Rebecca Mahoney is the author of Thrall , a queer vampire novel out now from Disney Publishing. Below, she writes about the long history of queer horror and monsters. It’s no secret that many queer people love horror, villains, and monsters. Oftentimes, it’s personal. It’s unfortunately never been much of a leap for many of us to connect to the feared and the persecuted. I live in the Boston area, and have spent many an overcrowded afternoon in Salem—well-known for its hub of dark tourism, and maybe a little lesser-known for its thriving queer community—and I remember once seeing a letter someone left at the memorial for the witch trial victims. I think I could have been you, was the gist of it. People think I’m strange, too.  I always thought this queer love of monsters was more of a reclaiming, a decision to love and empathize with queer-coded villains created from a place of homophobia. There are many instances of that, for sure.…