Spooky new San Antonio bookshop Ghoulish Books is lifting up queer horror

Selma horror bookshop and small press Ghoulish Books has moved into a new haunt in downtown San Antonio, where it specializes all things spooky.

And luckily for co-owner Max Booth III, the Alamo City can’t seem to get enough ghoulishness.

“We just got to realize that San Antonio loves spooky stuff,” said Booth, who has a forearm tattoo reading “GHOULISH” in large, creepster font. “This is a spooky person’s paradise.”

In addition to serving as a horror book shop, the location — 628 S. St. Mary’s St., Suite 102 — is the base of operations for the small press run by Booth and partner Lori. The imprint publishes horror and dark fiction from authors around the world and also releases a quarterly magazine called Ghoulish Tales, which focuses on short horror stories.
The Booths are also behind the literary horror convention Ghoulish Book Fest, which has been held every spring at Hermann Sons for the past four years. In the interest of full disclosure, Booth occasionally contributes to the Current as a writer.

Although small, the Ghoulish shopfront stocks a collection of novels ranging from the occult to true crime and even includes young adult and kids sections. It also sells hard-to-find rarities such as a special edition of the late Jack Ketchum’s Off Season, which retails for $200. Only a few days out from a soft open last week, some of the shop’s shelves have already been picked clean by horror fans while it awaits a restock shipment.

Queering horror

The shop also has an extensive collection of queer horror. This includes titles published in-house such as queer tragic horror anthology Bury Your Gays and Bound in Flesh, a collection of trans body horror. The latter is one of the press’s best selling titles, Booth added.

By the end of the year, Booth also plans to put out the first volume of an annual anthology series titled The Best Trans Horror of the Year, collecting top horror stories by trans authors. Indeed, queer and trans horror are so celebrated at the shop that the entire middle table is devoted to LGBTQ+ authors and includes titles such as It Came from the Closet.

One title, The Only Safe Place Left Is the Dark — which features the AIDS activist group Act Up’s “Silence = Death” logo on its cover — is a novel by Warren Wagner about a man with HIV whose life-saving medication is stolen from his cabin by marauders during a zombie apocalypse.

“But then he has to go out into this zombie universe and find medication before he dies,” Booth said.

For Booth, who uses they/them pronouns, lifting up queer and trans stories is a no-brainer (and not in the zombie way).

“I’m non-binary, but beyond that, it just seems like something you should do,” Booth said. “There’s no real thought into ‘OK, now we have to stop and decide how to be inclusive.’ It’s just a natural thing, and I think that’s how it should be for everybody.”

Booth acknowledged that the horror genre hasn’t always been the most progressive, which is why Ghoulish Books is carving its own niche.

Turning the page

The Booths launched their Selma bookstore in 2023 but decided to move the shop into the city due to ongoing construction around the original location, which was also in an industrial zone devoid of fellow retailers.

Now, the shop’s new location is practically under the long shadow of the Tower of the Americas, just across the street from the King William route of the Krampus Parade. In fact, Ghoulish Books is the newest krewe to join the devilish December festivities.

To officially unveil its new digs, the bookshop is hosting a grand re-opening celebration Saturday, Aug. 9 from noon to 8 p.m. with prizes and flash tattoos by neighboring business Calaveras Tattoos.

Ghoulish Books will also host author book signings as well as spooky readings on First Fridays called First Friday Frights. Additionally, the shop is launching a bookclub, though it’s yet to announce details.

Follow Ghoulish Books on Instagram or visit its website for jump scares — err, we mean, updates.

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

This article appears in Jul 23 – Aug 6, 2025.