"With so much real-life horror, we could use a place where we can combat those fears in a safe space," said Lauren Komer, co-owner and founder of the Twisted Spine, a horror-focused bookstore and cafe that will open in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y., this September.
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| Jason Mellow and Lauren Komer | |
The Twisted Spine will reside at 306 Grand St. in a 1,200-square-foot space and will carry a wide range of horror titles for children, teens, and adults. Komer explained that she and partner Jason Mellow will work with a "very broad definition" of horror and include titles for diehard fans as well as people new to the genre.
The cafe will serve coffee during the day and beer and wine in the evenings, and the Twisted Spine's event plans include author readings and book clubs, along with horror movie screenings, live performances, and podcast recordings. The goal, said Komer, is to "really make it a home for horror in New York."
To help get the Twisted Spine over the finish line, Komer and Mellow have launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $25,000. Money raised will go toward upfront costs like inventory, equipment, and renovations--Komer said the space is currently a "pink-walled former office." The campaign features a variety of backer rewards, including exclusive stickers, T-shirts, and tote bags with artwork by local NYC authors, tickets to the bookstore's opening party, and even the ability to have one's name featured on one of the tombstones that will decorate the Twisted Spine's graveyard-themed back patio.
One backer reward, Komer noted, is related to Twisted Tales, a horror chapbook that the bookstore will publish annually. Every year around Halloween, the Twisted Spine will commission a writer to craft a horror short story that features in some capacity the bookstore and New York City. Victor LaValle, author of the The Changeling and The Ballad of Black Tom, has agreed to be the first Twisted Tales author. His short story is available as a perk for the Kickstarter campaign in both epub and print, with a limited quantity of signed copies.
Expanding on the sorts of events she'd like to feature, Komer said she plans to host both silent and traditional book clubs, and as the store already has a partnership with a candle company, they might do candle-making classes as well. Touching on readings, she noted that in Britain there is a tradition of reading ghost stories around Christmas time, and she is considering reading A Christmas Carol every year during the holidays.
Being able to do live podcast recordings, she continued, is especially important to her, as podcasts were her "gateway to horror." Komer originally moved to New York City to complete her Ph.D. in neuroscience, which entailed a lot of "long hours in the lab." To keep herself awake and her mind occupied, Komer started listening to horror podcasts, and over time "really fell in love with horror." Listening to those podcasts led to reading more horror literature, and she was always kind of surprised that New York City didn't have a horror-specific bookstore.
After finishing her Ph.D., Komer started working at the National Institute of Health. During that time, the idea of a horror bookstore stayed in the back of her mind, and eventually she began talking to Mellow about the idea. She described him as a fellow horror fan, although more into horror movies than horror literature, and he was "totally on board" and very excited about the idea.
In September 2024 they launched the Twisted Spine as a pop-up shop. They appeared at the Brooklyn Book Festival, collaborated with the Brooklyn Horror Society, and took part in a series of horror screenings called Dark Sparks at the Nitehawk Cinema, which featured an author introducing a horror movie that inspired them. All the while Komer planned to open a bricks-and-mortar store eventually, but did not think they would do so until 2028 at least.
That was until February of this year, when the Trump administration illegally terminated her employment at the NIH. After some soul searching, Komer decided to "speed up the timeline," and she and Mellow signed the lease for the space at 306 Grand on May 1. The Kickstarter campaign is meant to make up for the fact that they are opening the store much earlier than planned, Komer explained.
So far, she continued, people have been "super excited" about the Twisted Spine. In particular, there's been some "wonderful outreach from the horror author community," Komer said. --Alex Mutter