Taylor Grothe
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taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Taylor Grothe
@taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
4.5K followers 2.1K following 830 posts
Horror(omantasy) author 👻 HOLLOW (Peachtree Teen, Sept 30, 2025), THESE DREAMING SPIRES (Titan, Sept 2, 2025), LETHAL KISS (TOR Nightfire, Fall ‘26), MBT (Peachtree Teen, Spring '27) | MFA ‘24 | BLM | 🍉 | Rep: Victoria Marini
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taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
THE NEWS IS OUT!

Say hello to Lethal Kiss, a queer dark academia horror romance out in fall 2026 from Tor Nightfire!! It's all about a draugr and a mortal, both assistant professors, tangled up in mxrder on their prestigious university campus 🥰 I'm so excited to bring Marcella and Lacie to you!
Taylor Grothe's LETHAL KISS, a queer dark academia horror romance where two Nordic Studies assistant professors—a draugr whose eternal hunger for blood is only matched by her craving for knowledge and the human who sees her as a rival for tenure-are forced to team up to uncover the truth behind a slew of missing people at their college, pitched as Jennifer's Body meets Ninth House, to Troix Jackson at Nightfire, in a significant deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2026, by Victoria Marini at High Line Literary Collective (world). A digital painting of Lacie and Marcella in a dark academia environment
July 1, 2025 at 4:48 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
I could absolutely screech with joy because: Hollow is on Netgalley!!!! Ahhh!! And not only is Hollow on Netgalley, but it’s on the front page of most requested horror books!! 😭😭😭 you can request Hollow now!!!
On a background of red leaves: Now available on Netgalley Hollow’s cover Netgalley’s green logo with sparkles
May 23, 2025 at 12:10 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Me and my agent matching each other’s freak on a cosmic level 😌
Taylor Grothe To: Victoria Marini > Friday Okay—| KNOW. I know. I'm like six months early on this, but I wanted to get you the pitch in case it's, like, too much. Let me know!! Victoria Marini To: Taylor Grothe > I LOOOOOVE THIS!
March 25, 2025 at 2:33 AM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Took the kiddos out for a celebratory dinner and put on makeup properly for the first time in weeks, pls applaud
A photo of Taylor in long sleeved blue pajamas facing the camera while wearing burgundy eye shadow
March 14, 2025 at 2:04 AM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
A drawing of a stick figure person face down in a puddle of tears
February 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
It’s official!! MFA’d 😌🎉🥳
A photo of Taylor’s MFA diploma from Fairfield University
February 18, 2025 at 11:58 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
✨RFK can fig ht me✨

My books will always be about neurodiversity and chronic illness and angry femmes fighting back against the patriarchy, about intersectional feminism and the beauty of our world's natural variation.
She never got her footing, and any time Cassie tried to explain how it was too much, that between her anxiety and her trichotillomania and autism diagnosis she was drowning, drowning, drowning, and her mother just nodded and told her to smile, to try and keep up and not break down. Surrounded by: Autistic MC trichotillomania rep Internalized ableism Chronic illness Self acceptance Systemic prejudice Hollow September 30, 2025 Peachtree Teen As a child, I used to think my pain was a result of some evil inside me, a curse or an omen. But as I grew, it became the single predictable thing in my existence; for all I hate it, it clings to me like a puppy or a crow starved for nourishment. My sick headaches are as much a part of me as any other piece of my body. Surrounded by: Migraine rep Chronic illness rep Femme rage Dangerous magic threatening men Secular cult Allegorical monsters Of auras and shadows Peachtree teen Fall 2026 I grin at him, pulling my oxblood lips wide. My teeth glimmer. "Why are you so worried about a couple of boys, Dean Hansen?" I can't help it. I want him to fear me and what I can do. I'm riding right up to the line I drew in the sand myself: to never tell anyone what I am, especially not a mortal man. Surrounded by: Horrid men exposed Anxiety rep Monsterf*ckers Blo ody justice Self-assured femmes Autistic coded MC Lethal Kiss Taylor Grothe I won't let her have the last of me. I won't let her use them to end me. If I'm an abomination, I'm the one she made. Surrounded by: Eldritch abomination Catholic guilt Monsterf*ckers Internalized ableism Femme rage Nonbinary, autistic MC
February 16, 2025 at 6:19 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
A reminder that I have a NINTH HOUSE meets JENNIFER’S BODY proposal out there in the world and I might be getting closer to being able to share it!!

