- Genre: Non-fiction, Essays, Memoir
- Published by: Harper Perennial
- Publish date: October 7, 2025
- Number of pages: 240 pages
- Author’s website: https://zefyrlisowski.com/
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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 first I loved them, and then I loved myself.
At twenty-seven, poet Zefyr Lisowski found herself in the place she feared 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.
Rating: 5/5
Earlier this year, I posted on Instagram about a collection of essays called “It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror”. It was reposted by the editor of the collection as well as some of the authors of the essays. One of those authors who interacted with my post was Zefyr Lisowski. From there, I was excited to see that this author was coming out with a book of her own and that it was available to request on Netgalley. From the collection, I already knew I liked Lisowski’s style– a mix of deep research on the topic of choice, the surrounding culture, and her personal relationship to that topic. Uncalley Valley Girls follows a similar style, but with perhaps a more confessional and detailed insight into her personal life.
As the secondary title suggests, these essays focus on horror (and survival and love), but not all are on the horror media I expected–movies. The beginning essays do reference movies such as Ringu, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Black Swan. Lisowski shares different people and different states of life she was in when she watched these films. Outside of film, she also speaks to the horrors and hardships of growing up trans through another medium– art, in her titular essay that focuses on the dolls created by artist Greer Lankton.
As a whole, the collection of essays creates a somewhat non-linear memoir, and there is a particular organizational decision that really worked for me. In an early essay, Lisowski recalls the moment she decides she needs professional help by checking into a psychiatric ward, and in a later essay, that moment comes up again, but with more context. It brought the essays together and personally made the read more engaging. I loved this book for validating my own feelings surrounding the horror genre. Lastly, I feel it is a gift for someone to share personal stories on being trans and disabled, on being a horror lover, and I thank Lisowski for sharing these stories.
Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? I’d love to know!
I received an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book from Netgalley and Harper Perennial. This has not impacted my rating and this review is voluntary.
Musings by Michelle 