WIHM: Five Authors You Should Be Reading

A common theme among horror writers, understandably, is that they are horror READERS. It is this understanding which makes the ‘Trembling With Fear’ horror features make sense in conjunction with the listings of open writing markets. For Women in Horror month, Horror Tree did something different. They opened their doors to let me share five authors you should be reading if you aren’t already. Have more to add? I’d love to hear about them. There are far more amazing women in publishing than I could list in this article!

 

1.)  Christina Bergling

Christina Bergling writes beautiful, complex stories which also happen to involve serial killers. Relatable characters with real problems who happen to have violent tendencies – art mimics life. She does tell stories with supernatural or science fiction elements, but the book that made me love her writing was The Rest Will Come ( http://amzn.to/2HAl6Qz ). The book is about Emma, a woman whose life abruptly changes when she discovers her husband cheated on her. That leaves her with mountains of debt, and nights spent scouring dating apps for “the one.” After a string of bad dates and messy breakups, something in Emma snaps and that’s when the real fun begins.

 

2.) Lori Titus

Lori Titus, like Bergling, can also spin an impressively complex and real yarn. Her characters read like fully-formed, actual people. Their personalities are as vivid as their backstories – and she is just as capable when it comes to selling terrible, horrifying moments. Her novel The Bell House (http://amzn.to/2orWUav ) is about Jenna Bell McBride who loses her husband in a fire. After the tragedy she goes to live in a house she was willed when her father passed. Her half-sister Diana lives on the same property in a home she was left when he died. The two didn’t get along before the ghosts from their pasts got involved, and things certainly don’t improve when outside forces try to intervene.

 

3.) Amy Cross

Amy Cross is a master of twisted ghost stories. She has a knack for turning familiar horror tropes sideways and making them suit her purposes. She can fill a reader’s thoughts with dread and make them believe they know just where a story is headed, only to surprise them with unexpected twists and turns. The Death of Addie Gray (http://amzn.to/2ETunEX ) was the first title of hers I read in which a couple’s young daughter wakes from a coma with a terrible secret.

 

4.) Barbara Copperthwaite

Barbara Copperthwaite has a special talent for classical thriller storytelling. The way she writes scenes and establishes characters is reminiscent of Thomas Harris’ writing. His thrillers, like Copperthwaite’s, undeniably sit in the horror realm. She writes disturbing scenes vividly and does as well with her character portrayal and development. In Flowers for the Dead, (http://amzn.to/2HxpnUZ ) she plays with storytelling by switching between narrators and focusing on different details.

 

5.) Eden Royce

Eden Royce has embraced and expanded our understanding of Southern Gothic Fiction. Her writing is as elegant as it is effective, and the short stories in both the Spook Lights (http://amzn.to/2EHHtpi ) and new release Spook Lights II (http://amzn.to/2CAdie2 ) are filled with numerous stories designed to unsettle and disturb.