Dark and Stomach-Churning Novels You Should Add to Your Reading List

A collection of reviews by Odara Massey

1. Bunny by Mona Awad

One of my all-time favorites, Bunny follows Samantha Heather Mackey, an MFA
student whose life gets entangled with the rest of her creative writing cohort, a cult of rich women who act like little girls and call each other ‘Bunny’. Samantha sees them as a nuisance and detests their aberrant behaviors, but she ends up accepting an invitation to one of the Bunnies’ social events. While the act of mingling with the Bunnies originally stemmed from morbid curiosity, Samantha gets quickly sucked into the rabbit hole of the Bunnies’ deliriously saccharine world, with her mental state and sense of morality plummeting in the process. With its distinctive writing style and unreliable narration, Awad has managed to make this novel a sensation in the world of speculative fiction.

2. House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

For fans of the young adult genre, House of Hollow is the perfect novel for people who feel lured into the darkness. House of Hollow revolves around three sisters who went missing ten years ago and returned with no recollection of what
happened. However, the event was significant enough that they came back with
white hair, black eyes, and a consuming strangeness that altered both their personal lives and their effect on society. When the oldest of the Hollow sisters disappears, the other two sisters are determined to find her whereabouts. As they venture into the unknown, they uncover a series of dark truths along with the realization that something—something not of this world—is after them.

3. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu

Carmilla, a novel from the 1800s and the inspiration to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is
an underrated classic that falls under the category of speculative fiction. In
Carmilla, a young woman named Laura leads an isolated existence in an estate
settled in the mountains of Austria. With no one as company but her father and her maids, Laura yearns for connection. Which is why she is elated when a strange girl is taken to stay at her estate, but upon her arrival, a pattern of bizarre events starts to unfold in Laura’s world.

4. House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

In this retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, twelve sisters on a seaside estate are cursed to suffer tragic—and early—deaths. One of the sisters, Annaleigh, is intent on unraveling the curse as a series of ghostly visions begins to plague her estate. Along with a mysterious sailor, Annaleigh plunges into the darkest depths of her world to discover what is plaguing her family. House of Salt and Sorrows is a modern gothic fairytale and perfect for fans of Edgar Allan Poe. While these are only four novels, they have enriched my imagination and led me to become an avid reader. All of these books have lyrical prose and unique takes on the supernatural, and the excellent storytelling makes these books ideal for fans of speculative fiction.