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Strange Beasts

Susan J. Morris

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In this fresh-yet-familiar gothic tale—part historical fantasy, part puzzle-box mystery—the worlds of Dracula and Sherlock Holmes collide in a thrilling exploration of feminine power.

At the dawn of the twentieth century in Paris, Samantha Harker, daughter of Dracula’s killer, works as a researcher for the Royal Society for the Study of Abnormal Phenomena. But no one realizes how abnormal she is. Sam is a channel into the minds of monsters: a power that could help her solve the gruesome deaths plaguing turn-of-the-century Paris—or have her thrown into an asylum.

Sam finds herself assigned to a case with Dr. Helena Moriarty, daughter of the criminal mastermind and famed nemesis of Sherlock Holmes and a notorious detective whom no one wants to work with on account of her previous partners’ mysterious murders. Ranging from the elite clubs of Paris to the dark underbelly of the catacombs, their investigation sweeps them into a race to stop a Beast from its killing rampage, as Hel and Sam are pitted against men, monsters, and even each other.

But beneath their tenuous trust, an unmistakable attraction brews. Is trusting Hel the key to solving the murder, or is Sam yet another pawn in Hel’s game?

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Jul 24

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“I Hate Your Taste In Books”

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ofpagesandprint\ \ Dahlia\ \ • Jun 26

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[To continue the Pride Month celebration all year long, I wanted to share some of the amazing queer books on my TBR! Some have already released, and others are available for preorder. 🫶\ \* Pitches from the publishers.\ \

Books on My Pride Month TBR! 🌈

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Sunny's Book Truck\ \ CJ\ \ • Jun 21

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[Hi nerds,\ \ Last night we held our recurring event, Sunny's Salon. This month the prompt was to come prepared to talk about your favorite queer read for Pride month. Below you will find 20ish book recommendations gathered from the Yuma community.\ \ \ \

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Jun 7

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • May 24

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • May 22

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Sherlock Holmes is 167 today!

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Apr 28

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Hot Ones Wayward Souls Challenge with Kathryn and Susan

We survived!!

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Apr 7

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TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT! 🔥

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Apr 6

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\ \ You’ve seen your favorite celebrities go on Hot Ones and almost die (or hardly break a sweat) and now you get to experience it Inky Phoenix Style! Vote below on when Susan and I should go LIVE on Zoom with our full set of Hot Ones hot sauces as we talk all things WAYWARD SOULS.](https://inkyphoenix.binderybooks.com/item/oEkYhuGKjCPJcSHaMt7g/)

Want to see us sweat?

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Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Apr 2

