Behind the Scenes with The Twisted Spine

Welcome back to Scare Me! a weekly horror newsletter. Today, we’re speaking with Lauren Komer and Jason Mellow, co-owners of The Twisted Spine—New York City’s first and only horror-focused bookstore!

I noticed the Instagram posts first. Rachel Harrison, Nat Cassidy, Clay McLeod Chapman, Koji Suzuki, and so many other authors I love began appearing in pictures, separately and together. In photo after photo, they all referenced the same intriguing place: a bookstore called The Twisted Spine.

When I was finally forced to investigate by my growing curiosity, I was shocked by what I learned: The store hadn’t opened yet! But already, amazingly, it was at the center of the horror publishing world. The Twisted Spine is more than just a bookstore specializing in horror and dark literature—it’s New York City’s first and only bookstore focused on the genre. With space for events, a café that serves coffee and alcohol, and evening hours, The Twisted Spine is a cozy and inviting third place where the horror community is encouraged to gather.

I watched the store’s opening day from 3,000 miles away in Washington as readers queued on the sidewalk and mingled with some of the best writers working today. Fortunately, I write this newsletter, which gave me the perfect excuse to reach out!

Despite their busy schedules juggling a thriving bookstore and full-time jobs, Lauren and Jason graciously agreed to hop on a video call on an early morning a few weeks ago. As we chatted, Lauren and Jason seamlessly tossed the conversation back and forth—one would provide a thoughtful answer while the other moved off camera to handle the many little tasks that demand attention at the start of the work day.

Below, we discuss the store’s backstory leading up to opening day, new and notable books they’re curating for the store’s inventory, their favorite New York City horror movies, and more.

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Michelle Delgado: Could you walk me through your journey into owning The Twisted Spine?

Jason Mellow: The first thing to note is that I'm just a co-owner. My partner, Lauren, is the founder and co-owner—it all started with her. She did her PhD in neuroscience at Weill Cornell here in New York, and as part of that, she would spend hours in a laboratory conducting experiments that were tedious and repetitive. She got into listening to horror podcasts as a way to pass the time. That evolved into her wanting to look for horror literature. She's always been a voracious reader, as have I.

She's from Kansas, and so she didn't know the city that well. She was like, “There's got to be a place in New York that specializes in horror books.” I'm born and raised in New York, and I said, “You know, I don't think there is.” We couldn't actually find a place that really had a really vast, deep horror section.

We have some really great genre bookstores in New York. We have The Mysterious Bookshop, which specializes in mystery, suspense, and thrillers. We have The Ripped Bodice, which is a romance bookstore you also have on the west coast. But there's nothing specifically horror.

We were like, “Wouldn't it be funny? We should totally open up the horror bookstore.” It started as a joke, and then we kept talking about it. Then it became a thing, like, “Well, we keep talking about it. Why don't we try to do it as a pop up?”

About two years ago, we started looking at different ways of doing a pop up. Originally, we wanted to do some sort of mobile book cart—like a bicycle book shop, or a book van. Those options were really, really expensive. So from there, [we] went to just doing pop up events.

The very first event that we did was last September, in 2024. We met a group called the Brooklyn Horror Society, and we co-presented a sort mass author afternoon at a brewery. We had six or seven authors, each one did a reading and signed books, and people just came and had a good time. Drank some beer, hung out. But way more people showed up than we expected—it was probably a couple hundred people. We had standing room in the brewery, and it was just a smash success.

We went to our second pop up two weeks later, which was the Brooklyn Book Festival. It was pouring down rain, and we brought, I don't know, probably 300 books. We were struggling to get the tarp up to keep the books from getting wet, and we didn't expect anyone to show up. And hen, for about four or five hours, we had a line three people deep, trying to get to the table. We were totally overwhelmed, in a good way.

It just snowballed from there. We realized that we had hit upon something that people really wanted to see in New York. Over the last year, as we were doing pop ups, all of a sudden people were reaching out to us, from authors to publicists and marketing departments at publishers asking if they could schedule events with us. And we had to explain that we're not an actual bookstore! So, the need for a space became very apparent very quickly. Our plan to open a bookstore, which we were originally thinking we might do in four or five years, got sped up. We realized this past spring that maybe now it's time.

Long, long answer!

That's an amazing story. It really speaks to something I'm seeing—the horror community just seems really abundant and lovely. Before I got really into horror, I had this worry that there would be a lot of film bros or people gatekeeping. But I have not found that to be the culture at all, which has been really surprising in a wonderful way.

Jason: That has been something that we've noticed the most. The people who read and write, or are just involved in the horror community, can be involved in some pretty terrifying things on paper or on screen. And then you meet them in person, and they're the most lovely people. We've been really lucky in that way. There's very few people with attitudes. Everyone we've come across, the vast majority have been incredibly wonderful people.

How did you and Lauren originally meet? What was your history together prior to opening the store?

