Recs if you like The Devil Crept In...
no stephen king in sight
are you sick of being recommended stephen king when you ask for a horror novel? have you picked up a book expected to be scared, but the scariest thing about it was a woman being needlessly tormented and gaslit? have you read 4627473 books about a man in a haunted house and need something different?
if so, this list is for you :)
a masterlist of horror by anyone who isn't a straight cis white man, started in 2022 and brought to pb in 2026.
Feral and Hysterical: Works by Women
List of recommendations included in Sadie Hartmann's Feral and Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction by Women.
Pairs with 50 States, 50 Books by Women list.
Stay out of the forest
The horrors that haunt the woods
the kids are (not) alright
you definitely don’t want to babysit the kids in these books!! these are some bad kids, some might even say evil kids, like they’re possessed by demons or something, think Damien from The Omen or the twins in Goodnight Mommy
as always, taking any and all suggestions!
Feral and Hysterical
This is a list of horror books written by women, as recommended by Sadie Hartmann (Mother Horror) in her book Feral and Hysterical. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Feral and Hysterical because it is so much more than a list of books. There are more lists of books, but also thoughtful essays by women writers. It's worth spending some time with Feral and Hysterical.
"Women are overqualified to write fictional horror. Period." -- Sadie Hartmann
© 2025 Pagebound