We Mostly Come Out at Night

An empowering cross-genre YA anthology that explores what it means to be a monster, exclusively highlighting trans and queer authors who offer new tales and perspectives on classic monster stories and tropes.

Be not afraid! These monsters, creatures, and beasties are not what they appear. We Mostly Come Out at Night is a YA anthology that reclaims the monstrous for the LGBTQA+ community while exploring how there is freedom and power in embracing the things that make you stand out. Each story centers on both original and familiar monsters and creatures―including Mothman, Carabosse, a girl with thirteen shadows, a living house, werebeasts, gorgons, sirens, angels, and many others―and their stories of love, self-acceptance, resilience, and empowerment. This collection is a bold, transformative celebration of queerness and the creatures that (mostly) go bump in the night.

Contributors include editor Rob Costello, Kalynn Bayron, David Bowles, Shae Carys, H.E. Edgmon, Michael Thomas Ford, Val Howlett, Brittany Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Sarah Maxfield, Sam J. Miller, Alexandra Villasante, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.

Winner of the 2025 CNY Book Award for Children’s Books
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Locus Award Finalist
Yalsa Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers: Fiction
Bram Stoker Award Finalist
Cybils Award Finalist
New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
Notable Young Adult Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Book by Reactor Magazine
Recommended Reading List by Locus Magazine
A Best of 2024 Young Adult Horror and Dark Fiction by Ginger Nuts of Horror

Rob Costello (he/him) writes contemporary and speculative fiction with a queer bent for and about young people. He’s the author of the short story collection The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times (Lethe Press, 2024). His stories have appeared in The Dark, The NoSleep Podcast, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Hunger Mountain, Stone Canoe, Narrative, and Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America (Candlewick, 2020). An alumnus of the Millay Colony of the Arts, Rob holds an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and has served on the faculty of the Highlights Foundation since 2014. He lives in upstate New York with his husband and their four-legged overlords.