If you like whip smart, fast-paced dark academia adult crossover with something ✨worse✨ than succubae, let me know 😌
A mood board featuring: a view out a dark academia window into a courtyard, a long hallway in an opulent university, hands clutching books, the words "she's full of rage", a blo od-stained woman, the words "see you in hell", a man's throat, a red-stained sink, tweed clothing
February 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
When I started writing 5 years ago, I could never have imagined this.

I’m so grateful to you, for making this autistic, queer book such a success. For propelling Cassie. For your support.

Top 10: Teen Horror
Top 10: Teen Paranormal Suspense
Top 15: Teen Thrillers
#2 Teen Neurodiversity Book
On a snowy mountain background: Thank you for making Hollow the #2 YA Neurodiversity Book In a circle around Hollow's cover image: Top 10 YA Horror, Top 10 YA Paranormal, Top 15 YA Thriller Ice Blue: Barnes and Noble Logo
February 8, 2025 at 10:37 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
I am so thrilled to release the cover of my debut YA horror novel, HOLLOW, out with Peachtree Teen on September 30, 2025!!!
A photo of trees with the cover of HOLLOW under "official cover reveal" Don't Let the Forest In meets The Whispering Dark in a queer YA cult horror following a recently diagnosed autistic teen who becomes enmeshed in a community of outcasts harboring sinister secrets. After a meltdown in her school cafeteria prompts an unwanted autism diagnosis, Cassie Davis moves back to her hometown in upstate New York, where her mom hopes the familiarity will allow Cassie to feel normal again. Cassie's never truly felt normal anywhere, but she does crave the ease she used to have with her old friends. Problem is that her friends aren't so eager to welcome her back into the fold. They extend an olive branch by inviting her on their backpacking trip to Hollow Ridge, in the upper reaches of the Adirondacks. But when a fight breaks out their first night, Cassie wakes to a barren campsite-her friends all gone. With severe weather approaching and nearing sensory overload, Cassie is saved by a boy named Kaleb, who whisks her away to a compound of artists and outcasts he calls the Roost. As Kaleb tends to her injuries, Cassie begins to feel-for the first time in her life-that she can truly be herself. But as the days pass, strange happenings around the Roost make Cassie question her instincts. Noises in the trees grow louder, begging the question: Are the dangers in the forest, on the trail, or in the Roost itself? In a world where autistic characters rarely get to be the hero of their own stories, Cassie Davis's one-step-back, two-steps-forward journey to unmasking makes Hollow as much a love letter to neurodiversity as it is a haunting tale you'll want to read with the lights on.
February 4, 2025 at 8:45 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
🎉🌈COVER REVEAL TOMORROW🌈🎉

Ahhhh I’m so excited to announce that my cover goes LIVE tomorrow!! Check this space at 12:30pm EST to see the most beautiful cover EVER 😭✨
On a gray paper package Hollow cover reveal A tag that says: Open on Feb 4 Hollow She never wanted to be a hero. Now, she’ll have to become one BI/PAN REP eerie, dark forest autism & anxiety rep NERD-CORE BROKEN FRIENDS off-the-grid compound nonbinary LI SO MANY SECRETS WOUND-TENDING too many crows childhood crushes to [redacted] LOST BOY COTTAGEGORE morally gray community September 30, 2025 Peachtree Teen
February 3, 2025 at 8:41 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
It is my heartfelt honor to announce my 2025-26 Round Table Mentor mentee, @eshuberty.bsky.social!!! From the moment I opened the pages of THE GIRLS OF WIDOW'S WOODS, I was enthralled by her beautiful prose and heart-clutching scares. E.S.––I'm so excited to get work (and agents, get ready!!)
On a background of snowy trees: Welcome my 2025-26 RTM mentee E.S. Huberty The Girls of Widow's Woods a 3x3 moodboard in dark green and gray tones. Includes: a foggy forest, a white church at night, a buried body, bottles hanging from trees, two girls holding hands spinning in the forest, an abandoned home, a view from below ground, a diner, and a rural road surrounded by trees.
February 1, 2025 at 5:01 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
SURPRISE✨ Exciting news!! I’m going to be published alongside some really incredible names this September in THESE DREAMING SPIRES, from @titanbooks.bsky.social!! This is a dream come true for my dark academia loving heart 😭❤️
A photo of “these dreaming spires” from titan books, overtop a snowy forest
February 1, 2025 at 12:18 AM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Showing my face for the first time in a while, feat. under eye circles
A photo of Taylor from slightly below. They’re in a black and white shirt and smiling a little.
January 25, 2025 at 10:49 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
SURPRISE! I get to write another book with the phenomenal Ashley Hearn at Peachtree Teen!!!!

