Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over at #BookSquadGoals (www.booksquadgoals.com). She can be reached at emily.ecm@gmail.com.
Now matter how many times you have gone through the grief process, it never gets easier. I recently celebrated my late brother’s birthday. On the same day this year, my beloved cat died. My brother’s death was nearly eight years ago, and my cat died yesterday as I write this, and yet the pain from both losses feels fresh and almost insurmountable at the moment.
But something that has always helped me through grief? Not self-help books. Not literary tear-jerkers. Horror novels have been the most helpful to me throughout the years. Horror fiction has the capacity to explore the rawness and isolation of grief that other genres just don’t touch in the same way.
If you’re dealing with grief or feelings of loss, pick up a horror book, and you might be surprised about how much better you feel after finishing it. Here are some of my personal favorite horror novels about grief.
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Emily has a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi, MS, and she has an MFA in Creative Writing from GCSU in Milledgeville, GA, home of Flannery O’Connor. She spends her free time reading, watching horror movies and musicals, cuddling cats, Instagramming pictures of cats, and blogging/podcasting about books with the ladies over at #BookSquadGoals (www.booksquadgoals.com). She can be reached at emily.ecm@gmail.com.
Now matter how many times you have gone through the grief process, it never gets easier. I recently celebrated my late brother’s birthday. On the same day this year, my beloved cat died. My brother’s death was nearly eight years ago, and my cat died yesterday as I write this, and yet the pain from both losses feels fresh and almost insurmountable at the moment.
But something that has always helped me through grief? Not self-help books. Not literary tear-jerkers. Horror novels have been the most helpful to me throughout the years. Horror fiction has the capacity to explore the rawness and isolation of grief that other genres just don’t touch in the same way.
If you’re dealing with grief or feelings of loss, pick up a horror book, and you might be surprised about how much better you feel after finishing it. Here are some of my personal favorite horror novels about grief.
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker
A few months ago, Cora Zeng’s sister was pushed in front of a train and killed. Cora didn’t get a good look at her sister’s assailant, but she did hear him whisper something before he ran away: Bat Eater. Now, Cora works as a crime scene cleaner, cleaning up the aftermath of brutal murders in Chinatown. The strangest things, though, is that Cora keeps finding dead bats at the crime scenes. Are these death somehow related to what happened to her sister? And when Cora feels a strange presence in her home, does that mean her sister has returned?
Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman
For those of us who have lost loved ones, we would do pretty much anything to get them back. The characters in Ghost Eaters even go as far as experimenting with a new drug called Ghost. Allegedly, this drug allows its users to see the dead. After Erin loses her ex-boyfriend Silas to a drug overdose, she is desperate for closure and a chance to see him one last time. But taking Ghost has unexpected side effects. It turns out that once you make contact with the world of the dead, they’re not so willing to let you go.
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
This horror novel starts innocently enough, but from there, it takes a lot of spine-chilling turns. Married couple Vera and Thiago buy an Itza–an advanced smart speaker–in the hopes that it will make their lives in their new home a little bit easier. But life is anything but. As soon as the Itza arrives, things get weird. Eerie music and lights emit from it, and packages start arriving that they did not order. Then Thiago’s wife dies under mysterious circumstances, and Thiago begins to suspect some sort of sinister force in the house trying to make contact through the speakers.
Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones
Twelve-year-old Junior has lived in a trailer park with his mom and his brother Dino ever since his father drowned eight years ago. Then one night, Junior awakes to see his father standing in their home, dressed in a Native American Fancy Dance costume. Junior knows his mother could use some help, especially since his little brother Dino has so many health problems, so at first he welcomes the return of his father. However, just as suddenly as he arrives, Junior’s father disappears again, sending Junior on a desperate hunt to find him.
Crossroads by Laurel Hightower
After Chris’s son dies in a terrible car accident, nothing is ever the same. Her days are consumed with grief. She would be willing to sacrifice anything to get him back. Then one day, she realizes she can do just that. It starts with a drop of blood from a small cut on her finger. The blood falls onto her son’s grave, and the next thing she knows, she sees her son’s ghost outside of her window. But was it really her son’s ghost or was her mind just playing tricks on her? How much of herself will she be willing to sacrifice to find out?
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Miri’s wife Leah disappears after leaving on a deep sea mission. Right when Miri is starts to make peace with the fact that Leah will be gone forever, she suddenly returns. But Leah is not the woman Miri remembers. Whatever happened to Leah and her crew mates at the bottom of the ocean has changed her forever. While Leah might be there in body, her mind and spirit seem to be slipping away from Miri with every passing minute. Leah has brought something from the ocean back with her, and nothing will ever be the same.
The Good House by Tananarive Due
Two years after tragedy destroyed her family forever, Angela is still trying to work through her grief and move on with her life. She returns to the rural home in Sacajawea that meant so much to her as a child, but there, she discovers that she’s not the only one trying to claw her way out of grief. In fact, there have been many senseless tragedies since she was last in Sacajawea, and Angela wonders if they all might be connected to what happened to her teenage son Corey.
Linghun by Ai Jang
This novella is able to capture the aching pain of loss in multiple storylines in only a few short pages. In the town of HOME, residents are able to summon the spirits of their lost loved ones. Wenqi’s family moves to this town in the hopes of reconnecting with her deceased brother. Meanwhile, Liam’s parents are desperately hoping to find the spirit of their stillborn daughter. And Mrs., whose husband died a long time ago, doesn’t see the ghost of her deceased loved one anywhere.
Want to read more about grief horror? Check out this exploration of why the horror genre is so good at exploring grief, trauma, and loss. And then check out even more grief horror book recommendations.
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