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I’ve talked about this before, but I’m going to talk about it again. Why do so many readers stay inside the same loop of recommendations?\ \ When you engage with one popular sapphic book, platforms feed you ten more that look the same. You are not choosing from the full landscape. You are choosing from a narrow slice shaped by engagement data.\ \ When thousands of readers praise the same books, you feel more confident picking them up. That reduces risk, but it also limits discovery. You miss quieter releases, indie authors, and genre crossovers that do not get mass attention.\ \ Recommendation culture favors speed over depth. People ask for “good sapphic books” and get the same five answers. Few readers ask for what kind of sapphic story they want. Few reviewers explain why a book worked or did not work beyond surface-level reactions.\ \ If you want a richer reading life, you have to push outside that loop on purpose.\ \ Here are six sapphic books that move beyond the usual rotation, with what they offer and where they fall short.\ \ Revel by Bryce Oakley 4 stars\ \ A beachside wedding brings a friend group back together. A reservation mix-up leaves Isla and Freya sharing a single bed, and years of friendship shift into something else.\ \ This novella closes out the Kaleidoscope series with focus and intention. The tension between Isla and Freya carries the story. You feel the weight of their history in every interaction. The pacing is tight because of the length, but the emotional payoff lands. This works as a final note to a series that understands its characters.\ \ The Oblivion Bride by Caitlin Starling 4 stars\ \ Lorelei inherits her family’s legacy after a wave of mysterious deaths. Her uncle marries her off to Nephele, a war alchemist tasked with saving her life. What starts as strategy turns into something personal as they confront a spreading magical threat.\ \ This book leans into intensity. The arranged marriage, the age gap, and the possessiveness all build a charged dynamic between Lorelei and Nephele. The world blends technology and magic in a way that keeps you engaged, even when the rules are not fully explained. The romance carries the story. The ending felt a little rushed, and some plot elements lost clarity, but the emotional core remained strong.\ \ Anywhere You Go by Bridget Morrissey 5 stars\ \ A small-town waitress and a high-powered press agent swap homes after their lives fall apart. Each woman finds unexpected connections and direction in the other’s world. If The Holiday were sapphic this is it.\ \ This is a dual romance that succeeds on both sides. Eleanor and Carson bring emotional depth and directness. Tatum and June offer slow, patient longing and all the sapphic yearning. The structure keeps you invested because you want both outcomes. The characters feel grounded, and the relationships develop with care. This is a romcom that earns its emotional impact.\ \ Cowboys and Kisses by Karin Kallmaker 4.5 stars\ \ Darlin’ survives in a Wyoming town with limited options and fewer protections as a sex worker in a brothel. Years later, she faces the possibility of love and a life beyond survival with the pastor's sister.\ \ This story does not soften its setting. You feel the pressure of a world where women without protection face constant risk. The first-person voice captures both youth and endurance. The romance offers relief without ignoring the cost of getting there. The ending offers hope, balancing the harshness of the journey.\ \ Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris 5 stars\ \ Samantha Harker investigates supernatural murders in early twentieth-century Paris alongside Helena Moriarty (The daughter of Dracula's killer and Sherlock Holmes villain Moriarty). Their partnership grows under pressure as they track a killer.\ \ This book blends gothic horror, mystery, and feminist themes. The atmosphere is consistent and immersive. Sam’s internal conflict around her abilities adds tension to every scene. The chemistry between Sam and Hel is built through distrust and necessity. The pacing drives the story forward, and the world invites further exploration. This stands out for its scope and ambition. There was more emphasis on the mystery than anything else.\ \ Single Player by Tara Tai\ \ Two game developers clash over whether their project needs romance. Professional tension shifts into something more as they confront external threats and internal defenses.\ \ Cat’s early characterization feels exaggerated, and some choices seem unbelievable. As the story progresses, both leads gain depth, and their shared passion for gaming grounds the narrative. The identity elements lack development and feel thrown in for diversity's sake rather than cultural impact. The book works best as a light, character-driven read rather than a deep exploration of representation.\ \ What this list shows\ \ When you step outside the usual recommendations, you find range. You find sci-fi horror with obsessive romance. You find historical grit. You find dual love stories that balance each other. You find gothic mysteries with feminist stakes.\ \ If you keep reading the same five authors, you miss this range.\ \ A better approach to recommendations\ \ Ask for specifics. Do you want slow burn or immediate tension? Do you want plot-heavy or character-driven? Do you want soft romance or morally complex dynamics?\ \ Track your own reactions. Notice what holds your attention and what pulls you out of a story.\ \ Read across subgenres. Contemporary, fantasy, horror, historical. Each one expands the possibilities of sapphic storytelling.\ \ Support smaller titles. Many of the most interesting books do not trend. You have to look for them. I had never heard of Karin Killmaker until I was rummaging through "available now" titles on Libby.\ \ Your reading life grows when you stop relying on the same loop and start choosing with intention.\ \ I'm hoping to be back more often with short recs like this or round ups like what can be found on my instagram but with more explanation and intention.\ \ Join for free or login

The last six sapphic books I've read

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Mar 22

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Remember when we published our FIRST BOOK?

Oh how time flies!

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Mar 18

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Wanderland Reads\ \ Sayer\ \ • Mar 16

