I wanted to read a lot during spring break, so I went to both the Pattee and Paterno Library and the Schlow Library in downtown State College to stack up on some interesting books. I am currently on a horror kick because the next book I am writing is going to be in the horror genre.
I gathered quite a lot of books for research purposes and discovered my new favorite horror author: Catriona Ward. She has written four books as of March 2023 and has won the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel three times as well as the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel.
She is an international bestselling author and has been praised by the master of horror himself, Stephen King. King has called her work “a true-nerve shredder” and “authentically terrifying.”
The first book I read of hers was “The House on Needless Street” and it is in my opinion a perfectly executed horror-thriller novel. The book is split between four narrators: Ted, an unemployed man who lives in front of his television, Lauren, Ted’s misbehaving daughter, Olivia, Ted’s very religious cat, and Dee, a girl obsessed with finding her sister who disappeared.
All of the narrators are unreliable, and Catriona Ward keeps their disturbing secrets until the very end, leading the reader down a dark and twisted path to the book’s creepy yet satisfying conclusion. It is a perfect book for fans of “Gone Girl” and Stephen King, and I recommend it for everyone’s next foray into the horror genre.
The next book I read by Catriona Ward was “Little Eve.” It is a wonderful gothic tale reminiscent of “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Frankenstein.”
“Little Eve” has a dilapidated mansion off the coast of Scotland complete with a clan who has an unbreakable bond to their faith. Everything changes when a detective comes to investigate a murder and all of the clan’s secrets are uncovered.
This book is fantastic and an absolute page-turner right to the end. It is a great gothic horror novel for modern readers and Ward’s prose is just absolutely stunning. Her characters are multi-faceted, complex and deliciously disturbing in all the right ways.
If you are looking for a gothic horror novel to sink your teeth into, look no further than “Little Eve.” Catriona Ward’s words will stay with you and haunt you long into the night.
Catriona Ward has a fifth book coming out in Aug. 2023 that is a tense horror/psychological thriller novel. “Looking Glass Sound” is about an author who is writing the last book he will ever write about a killer who stalked his New England Town and whose actions intertwined the fate of him and his two friends forever.
Nightfire describes the book as, “a book about the stories that shape us, and how easily they can escape us, in the vein of Stephen King’s ‘Stand By Me’”. I am definitely going to be reading it when it comes out and I encourage everyone to do the same.
If you are a lover of the horror genre or a newcomer who wants to branch out from Stephen King, look no further than Catriona Ward. She is a phenomenal horror writer who has cemented herself in league with the greats. Her prose will keep you up long into the night wondering if those shadows in your room are more than just shadows.
I promise you will not be disappointed.