The leaves are falling, pumpkin spice is in the air, and you’re waiting for your favorite horror podcast to come out with a new episode. It’s time to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and dive into a scary book. We’ve curated five haunting reads that are also feminist horror to take your mind off the stress of midterms.
Carrie, Stephen King
Carrie has captivated the horror genre in both books and film for almost fifty years and opened the door for both feminist horror and coming-of-age horror genres. It was King’s first novel, and it exemplifies the frank, humanistic horror he became known for. Carrie is a chilling and creepy warm-up for the rest of the reading list, and has the added benefit of having movies to accompany it. Carrie is feminist both because it breaks social taboo by discussing menstruation, and because the main character is empowered to take control of her destiny.
My Heart Is A Chainsaw, Stephen Graham Jones
This book will appeal to anyone who enjoys true crime or dissecting horror film tropes. The main character Jade Daniels copes with feeling like an outcast through horror films, and when a real masked killer strikes in her town, she applies her horror knowledge in order to survive. The result is a look into the minds of horror buffs, and how consuming horror knowledge can prepare our minds for real-world catastrophe (as I previously reported on for HerCampus and The Current). My Heart Is A Chainsaw is feminist because of its focus on Jade’s knowledge, resourcefulness, and because she is empowered to take charge of her own survival.
A Dowry Of Blood, S.T. Gibson
If you love all things vampire, this is a Dracula retelling for you. Told from the perspective of one of Dracula’s Brides, this book breathes life into the previously ignored characters of Dracula’s wives. Constanta, the wife whose perspective the story shows, is torn between her eternal love for her husband and her husband’s eternal lust for blood. If you liked any of the recent iterations of Carmilla, you’ll like A Dowry Of Blood. This story is feminist because it reclaims the narrative of Dracula by putting it into the hands of previously ignored characters. It also shows Constanta following her own moral compass instead of the path of submission prescribed for her.
Goddess Of Filth, V. Castro
Goddess of Filth follows a group of best friends who start out hosting a sèance and end up causing one of their group to be possessed by the spirit of an ancient Aztec power. The girls must work together to return their friend to normal, but stopping this deadly power turns out to be more difficult and dangerous than they thought. This story is feminist because it shows a group of women united over something more than the conventional or stereotypical. They have to work together to save their friend, but also explore their ancestry and connection to magic. The result is an empowering story of darkness and possession-gone-right.
Final Girl Support Group, Grady Hendrix
One of the most anticipated books of this year, Final Girl Support Group tells the stories of all the girls that survive a horror story. The main character meets with a support group of other survivors for years after her experience, but when someone decides to hunt the support group, she is thrown right back into survival mode. Final Girl Support Group is feminist because it shows the determination of all the survivors as they try to outwit this killer. They’ve survived once before, and can do it again.
These five reads are all guaranteed to give you the chills, but are also examples of great feminist horror. The horror genre hasn’t always been welcoming to women due to its reliance on tropes, particularly the ones that prey on weak female characters. There are not nearly as many examples of horror films written or directed by women, but that began to change around the turn of the century.
Literature has been more progressive in terms of feminist horror, with Daphne du Marier and Shirley Jackson taking the helm for literature, and Leigh Bardugo and Tananarive Due manning the oars of more modern fiction. This October has seen the publication of dozens of new horror books by women, a trend which will surely continue into the New Year.
For even more horror recommendations, check out this list from Penguin Random House.