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Sapphic Speculative Fiction Expands the Imagination\ \ Many people approach queer romance through familiar frameworks. Modern settings. Recognizable social rules. Families that resemble the structures most of us grew up around. I wrote about this a week or two ago, about looking beyond contemporary romance for great sapphic stories.\ \ Those stories matter. They reflect lived experience and present-day struggles.\ \ Yet some of the most thought-provoking sapphic stories appear in places where the rules look completely different.\ \ Speculative fiction offers writers a simple but radical tool. The ability to ask what happens when the world operates under different assumptions?\ \ What happens when gender does not function the way our societies expect?\ \ What happens when colonial hierarchies collapse or never existed in the first place?\ \ What happens when family and community follow different structures?\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction thrives in these questions.\ \ What counts as speculative fiction?\ \ Speculative fiction serves as an umbrella term for stories that imagine worlds different from our own.\ \ Fantasy explores magic, mythology, and alternate societies.\ \ Science fiction looks at future technology, space exploration, and evolving social systems.\ \ Alternate history reimagines historical timelines.\ \ Dystopian and utopian fiction examine political systems taken to extreme outcomes.\ \ Magical realism blends ordinary life with elements that challenge reality.\ \ All of these genres share a common feature. They build worlds where the assumptions we treat as natural begin to shift.\ \ When those foundations move, storytelling changes.\ \ Reimagining gender systems\ \ Many speculative worlds question the rigid gender frameworks common in contemporary culture.\ \ Some settings include fluid understandings of gender. Others remove the strict gender hierarchy. Some societies organize identity through entirely different categories.\ \ When gender works differently, relationships evolve as well.\ \ Characters express attraction without the scripts that dominate many romance narratives. Partnerships develop around compatibility, trust, or shared goals rather than predetermined roles.\ \ For readers, this shift opens new ways of thinking about identity and connection.\ \ Challenging colonial power structures\ \ Speculative fiction often explores empire, conquest, and resistance.\ \ Many worlds center characters fighting against oppressive systems or rebuilding communities after political collapse. Some stories draw inspiration from Indigenous traditions or non-Western perspectives to imagine societies structured around different values.\ \ Within these settings, sapphic characters frequently appear as leaders, rebels, scholars, or explorers. Their relationships unfold inside larger struggles over power, survival, and cultural memory.\ \ Love does not exist in isolation. It grows alongside questions about justice, resistance, and the future of entire communities.\ \ Rethinking family and community\ \ Another striking feature of speculative fiction involves how stories approach family.\ \ The nuclear family model rarely stands as the only option. Characters often live within chosen families, cooperative communities, traveling crews, or political alliances.\ \ Romantic relationships exist inside these broader networks of care.\ \ Two people falling in love may also share responsibilities to their crew, their village, or their resistance movement. Partnership becomes part of a wider web of loyalty and support.\ \ For many readers, this structure feels both imaginative and deeply familiar.\ \ Common tropes in sapphic speculative fiction\ \ Speculative fiction combines romance with adventure and conflict. Certain narrative patterns recur.\ \ A princess guarded by a loyal warrior or knight who begins to question her duty.\ \ Rival soldiers from opposing factions are forced to work together.\ \ A scholar and a fighter navigating a dangerous quest.\ \ Political enemies are forming uneasy alliances during a rebellion.\ \ Explorers encounter unfamiliar worlds and build trust through survival.\ \ These tropes create tension, intimacy, and emotional growth while the larger story unfolds.\ \ Why these stories expand the imagination\ \ Speculative fiction does more than entertain. It shifts perspective.\ \ When readers step into worlds built on different assumptions, the systems shaping their own lives become visible. Gender roles, political hierarchies, and family structures reveal themselves as historical constructs rather than permanent truths.\ \ Sapphic speculative fiction takes this imaginative shift even further.\ \ Queer women appear not as side characters but as central figures in the story of the world itself. They lead revolutions. Build communities. Explore unknown territories. Fall in love while reshaping the societies around them.\ \ These stories ask readers to imagine something larger than representation.\ \ They ask us to imagine entirely different ways people live together.\ \ An invitation to explore\ \ If you have not spent time with sapphic speculative fiction, consider this an invitation.\ \ Explore fantasy worlds where magic reshapes power.\ \ Read science fiction that questions identity in future societies.\ \ Look for stories where love grows alongside resistance, exploration, and discovery.\ \ These books stretch the imagination in ways that linger long after the final page.\ \ I am especially interested in reading more sapphic speculative fiction this year.\ \ Which books expanded your worldview?\ \ Which stories stayed with you long after you finished them?\ \ Here is a list of books I've read and books on my TBR!\ \ \ \ Join for free or login

Worlds Where Sapphic Stories Rewrite the Rules

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Mar 16

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Previously on Strange Beasts …

TOMORROW TOMORROW TOMORROW

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Mar 10

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ONE WEEK AWAY.

