Why is this book 540 pages?! 😭😭

wallahi you'd think elle kennedy would dial down her misogyny after all these years but noooo her leads are genuinely like real men that somehow find themselves in happy relationships

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!