Valentina Sainato is an associate agent at JABberwocky Literary Agency hunting character-driven speculative fiction — with horror as her clear top priority — across adult and YA, with a particular appetite for culturally diverse fantasy, emotionally resonant sci-fi, and supernatural horror that defies familiar tropes.
In brief
Horror is her self-declared favorite genre and her most urgent wish right now — she reopened to queries in May 2026 with horror as her headline ask.
Her touchstone horror list skews toward literary, queer, and culturally specific work (Machado, Moreno-Garcia, Andrew Joseph White, Ryan La Sala), signaling she wants horror with voice and identity at its center, not just scares.
Fantasy is welcomed but comes with real gates: no romantasy, no Chosen One narratives, no swords-and-sorcery — she wants cozy/soft fantasy, atmospheric contemporary fantasy, and mythology-rooted stories with fresh angles.
She is explicitly more selective about sci-fi than horror or fantasy; emotional core and character interiority matter far more to her than world-building mechanics or action.
As an associate agent at JABberwocky assisting Eddie Schneider — one of the genre field's most established agents — her deals connect to a powerhouse SFF agency infrastructure, which is a meaningful advantage for debut speculative writers.
Lately
i'm back open to queries, hooray! i'm still looking for all things speculative fiction, and am especially hungry for horror projects across all subgenres 🖤 open to adult and YA! more details on what i'm looking for in sf/f/h + link to my query form: awfulagent.com/agents/valen...
After a period away from the query inbox, Valentina announced she is back open to submissions as of early May 2026. She restated her interest in all speculative fiction but called out horror across all subgenres as her most urgent priority, noting she is open to both adult and YA projects.
What Valentina is looking for
This is Valentina's highest-priority category and the one she named explicitly when reopening to queries in May 2026. She wants the full tonal spectrum — eerie, spooky, existential, disorienting, horror-lite, survival horror — and welcomes genre blends with sci-fi or fantasy as long as the book earns a place on the horror shelf. Her deepest interests are supernatural and suspenseful horror: ghosts, haunted houses, demons, monsters, witches. She wants fresh, unexpected takes on those familiar figures rather than retreads. Body horror, cults, secret societies, fungal or botanical horror, and claustrophobic settings all appeal to her. Character is her primary filter — she needs protagonists she can root for or antiheroes whose transgressions she can understand. She appreciates self-aware slasher homages in the vein of Stephen Graham Jones, but is less drawn to serial-killer-focused or straight procedural horror. Open to both adult and YA.
Valentina leans toward contemporary fantasy over secondary-world epic, though she will consider secondary-world projects with a genuinely distinctive premise. What she cares about most is character depth and world-building that feels earned — she has little patience for manuscripts that plunge into plot before establishing who these people are. Cozy and soft fantasy are actively welcome. Non-Western and non-European cultural settings and mythologies are a particular priority; she explicitly wants to see stories from histories and traditions underrepresented on fantasy shelves. For mythology and folklore, she values fiction that takes a specific tale or tradition and reshapes it into something surprising, whether that's a faithful retelling or a loose adaptation. Hard no on romantasy as a primary genre, though romance as a subplot is fine. No Chosen One narratives or swords-and-sorcery-first books.
Valentina is more selective here than in horror or fantasy. She approaches sci-fi as a character reader first: she wants an emotional core driving the story, not a showcase of world mechanics, space battles, or elaborate technical systems. Narratives that play with time, space, or perception in emotionally resonant ways appeal to her most. She is not the right agent for hard sci-fi, military sci-fi, or stories that prioritize scientific extrapolation over human interiority. Query her in this category only if your book puts feeling and character at the absolute center.
Not the right fit
On Valentina's list
Taste fingerprint
How to query Valentina
Submit only through her online form — she explicitly does not accept queries by email or phone. The form is the sole path in.
Horror writers should query with confidence right now: she reopened to queries in May 2026 with horror named as her top priority. Lead your query letter with genre, tone, and the specific horror flavor your book inhabits.
Her touchstone horror list is heavily queer and culturally diverse (Moreno-Garcia, Machado, José Luis Zárate, Andrew Joseph White, Ryan La Sala). If your horror has LGBTQ+ characters or draws on a non-Western tradition, make that visible early in your pitch.
Character is her primary filter across all three genres. Open your query with a vivid, specific portrait of your protagonist — their interiority, their stakes — before describing plot mechanics.
For fantasy, name your cultural or mythological source material explicitly. She wants to know upfront whether your project is contemporary or secondary-world, and what specific tradition or lore it draws from.
For sci-fi, make the emotional core unmistakable in your query. If your pitch sounds more like a premise or a concept than a character journey, rewrite it before submitting.
Avoid pitching romantasy, Chosen One narratives, hard sci-fi, or serial-killer-driven horror to her — these are clear mismatches with her stated wishlist.
Simon Jimenez appears in both her fantasy and sci-fi touchstone lists — citing his work as a comp (if genuinely accurate) is one of the stronger signals you understand her taste. Use comps honestly, not aspirationally.
Verify the form is still open immediately before submitting; she has cycled through open and closed periods, and the status can change without broad announcement.