The horror genre has been sensationalized as a jump scare with the sole purpose of entertainment in the form of thrill. That definition, though, ignores the female authors who employ the genre in a way that explores the faults of humanity and the horrors of being a woman in this world.
Forget the popular horror movies and books that sexualize a woman’s fear, this is a list of female horror authors who have shaped the genre and create stories of true terror; those that explore a woman’s turmoil.
Mary Shelley
A true foundation for gothic horror and the first science-fiction, Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has influenced so much of literature and film since it was first published in 1818. While many of the movies depict a giant, thoughtless green monster, the monster in Shelley’s story is men and their obsessions.
She asks what happens when we make man God, when we strip away motherhood from a woman and give the power of creation to a man?
Ann Radcliffe
Though Shelley is often credited as the first female author of horror, Ann Radcliffe’s “The Mysteries of Udolpho,” published 24 years earlier in 1794, is a true tale of melancholy and the horrors of a girl confined, suppressed and lonely, accompanied only by her own mind.
Radcliffe writes of an orphan, Emily, trapped in a castle and under the control of her uncle, seemingly going crazy as a result of her wild imaginings.
Radcliffe uses the horror genre to display the terrors that women face under the control of men, and explores what would happen to a young woman secluded from the world.
Shirley Jackson
Using horror to describe the domestic unease and psychological fear that women and girls face, Shirley Jackson shifted the horror genre from external monsters to internal darkness of the ordinary human.
Jackson explores the psychological horror of women in many of her novels, including “The Haunting of Hill House” (1959), “Hangsaman” (1951) and “The Bird’s Nest” (1954).
“We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” published in 1962, delves into a relationship between isolated sisters and the ways in which women can be outcast from society. Jackson explores a rejection of patriarchy as she writes of the secluded sisters who rely solely on themselves.
It’s an eerie, haunted narrative told through the perspective of Merricat, a girl perceived as peculiar, and the darkness that shadows her family. It is truly one of the best explorations of psychological horror and what it does to an exiled girl.
Lucy Rose
With her debut 2025 novel, Lucy Rose tells a tale of a twisted coming of age for a girl with a strange mother-daughter relationship, because the mother is a cannibal.
“The Lamb” is a grotesque, gothic narrative that explores the relationship between Margot and Mama, and how motherhood steals from women. Margot is trapped with Mama, she knows Mama’s actions are inherently wrong, yet she cannot quite escape because the odd relationship holds a power over her.
Rose, too, explores female friendships and girlhood, questioning how different forms of love can shape a person.
Rose uses the horror genre, and the influences of the female horror authors before her, to comment on how these relationships can impact a girl’s life, making for a disturbing, dreadful story.
Women in the horror genre have a unique way of bending its expectations to comment on the world they’re living in. No matter the century they’re writing in, female authors have had something to say about the horrors that women face. And, quite simply, they craft some of the best horror novels ever written, all of which are well worth the read.