hi friends! if you’re overwhelmed by all of the monstrosity (complimentary) or want to check out some additional resources, this is the place to be! i’ll list a few subgenres, niches & thematic interests that are present within the quest, alongside some recommended texts as well as some further watching for those who are interested!

i want to read about …

WOMEN EATING WILDLY for women who can’t contain their appetite; who are messy and greedy and eat their desires, check out:

• hungerstone by kat dunn
• the lamb by lucy rose
• the eyes are the best part by monika kim

AND:

• raw dir. julia ducournau
• cannibal mukbang dir. aimee kuge

BEAUTY STANDARDS AND BODY IMAGE for body horror triggered by body dysmorphia, gender dysphoria, internalised racism and/or the search for the perfect body, look to:

• natural beauty by ling ling huang
• rouge by mona awad
• bed rot baby by wendy dalrymple
• transmuted by eve harms

AND:

• helter skelter dir. mika ninagawa
• the ugly stepsister dir. emilie blichfeldt

GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND DESIRE for women whose identity reckonings, sexual awakenings, and queer desire manifest as horror, have a look at:

• black flame by gretchen felker-martin
• feast while you can by mikaella clements & onjuli datta

AND:

• my animal dir. jacqueline castel

MERMAIDS AND SEA-CREATURES for women who are (or become) one with the great unknown, look to:

• chlorine by jade song
• our wives under the sea by julia armfield
• the salt grows heavy by cassandra khaw

AND:

• the lure dir. agnieszka smoczyńska
• blue my mind dir. lisa brühlmann

BLOOD SUCKERS for death-defying, blood-thirsty, vampiric women, check out:

• the gilda stories by jewelle gomez
• fledgling by octavia e. butler
• hungerstone by kat dunn

AND:

• humanist vampire seeking consenting suicidal person dir. ariane louis-seize
• a girl walks home alone at night dir. ana lily amirpour

WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC for a taste of the occult, start with:

• the last witch on the knock by aimee macdonald
• the witching hour by anne rice
• the year of the witching by alexis henderson

AND:

• witch’s cradle dir. maya deren
• mother of flies by the adams family (yes, there is literally a family of horror filmmakers called the adams family)
• fear street: 1666 dir. leigh janiak

GHOSTS, SPIRITS, AND PHANTOMS for centuries-old apparitions and modern-day ghosts; for a taste of women and girls haunting, check out:

• old soul by susan barker
• beloved by toni morrison

WEREWOLVES AND FERAL WOMEN if you want to feel the power of the full moon, check out:

• nightbitch by rachel yoder
• such sharp teeth by rachel harrison

NON-HUMANOID MONSTERS for books that truly put the other in othering, check out these non-humanoid monsters:

• but not too bold by hache pueyo
• patricia wants to cuddle by samantha allen

MURDEROUS WOMEN if you’re interested in women who kill (or want to), check out:

• cruelty free by caroline glenn
• evil genius by claire oshetsky
• victorian psycho by virginia feito
• boy parts by eliza clark

AND:

• american mary dir. jen & sylvia soska

CONDEMNATIONS OF PATRIARCHY for dispatches from how women are deemed/made monstrous under patriarchy, check out:

• the yellow wall-paper by charlotte perkins
• victorian psycho by virginia feito
• hungerstone by kat dunn

A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING and if you want to indulge in a taste of everything, have a look at these short story collections:

• salt slow by julia armfield
• eyes guts throat bones by moïra fowley-doyle
• cursed bunny by bora chung

there are lots of other ideas and themes present across these books, but hopefully this makes for a good starting point. if you have a specific niche that you’d like to fill, feel free to ask in the comments!

welcome to the monstrous feminine! here, you’ll find visions of both monstrosity and womanhood deconstructed and haphazardly tacked back together again.

you can comment under this post to suggest works that you think would be a good fit for this quest. before you comment, though, here’s a little more information about how this quest was curated, and the research and intention behind it.

WHAT IS THE MONSTROUS FEMININE?

the phrase ‘monstrous feminine’ comes from barbara creed’s ‘the monstrous-feminine: film, feminism, psychoanalysis’. in creed’s hugely influential text, she interrogates the predominantly misogynistic portrayal of women in horror cinema, breaking the representation down into six categories: the archaic mother, the possessed monster, the monstrous womb, the vampire, the witch, the femme castratrice, and the castrating mother. the through-line? men finding monstrosity in how women fail to conform to gender expectations.

since the publication of the monstrous-feminine in 1993, the term has been reclaimed, by creed herself, along with countless others. where the monstrous-feminine was once representative of patriarchal and bio-essentialist notions of womanhood, it is now expansive and elastic, often strange, surprising, and queer.

NB: the monstrous-feminine was born of men reducing women to their perceived subservience and how well they performed femininity. there’s a tongue-in-cheek-ness to the term, as many monstrous feminine figures do not conform to these notion of femininity at all. monstrous feminine figures do not have to present as feminine.

WHY WERE THE BOOKS IN THIS QUEST CHOSEN?

the books in this quest use horror to redefine and reclaim the monstrous feminine. they are not just horror books featuring women; they use aesthetics of monstrosity in a way that challenges how women (and, in many cases, women of additional marginalisations) have historically been represented in horror and in life. sometimes this discussion around gender is at the forefront. in other places, it is subtler.

some of these books critique notions of monstrosity entirely, using visions of the monstrous feminine in a way that rejects the demonisation of experiences and characteristics that we don’t understand or relate to (e.g. our wives under the sea and the gilda stories).

in putting this quest together, i wanted to ask: what does it mean to be the monstrous feminine? who gets to reclaim the monstrous feminine, and who is forced into it? how can we use horror to redefine our relationships to gender, bodies, and desirability under patriarchy and cisheteronormativity?

WHAT IS THE SELECTION CRITERIA FOR NEW ADDITIONS?

• does this book contribute to a diversity of voices represented in the quest (i.e. is this a perspective that is over-represented?)
• is this book perpetuating misogynistic and bio-essentialist notions of womanhood, or does it challenge/subvert/reckon with these expectations?
• does this book tap into an interesting conversation, horror subgenre, style or thematic focus that isn’t already reflected in the list?
• there are many non-horror books featuring ‘monstrous women’, but that’s not what this quest is for - is this book effectively utilising elements of horror?

you’ll also notice that there are a decent amount of short story collections represented in this quest. some of the most famous monstrous-feminine figures have come from short stories, and i continue to believe that some of the most exciting work within this space is happening in short fiction. short story collections have been chosen based on the basis that the majority of short stories in the collection are monstrous-feminine texts. please don’t suggest short story collections that do not meet this criteria.

feel free to ask any questions, otherwise: let’s get monstrous!