I'm so excited to share this horromantasy with you NEXT FALL (ahhhh!!!)

What if my migraine auras were actually magic? What if the lymphatic system held the power to change reality? 👀 let’s find out!!
A publishers marketplace report reading: Category: Childen's: Young Adult Fiction Of Auras and Shadows by Taylor Grothe Imprint: Peachtree Teen Author of forthcoming HOLLOW Taylor Grothe's OF AURAS AND SHADOWS, a queer YA fantasy, pitched as combining the romance of A Dark and Drowning Tide with the horror of The Witcher, in which a girl, who suffers from migraines, falls through one of her auras and into the autumnal, wraith-filled Otherworld, where she meets a sharp-edged girl who is being ritualistically used by the ruling secular cult that promised to cure her, and vows to save the girl she's growing to love, even if it means becoming a pawn in the cult's plans for war, to Ashley Hearn at Peachtree Teen, for publication in fall 2026, by Larissa Melo Pienkowski at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (world).
January 15, 2025 at 2:08 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! And…happy debut year to me 😭❤️ to celebrate, here’s Hollow’s first part epigraph and its first page :) #horror
On a background of burgundy leaf clusters DEBUT YEAR first page & epigraph reveal On a background of burgundy leaf clusters Part One Hatchling The Crow is extremely courageous in encountering any of its winged enemies. The American Crow - Corvus americanus, Audubon - Writings and Drawings Hollow • Fall 2025 Peachtree Teen On a background of burgundy leaf clusters Chapter One Cassie Davis was no hero. And she didn't have to be. She just needed to slip into her old mask and become the girl she once was. Which is why she was here, standing in front of Donohue's Donuts at 10:02am, like she always had before. Part of her old routine. Her body kept the score, remembered where to go. A place she always remembered as safe. This had been her hang out with her best friends, and her mom had urged her just to go back to how everything was before. In her heart of hearts, Cassie wasn't so sure that was even possible. But she could at least hold it together, right? She wouldn't let a single crack in her mask show. Cassie rested her hand on the corrugated metal of the door handle. Inside, Donohue's was a microcosm of the past: all 50s-style pleather booths and green and white striped walls hung with black and white photos of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and Etta James. Trays and trays of frosted and dipped donuts cooled behind glass, the shoebox kitchen whirring with life, chromed heat lamps beaming copper light onto the pass. They still wore paper hats back there. Hollow • Fall 2025 Peachtree Teen On a dark textured background, a mock up cover of Hollow surrounded by tropes LIFELIKE WOODEN PUPPETS (SORRY) HOLLOW WOUND TENDING FRIENDS TO CRUSHES TO [REDACTED] LGBT+ CAST EERIE FOREST SLEEPY HOLLOW VIBES FREAK STORM AUTISM REP PREMONITORY CROWS TRICHOTILLOMANIA REP NONBINARY LI ADD ON GOODREADS NOW
January 1, 2025 at 5:12 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Yesterday I opened my Goodreads and saw my first five star text review, and if that isn’t the most amazing way to end 2025, idk what is 😭❤️⭐️ my heart is so full!!!
A screenshot from Goodreads reading: questioning, always doubting, which I think is an experience a lot of us have had in our teenage years (and as adults in a lot of cases). It makes her universally relatable regardless of her autism diagnosis, which is something Grothe absolutely nailed. The way they explored Cassie's autism was one of the most authentic representations I've seen in a book and the way that it was delivered contextualizes it in a way that can help readers better understand the experience of someone on the spectrum and break certain perceptions people may have. All of Hollow was incredible, but it was made that much more addictive by Grothe's lush prose and the world building that served as the backdrop to the story. So many times I found myself thinking "That is a beautiful sentence/description," and feeling envious of their brain for putting these words together. My primary and most important critique of this book is: "why did it have to end?" I would have gladly read 800+ pages of this story had it existed. Hollow is a novel of the highest order. I cannot recommend it enough. tl; dr READ THIS BOOK. goodreads.com
December 31, 2024 at 4:06 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Holy guacamole, we DID IT!!! A thousand times thank you! #booksky
On a burgundy orchid background: Thank you for 900 Adds On Goodreads On a background of burgundy orchids: She'd forged a chain of beautiful deception and wrapped it around herself, decorated it with sapphires and diamonds and rubies of little lies believed to be real because of their flashing, brilliant colors. And they had been believable, until they weren't. They were gorgeous, until the counterfeit stones cracked and dulled. HOLLOW FALL 2025 PEACHTREE TEEN
December 29, 2024 at 6:42 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Surprise!! I’m starting a #author newsletter in January!! Come for the swoopy, gothic aesthetics, stay for publishing news and inside secrets, craft thoughts and mental health practice 🥀❤️

