8 Horror Titles by Fierce Female Writers

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There’s a meme I love that I believe captures my essence. In the image at the heart of this meme, a young girl with long, black hair, a lacy white dress, and a crown of white daisies embraces a slavering beast, all hooves and horns, long tail and wickedly sharp teeth. In its eyes—small pupils swimming in murky sclera—I see bloodlust. The girl, meanwhile, presses her cheek against the creature’s flank with obvious affection.

The image is from an oil painting by Omar Rayyan called Little Darlings. For the purposes of the meme, the text “me” hovers above the girl, and the words “my taste in books” are superimposed over the monster.

LOL.

When I was young, it was my father’s John Saul and Stephen King books that got me into horror. Even now, the genre remains rife with cis white men, and I continue to enjoy titles by Grady Hendrix, Nick Cutter, Marcus Kliewer, and Daniel Kraus.

But who knows true horror better than those who have been most marginalized by society? Who better to write horror than those who regularly experience some level of it simply for existing? As my list of instant-buy authors has grown, I’ve been so thrilled to see work from a wider range of folks being platformed and celebrated.

Every October here at FBC, I like to share a list of my new faves in the horror genre that haven’t been written by the usual cis white men. Bask in these tales of terror and revulsion! And, of course, share your own faves in the comments.

So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison

I feel like Rachel Harrison ends up on all my lists. I can’t help it. Ever since her debut novel back in 2020 (The Return, which was filled with creepy shit, but which also contained whip-smart commentary on female friendships), I can’t get enough of her. In So Thirsty, which came out just last month, Harrison gives us another troubled female friendship in the form of two besties who couldn’t be more different from one another. When they go away together for the weekend, protagonist Sloane imagines a cozy time with wine tastings and plush robes. But her troublemaker friend Naomi is looking for a wilder time, and when Sloane reluctantly tags along, they get more than they bargained for. (I’m sure you can guess what they got based on the cover image, which features a goblet filled with what looks like blood, and a jaunty cocktail pick with a bat and a moon on it.) As per usual, I love how Harrison’s books are filled with horror and dark humor, and with women who hold on tightly to their friendships, even when things get rocky.

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

This dark, folkloric fantasy novella has been on my TBR forever (it came out earlier this year). In The Butcher of the Forest, Mohamed takes the fairy tale trope of two children lost in the woods and dials the horror up to 11. In this world, where a merciless tyrant has the populace on its knees, a deadly forest casts its pall. It is said that the forest is filled with ancient monsters, persistent ghosts, and other dangers, and that no one who enters it emerges alive. Except for one person: our protagonist, who is called upon by the hated tyrant to reenter the woods when his kids go missing. Veris is given one day to find those children and bring them back safely. What follows has been described by reviewers as a “fever dream.” What I appreciate about Mohamed’s intentions with this novel is how she interrogates who the true monsters actually are. I think my favorite horror always explores the wickedness of humanity.

Almost Surely Dead by Amina Akhta

In this fun ride of a supernatural thriller, Dunia Ahmed survives an attempt on her life… only to be subjected to repeated attacks at every turn. And then, she goes missing. This story flip-flops back and forth between Dunia’s point of view, and snippets of the true crime podcasts trying to solve the mystery of her disappearance. It’s a fun ride, but what makes Almost Surely Dead extra enjoyable is its inclusion of Pakistani folklore… particularly, the jinn stories our protagonist grew up with. As we watch Dunia try to outrun death, we come to learn that what’s even more pernicious is the guilt she’s attempting to outrun from the death of her father when she was young… guilt that comes from the assumption that the rest of her family blames her for his death.

The Black Girl Survives in This One, edited by Desiree S, Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell

I don’t read a ton of anthologies, but Tananarive Due wrote the foreword for this YA collection, and I would follow her anywhere. You can probably tell from the title, but the 15 stories in The Black Girl Survives in This One push back against that problematic pattern in horror in which a person of color is always the first to die. Instead, we’re treated to a cornucopia of Black final girls who sit firmly at the center of every story, kicking ass and living to fight another day, no matter what they face.

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima

This one’s an odd duck, but I like it when things are odd. The framework of the story comes from the writer at the center of this story, who meets the Devil at a Halloween party and ends up sleeping with him. The rest of the book doesn’t necessarily follow this partnership, though they do cross paths again and again. Rather, it’s made up of stories the protagonist creates for the devil, which are somewhat informed by this early encounter. The stories are surreal and haunting and I feel that, on their own, they’d be enough to hold the whole book together. Do we need the framework of the writer’s initial fling with the Devil? I’m not so sure. Does the title—Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil—deliver? Maybe not, as I sometimes hungered for more about the relationship itself. But each of these stories on their own is such a delight, I almost didn’t care. Still, the author has said in interviews that she’s fascinated by how the Devil has been used by oppressed people to make sense of their suffering, and also used by people in power as a way to legitimize their terrible actions. This can provide an interesting lens through which to look at these stories.

Model Home by Rivers Solomon

I’ve only just started reading this one, and I’m already pulled in by the beauty of the language. Model Home is a haunted house novel—the sort where you don’t know if the hauntings are supernatural in nature, attributed to some more rational explanation, or all in the characters’ heads. This is my favorite type of haunted house story. Hell, it’s my favorite type of horror story, period. In this particular tale, the Maxwell’s move into an upper-middle-class gated community outside Dallas where they happen to be the only Black family. Immediately, terrible things start happening that may or may not be otherworldly. Either way, the family matriarch refuses to be pressured into giving up their home. the three Maxwell siblings eventually flee into adulthood, leaving their parents behind. But when they learn of their parents’ death, they’re compelled to return home and make sense of what really happened.

The Book of Witching by C. J. Cooke

At the time of this writing, Cooke’s novel is yet to be released, though it will be available by the time you read this post. So I haven’t read it yet. But if there’s witchcraft involved, I’m in. In The Book of Witching, a young woman ends up unconscious in the hospital after an ill-fated hiking trip that left her boyfriend dead and her friend missing. When she awakens, she doesn’t recognize her mother, and she insists that her name is not Erin; it’s Nyx. When her mom goes looking for answers, she stumbled upon the history of a woman who was wrongly accused of witchcraft and murder four centuries ago. Could it be related to what’s happening now? Welp! I’m sold.

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

This last one isn’t out until February (sorrynotsorry), but I so enjoyed Victorian Psycho that I had to include it on this list. This effed-up dark comedy is about a bloodthirsty governess looking for closure, however she can get it. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, but the protagonist of this book—the living embodiment of #nofilter—was just so compelling, I couldn’t stop reading. This woman’s deeds are truly heinous, and the book pulls no punches in describing them. At the same time, I couldn’t help rooting for her because, deep down, I felt the source of her ire deserved everything he got. Bonkers as this book is, it provided some fantastic commentary on womanhood and sexuality and desire and, hell, I wanted this woman to get everything she desired.

Any other horror titles by female writers you’ve loved lately that I should add to my TBR?

Steph Auteri

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Steph Auteri is a journalist who has written for the Atlantic, Pacific Standard, VICE, and elsewhere. Her more literary work has appeared in Poets & Writers, Creative Nonfiction, Southwest Review, and other publications. Her reported memoir, A DIRTY WORD, came out in 2018. She is the founder of GuerrillaSexEd.org. Favorite Genres: horror, comics, horror comics, and narrative journalism.