My Reading List for Women In Horror Month 2022

2022 has been a rough reading year for me so far and I don’t think I am alone in this. I think we are tired and there is so much else going on that even having the mental energy to sink into any book is exhausting. So, I admit that as March approached, I was feeling trepidatious about Women in Horror Month, worried I would make choices and be disappointed in the offering, not because the book wasn’t good enough, but because my general apathetic attitude would leach into my reading. No matter what, I was going to participate, even if I only manage three books this month, but I was crippled by indecision since I have so many books written by women that I am excited to get to, but didn’t want to ruin my experience with them based purely on my inability to concentrate on them. So, in other times of indecision such as this, I made a stack of 20 books (5 digital, 15 print) and pulled out my handy dandy 20-sided die. It is exceptionally nice to sometimes just leave it up to fate. I also chose 2 collections, to get back into the habit of reading a short story a day (I chose Sometimes We’re Cruel by J.A.W. McCarthy and The Ghost Sequences by A.C.Wise). 

My stack in no particular order:

Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H .Cooper

Immortelle by Catherine McCarthy

Salvation Springs by TC Parker

A Certain Dark Hunger by Chelsea G Summers

Sick Grey Laugh by Nicole Cushing

True Crime by Samantha Kolesnik

Moon Child by Gaby Triana

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

Itza by Rios de la Luz

The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read

Bunny by Mona Awad

Tidepool by Nicole Willson

The Bell Chime by Mona Kabbani

Into Bones like Oil by Kaaron Warren

The Embalmer by Anne-Renee Caille

To Offer Her Pleasure by Ali Seay

Beneath A Bethel by April-Jane Rowan

Seeing Things by Sonora Taylor

The Wild Dark by Katherine Silva

Mirror in the Attic by Jennifer Bernardini

This is only a small representation of books I have by women in horror or dark fiction. And I will get to all of what I have, eventually. But, for Women in Horror Month 2022, my die forecasted the following reading list for me:

The Hunger, Mirror in the Attic, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, Tidepool, Into Bones Like Oil, To Offer Her Pleasure, and Seeing Things. If I get through these, I will continue to roll the die to see what I can add to the list. I am also going to try and squeeze in The Seventh Mansion by Maryse Meijer as a buddy read. 

As of this writing, I have finished The Hunger, Mirror in the Attic, and Sometimes We’re Cruel. All pulled me out of my reading funk in their own way.

The Hunger is historical horror fiction, and it transported me to another time and place. Horrific things happened, are always happening, but there are survivors, and that gives me hope. 

Mirror in the Attic was a great story, it went places I was not expecting. 

Sometimes We’re Cruel is packed with incredible short stories. Each one fits perfectly in the title of the collections, demonstrating all those little cruel things we do, unthinking or even consciously, that wound those around us, and ultimately ourselves. Some cruelties are like little papercuts to the psyche, invisible, but some are livid scars we carry, writing our history on our bodies.

By Teresa B. Ardrey

Twitter: @teresa_ardrey 

I like to talk about books. I try to read diversely and in all genres, but my heart will always call to horror, especially to Women in Horror.