Jason: We've been dating since 2019 and are life partners. I'm a professional musician—that's my day job—and Lauren's uncle is professional musician in New York as well, so that's how we met. Lauren still works in science, so we both have full time jobs, and then we have the bookstore, which has become our full time passion project.

When she started talking about actually doing the bookstore, I was on board immediately. I grew up in New York, and my mom took me to bookstores all the time when I was growing up. I had a lot of memories of walking around bookstores and really enjoying it. They're really important core memories for me. And I also remember the fall and now, very fortunately, rise of bookstores in the city, with the dot com era of Amazon.

It seems like people are really gravitating towards having physical media and physical spaces. I feel like it's important to have those places. It's humbling to have the chance to play a small role and create a space in New York.

Plus, New York is the setting of so many iconic horror movies and novels. Was that part of your origin story with the horror genre?

Jason: It's funny—we're both big readers, but in terms of horror movies, I'm definitely the one who watches more. Part of why Lauren got into podcasts and reading books is that she describes herself as a weenie when it comes to movies. She has a tolerance up to a certain point for horror films, but that's sort of more my department.

Do you have a favorite New York horror movie?

Jason: God, there's so many I like. There’s an Argento movie—Inferno. It’s just a wild, wild New York City horror movie. It's just great.

I love Inferno!

Jason: Obviously, Rosemary's Baby. It's iconic. But as far as books: The Midnight Meat Train by Clive Barker. It's part of his Books of Blood. As someone who's taken the subway a lot late at night, I really loved having a story about someone who gets stuck on a train ride to hell, basically.

I’m very fond of Clive Barker. I'm gonna add that to my TBR!

Jason: Highly recommend! It's a short story, so it's quick read. Actually, Lauren just walked in!

Hi, Lauren! Congrats on opening the bookstore! This is so exciting! I was just telling Jason that I live in Washington, too far away to come in person, but I've been following all the social media posts about the opening. For the past few weeks, it’s seemed like all my favorite authors and podcasters have been in your space and celebrating the launch. I feel like I've been living vicariously through all of that.

Lauren Komer: Oh, that's wonderful! Yeah, it's been really exciting. There's been a lot of people sneaking in, and they're like, “Do you mind if I sign my book?” And I'm like, “Oh! You're so and so.” It's funny because I don't always know what the authors look like in real life. It's been really fun. Sarah Gailey snuck in. They were really wonderful.

How much do you remember from your launch day? Was it just totally a blur?

Lauren: Totally. The opening day was so busy, it was just all hands on deck. I had my whole family up helping us with the store—twelve people just trying to keep everything moving through. At one point, we had like a line for about six hours. It was wild, but everybody was really kind and patient. The community is just so lovely. I really, really love the horror community.

I did want to ask about the space itself! I read on your website that the design and atmosphere are a really important part of the business. I can see a beautiful tin ceiling, dark walls. What are some of your favorite touches that you you put into the space?

Jason: Lauren installed the tin ceiling.

Lauren: Yeah, I put up every single ceiling tile. That was definite labor of love. It was a real family affair. My uncle built the bar. My dad built the book tables. We did most of the construction, as much as we could.

It was an esthetician's office—hot pink walls, lots of little waiting rooms. But when we walked in, we could really tell that with the outdoor space, it was a little bit bigger. It took a lot more extensive renovations, but we were able to do more of the café element and third space than if we'd gone for a place in a white box condition.

Jason and I looked at a lot of different properties, and for us, that was the reason why we decided to go for it. We have that ability to have bigger rooms for events, and also more places for people to be able to come and hang out and just chill—which you need in New York in particular, because apartments are too small to just be able to enjoy all the time.

Honestly, I get excited if there's more than one shelf of horror books, or if horror isn't shelved with fantasy. The idea of being in a space and not having to special order books I'm looking for—I don't think I've ever been in that situation.

I'm curious about how you're curating the books you have in stock and what titles you have that other bookstores just might not. 

Lauren: Most bookstores really can only devote one shelf to horror. I will say, going through and doing ordering, I understand—it's a wild, huge number of books just in horror. Horror is not maybe the most prolific genre, but it is the fastest-growing genre currently, which is exciting. I can only imagine being a generalist bookstore and having to decide what to stock for everything. That would be extra overwhelming.

For us, it's just a lot of research into seeing what's coming out. Emily Hughes does really wonderful blog where she tries to keep track of all of the upcoming horror books coming out. That's good way to make sure I didn't miss something. And then we really listen to customer recommendations. I'm never going to be an expert in all the different subgenres, and it's nice hearing from other people. When multiple people are asking for something, it's like, “Okay. We definitely need to have that in the store.” Customers are going to read more than I will have time for, right now especially.

I imagine one of the joys of being a bookseller is getting to put a book that you love in people's hands, and hopefully hearing back that they love it, too. Are there any favorites that are extra special to you right now?