Hallowedwords.substack.com
On a background of a burgundy library: Hallowed words Letters from Taylor Grothes desk On a burgundy background Tiers free subscriber $0 paid subscriber $10/month or $100 one-time payment Hollowed Founder up to $240/year On a burgundy background Content writing craft posts sneak peaks Giveaways publishing trends mental health practice big news cover reveals useful links BONUSES FOR PAYING SUBSCRIBERS first looks query lotteries book club On a burgundy background Hollowed Founder benefits name a character occasional zoom calls craft and writing sessions plus every other resource!
December 29, 2024 at 3:32 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
🎁An early Christmas gift for you🎁

Here’s a gift from author me to Bluesky you: a never before seen quote from HOLLOW! And may the new year bring even more secrets to come to light 👀🎄 merry happy joyful everything ❤️💚

And if YOU want to give me a Christmas present, you can ádd Hollow on Goodreads!
On a reddish background of Christmas tree ornaments: MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM HOLLOW with a never-before-shared snippet On a reddish background of Christmas ornaments: When Cassie looked down, the trail was a long ribbon of rusty vermilion. It leeched into ber clothing, sticky and bot. The forest bled for ber. She was inside a thrumming, arterial vein. The forest was alive. She was going straight to its beart. Hollow [pine branch] fall ‘25
December 24, 2024 at 2:51 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
It’s snowing here, which always reminds me of Iceland, which reminds me of TSITW, which reminds me of this trope map 👀
A placeholder cover for "There's Something in the Water." Rainbows point at it and they read: Infectious monstrosity, liminal ocean, locked room on a boat, freak storm, LGBTQ cast, Orpheus and Eurydice Retelling, Nonbinary MC, Autism rep, Juliia Sound, Wound tending, Academic rivals to lovers
December 20, 2024 at 5:02 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
🥀💋

3/3
On a background of a rune stone Nine Nordic mythology On a background of a hand grasping a face Ten Enemies to lovers
December 20, 2024 at 1:55 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
🥀💋

2/3
On a misty graveyard scene Five Crypts and their keepers On a background of a finger held to lips Six Deeply held secrets On a background of arms encircling a femme’s neck Seven Dual-pov pining On a background of a black cat with orange eyes Eight Animal familiars
December 20, 2024 at 1:54 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
🥀dark academia horroromance book vibes🥀

Continuing with the ~book vibes~ for the end of the year! Please enjoy this horroromance mood board writ large 💋 I think you’re going to love Marcella and Lacie!

1/3
On a background of a woman’s Victorian shirt One Deeply romantic horror On a background of a shadowy gothic school hall Two Northeastern dark academia On a background of a beautiful woman with blood sprayed on her face Three Immortalish monsters On a background of two femme heads touching Four Sapphic seduction
December 20, 2024 at 1:53 PM
taylorlgrothe.bsky.social
Getting amazing #writing news at the end of the year was not on my 2024 bucket list, but here I am! I’ll have more to tell you soon (I hope) but in the meantime, here’s a video of me being emotional 😭
December 19, 2024 at 8:21 PM