Our girls are almost back.

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Mar 4

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JOIN US HERE: Zoom link for March 16th @7pm EST \ \ Ring in the publication of Susan J. Morris' WAYWARD SOULS, the eagerly anticipated sequel to STRANGE BEASTS, with the Inky Phoenix family! Bring your favorite snacks and bevvies, and if you haven't read WS yet, try to before the call (also, if you haven't reviewed it online, please please do so!).\ \ Can't wait to see you all and celebrate Susan!!\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login

You're invited to our Wayward Souls Eve Celebration Party!

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Feb 25

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Featured in The LA Times

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Feb 24

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SPECIAL FOR YOU! \ \ If you recall, we joked about making Daddy Moirarty hats WAY back (keep in mind that HEL is Daddy, not her daddy), and yes, yes — I did the damn thing. And as a thank you to our top tier members (YOU!) I'd love to ship you one for free to get you in the WAYWARD SOULS spirit!\ \ If you'd like a hat, please comment on this post and make sure your shipping address is updated here:\ \ https://binderybooks.com/settings/account/\ \ I'll start shipping once I get your request. (And I'll add some other Inky goodies in the package!)\ \ And this will be for US shipping only. I am so very sorry about that, but with the state of our country and tariffs, it's just not manageable at the moment.\ \ Upgrade for $25 or login

A special treat for our Inky Inner Circle

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Feb 20

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Our beautiful Inky Phoenix Press children.

💀🥂🧟‍♀️

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Feb 7

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That’s a sexy duo!

Hel might even call it elementary…

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Jan 27

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They could be monsters together …

Preorder now. From an independent bookstore, because that is the act of rebellion Sam and Hel would expect of you.

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Jan 5

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Susan J. Morris would die for an oat milk latte ...

Who wants to go through the end of the world without an oat milk latte!?

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Dec 20 2025

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The Inky Phoenix Chats — December '25 Edition

Welcome to our end of the year wrap up PLUS a first look at the finished copy of WAYWARD SOULS!

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Dec 3 2025

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ENTER HERE \ \ We are only a few months out from our new adventure with Sam and Hel (March 17th), which means it’s time to preorder your copy of Wayward Souls (the sequel to Strange Beasts) and enter our preorder campaign! Open internationally. Bundle #1 (Add Wayward Souls to your TBR on Goodreads or StoryGraph OR preorder a copy of Wayward Souls): 💀themed phone background 💀annotated first chapter by Susan and Kathryn 💀signed bookplate from Susan 💀reversible art bookmark of Hel & Sam Bundle #2 (if you preorder, you’ll be entered to win): 💀$25 gift card to Blue Bicycle Books 💀custom Wayward Souls raven bookmark Bundle #3 💀3 month subscription to The Inky Phoenix Bindery community (eligible for new or existing subscribers) 💀VIP trunk with exclusive promotional items and ARC 💀custom “Wayward” nameplate necklace Interested in a personalized copy? Order from Susan’s local indie, @brick_and_mortar_books and add your personalization request in the notes section at checkout. Click the bio link to enter. Winners will be selected in March and shipped in April. Don’t have a Google account? Email cj@binderybooks.com with your contact info and receipt to be added.

Enter the WAYWARD SOULS preorder raffle

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Cozy Quill\ \ Meg\ \ • Nov 7 2025

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\ \ Hi friends! We recently had our monthly "Reading Recap" hang with our Cozy Quill paid members and, boy, did they come through with recs!\ \ I wanted to share all these book recommendations with you asap because they just kept coming and they kept getting better. Thank you to everyone who popped into the virtual recap this month and shared the stories you're loving! Your contributions were very generous and I'm excited to offer the list to everyone in our cozy crew.\ \ Scroll down and you'll see all 38 books our Cozy Quillers recommend this season! You can purchase them right from the Bindery site (I do earn a commission on that, I think? I haven't yet so I'm not sure ha!) or just add them to your TBR. Love you all! Until the next reading recap...\ \ x, Meg\ \ Join for free or login](https://cozyquill.binderybooks.com/item/9c4JMh80PlKFSM7uicW9/)

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The Inky Phoenix\ \ Kathryn Budig\ \ • Oct 8 2025

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Happy Birthday Susan J. Morris!!

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