Lauren: Totally. One that we are really proud to have is Perfect Happiness, which is from an indie press called Creature. The author, You-Jeong Jeong, is considered the Stephen King of South Korea, and we're gonna be doing an event with her. It’s an atmospheric thriller that’s almost Southern Gothic, but it takes place in South Korea, so probably not the right nomenclature. But that's been really awesome to highlight.

When people pick up the indie stuff, that's something that I feel really excited about. There's a lot of really great authors who aren't necessarily picked up by the major publishers, because their stuff doesn't fit in a category well. A lot of the Indies can do some really amazing things and put out some really crazy stories that you just wouldn't see otherwise.

Are there any books coming out in the last months of 2025 or in 2026 that you’re highly anticipating?

Lauren: It's tricky! Honestly, I haven't looked ahead as much as I should. All of the stuff for September and October is such a big push. We've been really excited.

Acquired Taste by Clay McLeod Chapman just came out—that was a big one for us. We also were really excited about the Victor LaVelle re-releases. The covers on some of the paperbacks—those have been really cool.

It’s not from a major publisher, but during our Kickstarter campaign, we reached out to Victor LaVelle about being the first author in a yearly short story that we're going to have coming out of The Twisted Spine. It is going to always have some type of cameo of the store in it. That's something that we're also really excited about.

Jason, do you have anything you want to recommend?

Jason: I like nonfiction—that's sort of my area of expertise. There's a book coming out end of this month called America's Most Gothic. It's two New York City authors, and it's all about the haunted history / stranger than fiction stuff. I think we're actually trying to set up an event with them!

I have just one more question, and then I'll let you guys go, because I'm sure that you’re super busy. But since you brought up the Kickstarter—you exceeded your goal by quite a bit. What did that moment feel like for you?

Lauren: A big sigh of relief. Kickstarter is all or nothing, so if you hit your goal, then you receive the funds. If you don't, you don't get anything.

It’s just validating to know that there were people who were excited about [the bookstore] being in existence. [Now that] the store is established, we've gotten a lot more press and coverage, and people are really excited.

But [there were] people who found us and were excited from the early idea, when it was just a concept and they couldn't even see the physical manifestation. They took a chance on us, not knowing how well we'd be able to execute everything. We'll forever be extremely grateful. We truly could not have gotten the store off the ground without the Kickstarter support.

It was a lot of work, but it was so humbling to see the turnout from everyone.

Is there anything else that you’d like people to know?

Lauren: The only other thing is that we also have a full coffee service! We have spooky coffee drinks, like a green Mary Shelley latte, which is made with pandan syrup, and we have a new latte called the Vampire’s Kiss, which is red. That's pretty fun. And then we also have beer and wine at night—we have late night hours on Friday and Saturday, and we're hoping to expand that in the future as well.

Phantasmag Issue 004 Is Available for Preorder!

The third Scare Me! interview I published featured Lana Thorn and Alex Secilmis, the talented creative duo behind Phantasmag. Preorders for their fourth issue went live yesterday—and I wrote a Q&A for it!

I interviewed Lucy Rose, whose debut novel The Lamb ascended to the top of bestseller charts (and shocked me to my core). It was a delightful and thought-provoking conversation that spanned everything from queer identity to survival stories to the filmmakers who inspire her.

Afterwards, Lana arranged a cliffside photoshoot and expanded the interview with some very fun questions that illuminate Lucy’s horror preferences and the franchises she’s most fond of, among other insights into her relationship to the genre.

Besides my small piece, this issue will include interviews with Bryan Fuller, Tina Romero, and Frankenstein costume designer Kate Hawley (among many others!), as well as a deep dive into Argento’s Deep Red on its fiftieth anniversary. It’s another impressive offering from a powerhouse editorial team, and you can find all the details here:

I can’t say enough good things about the Phantasmag team, and I hope you enjoy their latest issue! And big thanks to Lana for accepting my pitch and providing great edits.

Up Next: Japan’s Locked Room Mysteries

I have several promising interview lines out, but until I can reel those in, we’re going back to recommendation land next week! I just picked up The Labyrinth House Murders, the fourth book in Yukito Ayatsuji’s series of locked room mysteries.

Ayatsuji and his contemporaries have been on my mind recently—Uketsu’s wildly popular Strange Pictures and Strange Houses are built on a foundation of their detective fiction. I’ve collected a handful of other Japanese locked room mysteries over the years—some of which include gruesome crimes that border on horror—so I’ll share a few of my favorites in next week’s letter. And maybe another mystery rec or two!

This ended up working out well, because I have a busy weekend ahead! On Saturday, I’m driving down to Seattle to get two new horror-related tattoos. And on Sunday, I’m going pumpkin picking! I hope you all have an equally spooky October weekend. 🎃

Scare Me! is a free weekly horror newsletter published every Thursday morning. It’s written by Michelle Delgado, featuring original illustrations by Sam Pugh. You can find the archive of past issues here. If you were sent this by a friend, subscribe to receive more spooky interviews, essays—and maybe even a ghost story or two.