Monster, She Wrote
Ratings7
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings7
Average rating3.7
Meet the women writers who defied convention to craft some of literature’s strangest tales, from Frankenstein to The Haunting of Hill House and beyond. Frankenstein was just the beginning: horror stories and other weird fiction wouldn’t exist without the women who created it. From Gothic ghost stories to psychological horror to science fiction, women have been primary architects of speculative literature of all sorts. And their own life stories are as intriguing as their fiction. Everyone knows about Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, who was rumored to keep her late husband’s heart in her desk drawer. But have you heard of Margaret “Mad Madge” Cavendish, who wrote a science-fiction epic 150 years earlier (and liked to wear topless gowns to the theater)? If you know the astounding work of Shirley Jackson, whose novel The Haunting of Hill House was reinvented as a Netflix series, then try the psychological hauntings of Violet Paget, who was openly involved in long-term romantic relationships with women in the Victorian era. You’ll meet celebrated icons (Ann Radcliffe, V. C. Andrews), forgotten wordsmiths (Eli Colter, Ruby Jean Jensen), and today’s vanguard (Helen Oyeyemi). Curated reading lists point you to their most spine-chilling tales. Part biography, part reader’s guide, the engaging write-ups and detailed reading lists will introduce you to more than a hundred authors and over two hundred of their mysterious and spooky novels, novellas, and stories.
Reviews with the most likes.
2 1/2 stars. Not enough detail. Too many mentions of Kelly Link throughout the book (“Kelly Link refers to this book as...” “Did you know Kelly Link was nominated for...?” Are the authors friends with her?)
And the offensive slights: One paragraph—and only one suggested book—for Joyce Carol Oates, who has written many, many horror and weird novels, and only two sentences dedicated to Lois Duncan, who wrote a long, long list of terrifying novels (I didn't sleep after reading Daughters of Eve or Down a Dark Hall) and introduced generations of kids and teenagers to the horror genre.
They tossed her in at the end of the paperback horror chapter after riffing on all the lurid Zebra books, and talking about who Ruby Jean Jensen might have been for pages, as an afterthought: yeah, you know, that Sarah Michelle Gellar movie, that was her book. She, and her decades of work that terrified millions of kids and brought them into reading horror, deserved much better than an afterthought.
And finally: the authors pull back from whether or not Amelia Edwards was gay, stating that she preferred to travel with female companions. I researched Amelia for an episode of my podcast about her, and Ellen Braysher was her partner and family.
