Uncanny Valley Girls - Essays on Horror, Survival, and Love

"A poignant, innovative, and urgent blend of memoir and criticism that has replenished my belief in how art and love can save your life."--Torrey Peters "I''m in awe--this collection is an absolute sensation."--Jeanne Thornton A sharply personal and expansive essay collection dedicated to the strange and absurd beauty of horror films, exploring the complications of gender, the insidiousness of class ascension, and the latent violence hidden in our own uncanny reflections. This is how it worked: first I loved them, and then I loved myself. At twenty-seven, poet Zefyr Lisowski found herself in the place she feared most: a locked psych ward. While inside, she turned to horror movies--her deepest, most constant comfort. Rather than disturb, scary movies have always provided solace and connection for Lisowski, as they do many others--offering a vision of a world filled equally with beauty and pain, and a reason to reach out to others and hold them tight. After all, as Lisowski argues, what terrifies us most about these movies is our own uncanny reflection--and at the root of that fear, a desperate desire to love and be loved. In these wide-ranging essays, Lisowski weaves theory and memoir into nuanced critiques of films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Saint Maud. From fears about sickness and disability, to trans narratives and the predator/victim complex, to the struggle to live in a world that wants you dead, she explores horror''s reciprocal impact on our culture and--by extension--our lives. Through it all, Lisowski lays bare her own complex biography--spanning from a trans childhood in the South to the sweaty dancefloors of Brooklyn--and the family, friends, and lovers that have bloomed with her into the present. Deeply felt, blood-spattered, and brimming with care and wonder, Uncanny Valley Girls thrusts this seasoned poet to centerstage. ...

Summary

An Electric Literature Best Nonfiction Book of the Year • A them Best LGBTQ+ Book of the Year • A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year • An Autostraddle Most Anticipated October Read • A BookRiot Most Anticipated Queer Book of the Year
"In these extraordinary essays, Lisowski reads the entrails of her life like a witch and invites you along for the ride. How could you say no?" —Carmen Maria Machado
From Lambda Award-winning poet Zefyr Lisowski, a sharply personal and expansive memoir-in-essays dedicated to the strange and absurd beauty of horror films, exploring the complications of gender, the insidiousness of class ascension, and the latent violence hidden in our own uncanny reflections.
This is how it worked: first I loved them, and then I loved myself.
At twenty-seven, poet Zefyr Lisowski found herself in the place she feared most: a locked psych ward. While inside, she turned to horror movies—her deepest, most constant comfort.
Rather than disturb, scary movies have always provided solace and connection for Lisowski, as they do many others—offering a vision of a world filled equally with beauty and pain, and a reason to reach out to others and hold them tight. After all, as Lisowski argues, what terrifies us most about these movies is our own uncanny reflection—and at the root of that fear, a desperate desire to love and be loved.
In these wide-ranging essays, Lisowski weaves theory and memoir into nuanced critiques of films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Saint Maud. From fears about sickness and disability, to trans narratives and the predator/victim complex, to the struggle to live in a world that wants you dead, she explores horror’s reciprocal impact on our culture and—by extension—our lives. Through it all, Lisowski lays bare her own complex biography—spanning from a trans childhood in the South to the sweaty dancefloors of Brooklyn—and the family, friends, and lovers that have bloomed with her into the present.
Deeply felt, blood-spattered, and brimming with care and wonder, Uncanny Valley Girls thrusts this seasoned poet to centerstage.

