101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered

by Sadie Hartmann

Manderley is the blueprint for stories that ask the reader, “Is it the house or the people?”

The house is a supernatural entity that can, if it chooses to do so, take the life of anyone that enters it.

THE GRIP OF IT BY JAC JEMC (2017)

THE BOOK OF ACCIDENTS BY CHUCK WENDIG (2021)

KILL CREEK BY SCOTT THOMAS (2017)

THE SWITCH HOUSE BY TIM MEYER (2018)

BETWEEN TWO FIRES (2012) medieval; dark fantasy; paranormal

If that’s abnormal, what’s that say about normal? We know monsters and despair in life, too. But we feel that pressure of Normal, like brand-name clothing you can’t afford. From childhood, we’re expected to wear Normal, slice away pieces of ourselves to make it fit, then turn that blade on anyone who won’t slice themselves the same way.

I remember Creature from the Black Lagoon was my favorite as a kid. Poor Gill-man … his space invaded in one movie, hauled to a zoo the next, and then his story ends with the leads trying to make him human. They wanted to slice him, make that Normal fit.

This was one of my favorite movies growing up. I cheered for the Creature. I still do.

It wasn’t a hundred coyotes with bullhorns howling at once and it wasn’t the Devil himself. The things that had screamed that night was the soul of a shattered, hurt mother facing the loss of everything she loved, and that is something even the Devil should fear.