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| photo: Phrachan Thewi | |
Chloe Lauter is a writer based in Los Angeles. Her debut novel, The Flayed Man (Soft Skull Press, July 21, 2026) explores family curses, bloodthirsty ghouls, and budding romance set against the Mojave Desert and Las Vegas.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Atmospheric horror about generational curses and what we owe the people that we love. Or: vampires in the Mojave Desert!
On your nightstand now:
I'm finishing Bliss Montage by Ling Ma and my friend Henry Barajas's graphic novel Death to Pachuco, a noir set during the zoot suit riots in Los Angeles. Next up, Uncanny Valley Girls by Zefyr Lisowski, which I've been looking forward to for ages.
Favorite book when you were a child:
I've always loved fairy tales, and I have fond memories of the various beautifully illustrated fairy tale books I grew up with. Oh, and Ursula K. Le Guin's Catwings series. It's about a litter of kittens born with wings. The books are very charming and sweet. I was a cat lover from day one I guess!
Your top five authors:
Sara Gran. Come Closer is a modern horror classic, and her mystery novels are both brilliantly plotted and emotionally profound.
Brian Evenson. He is an absolute master of horror and suspense. Reading his work feels like a craft seminar in the best way.
Shirley Jackson. The queen of atmosphere. The first paragraph of We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of the greatest literary openings of all time.
Carmen Maria Machado. Her writing is so precise and compelling. Certain passages reliably bring me to tears.
And lastly, Agatha Christie, because I've read absolutely everything she's written (and I do mean everything) at least twice.
Book you've faked reading:
I can't think of any I've truly committed to fake reading, though I'm sure there are books I've nodded along about in polite conversation despite not having read!
Book you're an evangelist for:
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. It's a novel-in-verse about werewolves. It's tender and brutal in equal measure, and the type of Los Angeles noir that's less Hollywood and more San Fernando Valley. I'm constantly trying to get people to read it.
Book you've bought for the cover:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I find both the title and the cover incredibly intriguing. Luckily the book more than lives up to both!
Book you hid from your parents:
When I was maybe 13 or 14, I convinced my dad to get me a copy of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow, which he would only do on the condition that he read it first to make sure it was relatively age-appropriate. He read it, went "maybe in a few years," and put it in a safe hiding place... or so he thought!
Long story short: I found it and got away with hiding it long enough to finish the book. I did eventually get found out, though.
Book that changed your life:
Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson. The tactile nature of Winterson's writing and the deeply embodied way the book talks about love unlocked something in my brain.
Favorite line from a book:
A line I like a lot is from The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin: "You can go home again, the General Temporal Theory asserts, so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been." Even when things feel stagnant, I know I am in process of a great change, and I look forward to discovering what home will become.
Five books you'll never part with:
I'm pretty unsentimental about physical books, but if I choose to interpret this as five books that have moved or influenced me (not including any I've already mentioned)...
Bear by Julia Phillips
Black Flies by Shannon Burke
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Embassytown by China Miéville
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. It's an incredible thriller from front to back, but there's nothing quite like reading that ending for the first time.