Report

"Calling the book a memoir in movies doesn't capture the deftness with which Lisowski examines the role movies played in shaping who she was, longed to be, and became. . . . Even amid breakdowns, family traumas, and physical pain, there's a sense of optimism that emerges from each essay, a belief that horror is not a static construct of violence and fear but a shapeshifting entity that can be a teacher, a mirror, a haven and more." - Salon
"Zefyr Lisowski has written a poignant, innovative, and urgent blend of memoir and criticism that has replenished my belief in how art and love can save your life-a book that can single-handedly infuse new and unexpected beauty into your favorite films." - Torrey Peters, author of Stag Dance and Detransition, Baby
"Expansive, skillful, and tender, Uncanny Valley Girls made me think in new ways about seemingly familiar stories. Lisowski is an immensely generous writer with an unparalleled eye for the beauty to be found in the macabre."
- Julia Armfield, author of Private Rites and Our Wives Under the Sea
". . . [Lisowski] is particularly skillful in her usage of horror films as framing devices, expertly using them as a needle through which to thread thoughtful, beautifully written explorations of gender, disability, race, class, and more." - them, "The 32 Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2025"
"Reading Uncanny Valley Girls is like wading into water without fishing, but pulling up line after line of transcribed narrative intermixed with the author's lived experience, contextualized by popular culture, until you are left holding a beautiful tangle of words racing straight to the core of feeling." - Chicago Review of Books
"This lyrical, thoughtful essay collection is as gripping as any horror movie. Zefyr Lisowski's gorgeous prose belongs equally to the canons of memoir and culture writing." - Rax King, author of Sloppy and Tacky
"...any list of recent trans horror would be incomplete without Zefyr Lisowski's stellar collection of essays. . . . Uncanny Valley Girls knows how to challenge the ableist, racist, and classist themes of the genre while also engaging with them as nuanced works of art and pop cultural significance. Also, as her recent Lambda win for Transgender Poetry would attest, Lisowski's prose is stunning and evocative." -Autostraddle, "10 Trans Horror Books You Should Read Right Now"
"In Uncanny Valley Girls, Zefyr Lisowski pushes past the easy discursive tropes of horror, trauma, and trans girlhood, finding and naming the messier, lovelier realities within. In so doing, she's gifted us a book that's somehow both sharp and generous, and a joy to read. I'm in awe-this collection is an absolute sensation." - Jeanne Thornton, author of A/S/L and Summer Fun
"A visceral collection of essays tracking Lisowski's biography starting from her trans childhood in the south, the book explores gender complications, violence, and class ascension with a careful hand." - Electric Literature, "Electric Lit's Best Nonfiction of 2025"
"In Uncanny Valley Girls, Zefyr Lisowski is unafraid to encounter the most monstrous things-the violences of white supremacy, cis-hetero patriarchy, transphobia, ableism, classism-and consider not only their ubiquity, complexity, and nuance, but also how they live, slyly and softly, in each of us. . . . This fearless inquiry is directed at everyone, not least of all the author herself, and yet its militant commitment to insight never feels punitive. In response to the adage, 'the call is coming from inside the house,' Zefyr answers the phone and asks to speak to whoever-whatever-is on the other end of the line." - Johanna Hedva, author of How to Tell When We Will Die
"Lisowski takes an intimate approach to horror films . . . drawing poignant parallels between her experience as a trans woman and the monsters and final girls of the films she loves. . . . [Lisowski is a] talent to watch, with a strong, singular voice." - Library Journal
"In Uncanny Valley Girls, horror is more than a genre-it is a language, a sensibility, a lifeline, a semaphore between culture and our own grief and pain and longing. In these extraordinary essays, Lisowski reads the entrails of her life like a witch and invites you along for the ride. How could you say no?" - Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of In the Dream House
"[An] urgent, complex debut pulling at the threads of horror, trauma, care, and ultimately the endurance of trans women and queer people at large . . . . [Lisowski] never shies away from the messiness of its subject matter or the complexities inherent in fleshing it out. Uncanny Valley Girls is deftly tuned to our cultural moment, never missing the opportunity to name the greater systems that shape and impose upon our lives. At every turn, she highlights the nuances of her analysis, looking at its limits and applications across identity, time, and location. That said, these essays are as emotionally-charged as they are astute. Lisowski makes a fervent argument for care, kindness, and understanding between every bloody, hard-to-look at moment of hurt and pain. Through her meticulousness comes a clear, resounding message reminiscent of the horror movies she pulls from: Stay alive."
-Electric Literature

"This sharp, exquisitely layered book is like a slasher film inverted: Lisowski takes a blade to the big feelings art can evoke, and with great care, she does the delicate paring needed to fit criticism to memoir and to interlace thought and emotion. Horror, revulsion, yearning, shame, and harder-to-name feelings resonate across one another, given space to ring out. The movements of the mind at work in Uncanny Valley Girls had me hurtling toward Lisowski's incomparable insight, hard-won though the precision work on display here as she pushes to understand a terrifying, lonely, dazzling, and otherwise incomprehensible world."
- Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic
"Horror is horrific in part because it brings humans a little too close to ourselves for comfort. It holds a mirror to the parts of us we don't want to see. But it can also act as a space for solace and interpretation for those who love it, and that seemingly contradictory place is what excites me about these essays." - Literary Hub, "Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025, Part Two"
"...an unflinching reflection of [Lisowski's] life in its many stages . . . . Lisowski writes prose that jumps off the page and demands your attention . . . . [shining] a light on the contradictions of our world and our own resistance towards them." - Screen Speck
"...a generative book that bends toward hope." - Booklist (starred review)
"Zefyr Lisowski's Uncanny Valley Girls is a book that feels alive . . . . By the end, we read of hope not just for the author but for all marginalized people. We read that survival and love is possible not just for those who can speak their truth to the world but also for those who haven't yet found their voices." -The Coachella Review

Product details

• Authors: Zefyr Lisowski
• Publisher: Harper Perennial USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 07.10.2025
• EAN: 9780063413993
• ISBN: 978-0-06-341399-3
• No. of pages: 240
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 203 mm x 14 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Memoirs, Literary essays, Relating to LGBTQ+ people, Film: styles and genres, Film history, theory or criticism, LITERATURE: WOMEN'S LITERATURE, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Gender Studies, LITERATURE: GENERAL FICTION, LITERARY COLLECTIONS: Essays, LITERATURE: L G B T Q, SOCIAL SCIENCE: Media Studies, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY: LGBTQ+, LITERATURE: MEMOIR & BIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE: ESSAYS, PERFORMING ARTS: Film / Genres / Horror, LGBTQ+ Studies / topics, Literature / General Fiction, Literature / Women's Literature, Literature / Memoir & Biography, Literature / Essays, Literature / LGBTQ