer to autofiction. Byron’s influences surface in the weave: Ursula Le Guin’s political imagination, Carmen Maria Machado’s spectral logic, Lauren Oyler’s cutting critique, and Patricia Lockwood’s acid interiority." —Sahir Ahmed, Family Style ''Herculine challenges purity politics and explores the dream of queer communities....bitingly funny."—Kerensa Cadenas, Marie Claire "Provocative and poetic. Herculine evokes the tradition of grungy queer lit, decked out with infernal style and slick with the poison of isolation."—Hailey Piper, author of A Game in Yellow “Like Byron herself, Herculine’s protagonist, an aspiring writer who looks up to the Hot Freelance Girls (her nickname for the trans women writers who enjoyed a brief window of upward mobility back in the Buzzfeed and Jezebel days, when Representation Mattered), lives in the shadow of the now-defunct Topside Press literary scene, of which Torrey [Peters] is perhaps the best-known member. Though it deals in demons rather than vaccines, Herculine shares with Infect [Your Friends and Loved Ones] cult dynamics contrasted with the sad suspicion that T4T isn’t the nostrum that some would have us believe.”—Davey Davis, author of X “I devoured Herculine—a sharp, fast-paced nightmare glittering with insight about desire, trauma, and the unique joys and disappointments of t4t intimacy. In a literary landscape long-plagued by bloodless depictions of contemporary transsexual life, Herculine splashes onto the scene sparkling red and wreathed in viscera.”—Max Delsohn, author of Crawl "Note perfect, not a line or scene out of place. Nothing belabored or overstated. Atmospherically dense and absorbing. Very funny. Hot. Terrifying, powerful." —Anahid Nersessian, author of Keat's Odes: A Lover's Discourse “This is gossip about demons. This is a scary story about girls you know. Byron’s language may be romantic, but her structure is barbed.…Herculine made me nauseous and made me cry. It unsettled me for reasons that cannot be written off as merely fictious.”—Sam Bodrojan, cc:helmet girl “A brilliant addition to the growing genre of trans horror…a piercing portrait of trans community and solidarity. The author brings enough humor to the proceedings to prevent the horror from becoming too all-consuming while keeping the pages flying with a thrilling plot and a moving examination of loneliness, desire, and hope in the wake of trauma. Byron proves an exciting new voice in horror fiction.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review "Raw and riveting...thanks to the book’s razor-sharp wit and expertly executed shock, fans of Gretchen Felker-Martin and Chuck Tingle will not be disappointed."—Emily Vinci, Library Journal, starred review "This debut is for the queer girlies with religious trauma...Byron’s novel is dark and voicey and funny in a way that makes you feel like you’re talking to a cool friend who you’re secretly worried about. Like if your coolest, most unstable friend decided to open up to you about the literal demons that have been following her around but you thought you guys were just gonna grab coffee and catch up about boyfriend drama. You know the vibe. I always love when a novel captures a voice so clearly, and I love a novel that’s creepy and spooky, and this book delivers on all of that. Plus, the cover! Come on. Your sleep paralysis demon is begging you to read Herculine."—McKayla Coyle, LitHub "A fever dream wrapped in barbed wire, delivering a horror experience that’s as much about the monsters we carry within us as the literal demons stalking its pages....Byron’s prose operates like a precision instrument, cutting between moments of tender vulnerability and visceral horror with surgical skill....The author’s background in criticism and cultural commentary shines through in her ability to embed social critique within genre conventions without sacrificing the story’s momentum."—Bookclb "Funny, brash, and unafraid to wade deep into trans politics, this debut is entertainingly chaotic."—Sam Franzini, Our Culture "The trans-cult novel feels particularly resonant given the political climate at the time of its release....[Herculine] serves as a warning, urging us to pay attention to the terms of the lives we accept."—Nour Abi-Nakhoul, Xtra "A perfect psychological horror...Byron’s book is a maze you can’t escape. You turn the page and discover something new. I could not put this book down."—Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful "Although the world Byron writes about is already horrifying enough, I’m looking forward to seeing what her wholesale embrace of the horror genre looks like."—Drew Gillis, AV Club “A blistering, provocative, and unforgettable plunge into the depths of identity, trauma, and the desperate search for a place to belong. From its gripping first pages to its shocking finale, it establishes Byron as a formidable new voice in horror fiction….Herculine is not a comfortable read, nor should it be. It’s challenging, graphic, and emotionally demanding. But it is also a brilliant, important, and exhilarating debut. It’s the kind of book that horror fans will devour. More importantly, it’s a vital contribution to queer and trans literature, a story that captures the specific anxieties and joys of its characters without explanation or apology.”—Ginger Nuts of Horror "Brutal and visceral, Herculine is perfect for fans of Hailey Piper, Eve Harms, and Alison Rumfitt.—A. E. Siraki, Booklist "Batshit brilliant debut."—Language Arts "I am HERE for trans horror with trans cults and also possibly-probably demons!"—Sia, Every Book a Doorway "Herculine announces Grace Byron as a major new voice in both queer literature and horror fiction. This is a novel that trusts its readers to handle difficult material and complex emotions. It offers no easy catharsis or simple villains, instead presenting a world where survival requires constant vigilance and the demons we carry often wear familiar faces....For readers willing to engage with challenging material, Herculine offers rewards that extend far beyond genre pleasures."—The Bookish Elf
