17 Years Later, Lethal Kiss Is The Perfect Horror Successor To Jennifer's Body [Read ScreenRant's Exclusive Excerpt]

Published Sep 18, 2026, 3:16 PM EDT Rianna is the Movie News Editor for ScreenRant. After earning her BA in Film Studies, she began her career as an entertainment writer, contributing to several publications before joining ScreenRant. Her dissertation on the impact of streaming on traditional cinema sharpened her focus on the ever-evolving world of film and media. With 10 years in the industry, Rianna continues to cover the stories she loves while also advocating for awareness and representation of rare disabilities, such as Moebius Syndrome, which she lives with. Move over Jennifer's Body, a new red-hot horror is in town. Taylor Grothe, also known as T. G. Laine, is an author, a medieval folklorist, and an Arthuriana and Icelandic Saga scholar. They are making waves in the YA and horror worlds with novels such as Hollow, Monstrous Beautiful Things, and The Mage and the Liar Knight. Now, a whole new gruesome adventure is taking place at Preston University, with Grothe taking their readers on a deadly journey with unknown consequences. Lethal Kiss is Jennifer's Body meets Ninth House, and is described as a sapphic, red-hot horror novel pulsing with intensity and inhibition. Jennifer's Body is a cult-classic starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried in a horror-comedy with powerful queer and sapphic themes that has since become beloved by the LGBTQ+ community despite initially failing at the box office. However, Lethal Kiss promises to deliver an even more intense and deadly novel filled with chaos and plenty of drama. As blood-soaked as it is beautiful & as insidious as it is infatuating, LETHAL KISS follows two professors at Preston University (one of whom is more than she seems...) as they investigate a series of suspicious murders. They’re as drawn to the truth as they are to each other, and they’re determined to kill for both. Lethal Kiss is full of intrigue and mystery as the suspicious murders lead two professors to each other, but the truth could ultimately be the pair's undoing or perhaps their greatest strength. The new novel arrives just in time for the 16th anniversary of Jennifer's Body being released to the world, as Grothe's red-hot horror will hit the shelves on October 20, making it the perfect read for any Halloween plans. Read An Excerpt From Lethal Kiss By Taylor Grothe I'm in some kind of liquor room, the walls mirrored, glass shelves lined with bottles of booze. There's a broad mirrored bar on one side, and I can just make out a man's shoe. Gathering my anger, eyes burning with tears I refuse to acknowledge, I stomp over. But when I turn the corner-it-it's not what I imagined. On the floor, Marcella is curved over-something? She must be in front of some light, because she's held in dark silhouette, bright green hugging her frame. I ease my other eye open. Dr. Sims's head is tilted back at an oblique angle, his lips moving and stained-deep red? "H-help. M-me-" he rasps. Blood-flecked spittle flies from his lips as something crunches in his throat. He burbles thickly, his left eye beginning to blacken and bulge, protruding from his socket as-as some-thing wriggles behind it. Something moves, oh god, something is working its way out. The jelly shudders and bursts, a barbed, slick black tentacle breaking through its ruined surface. Dr. Sims gives a short, cut-off huff, juddering and shaking for a nauseating few seconds, and then his body sags. The black worm muscles back inside again, his head moving side to side with its motion. My eyes drop to Marcella, bile squirming up my throat and burning the back of my tongue. Her mouth is clamped onto the pale flesh of Dr. Sims's neck, a bristle of needlelike teeth af-fixed to his skin. Around her bite, blisters of near-black blood spill, adding to the slurry. It spills over the shattered wreck of her fox mask, painting it a lurid, arterial crimson. "M-Marcella?" I stammer, my voice reduced to breath and tremor. "What-what are you doing?" "Who's there?" a deep voice calls nearby. "Is anyone here?" All I can hear is my breathing, the scream between my ears that I'm desperate to keep caged behind my teeth, even if they shatter with the effort. Marcella's bright eyes flick to mine, take in my mask, her pupils widening with recognition. Slowly, slowly, she lowers Dr. Sims's broken body to the ground. Her teeth, so sharp and coated with gore and impossibly long, pull back into her gums. When she releases him with an audible suck, the barbed black tentacle worms out of Dr. Sims's head, slithering between her jaws. It's not a fucking tentacle, though, is it? It's her tongue. I stifle a screech with my hand, my eyes leaking tears. Monsters are everywhere, Marcella's voice croons in my ear. "What are you doing here?" she scream-shouts. "Hello?" The sound of heavy footsteps. I'm rooted to the spot. I can't move. Marcella whips a hand to my wrist, her skin tacky with Dr. Sims's blood. I start to shriek but she claps her other hand over my mouth, her lips brushing my ear as she whispers, "Be quiet, little lamb." Her mouth smells of pennies, cold as ice. My knees go weak at her touch, my face heating. I nod as she pulls me farther behind the mirrored bar, tuck-ing me into an open space beneath a gargantuan silver sink. Marcella slides forward, still holding my mouth shut with tacky, metallic fingers, and spears Dr. Sims's body with her spike heel. With a muffled grunt, she drags him behind the bar with us. His single remaining eyeball reflects dim green light, stares right at me. Tears spring from my eyes, flowing hot down my cheeks. Marcella eases under the bar after me, pushing me gently against one of the walls. She puts a finger to her lips, hushing me. A flashlight beam whisks across the room. "Who's there?" a masculine voice calls. I should do something. I should scream. My body tenses, my throat tightening with an unspent yell. "Do not make a sound," Marcella whispers, her voice keen-edged. "Don't you dare." How To Read More From Taylor Grothe Credit: Sylvie Rosokoff Taylor Grothe is a writer of adult and young adult horror, horror romance, and dark fantasy. They hold a nonfiction MFA from Fairfield University, acted as the graduate Assistant Managing Editor of Brevity, and their short works can be found in esteemed publications such as Titan Book’s These Dreaming Spires, Brevity’s craft blog, Haven Speculative, and Shortwave Magazine. They are a scholar of medieval literature and Nordic Saga. Taylor lives with three cats, two kids, and their spouse, in New England.Their novels include Hollow, which is rated 4 stars on Goodreads and everyone is anticipating the upcoming release of Lethal Kiss. The reviews are already nearly five stars on Goodreads as the fanbase gets ready for the horror romance ready to take over Halloween.Lethal Kiss will hit the shelves on October 20.