Not only is March Women’s History Month, but it’s also Women in Horror Month!
HOWLS Year in Review
For Women in Horror Month 2025, we want to highlight authors we’ve read over the last year, and focus on several books members of HOWLS really loved. The books by women we read over the last year were:
Mona Awad, Rouge / Agustina Bazterrica, Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird/ Tananarive Due, The Reformatory / Mariana Enríquez, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed / Mariana Enríquez, Our Share of Night / Sara Gran, Come Closer / Elizabeth Hand, Haunting on the Hill / Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley / Laurel Hightower, Below / Ashley Hutson, One’s Company / Shirley Jackson, Hangsaman / Alma Katsu, The Hunger / Kathe Koja, Bad Brains / Fernanda Melchor, Hurricane Season / Mónica Ojeda, Jawbone / Yūya Satō, Dendera / Anne Rivers Siddons, The House Next Door / Lisa Tuttle, The Dead Hours of Night / Crystal Wilkinson, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks / Isabel Yap, Never Have I Ever
A Few Books that Haunted Us
While all of those books we read by women over the past year engaged HOWLS members in various ways, I’m going to focus on just some of the books we at HOWLS really sunk our teeth into!
Isabel Yap, Never Have I Ever: A hauntingly beautiful single-author short story collection with stories ranging from horror to mythology to revenge to real-world horror with a dash of the paranormal. This is a perfect book for those people in your life who say, “I don’t like horror.” True story: I got another book club to read it, and the book was universally enjoyed, including by everyone who’d said, “Horror’s not for me.”
Tananarive Due, The Reformatory: Tananarive Due is incredible, and The Reformatory is amazing. A historical fiction approach to writing about the Dozier School for Boys, where one of Due’s uncles was sent and never came home, this heartbreaking book leaves readers questioning if the paranormal and ghosts are the scariest parts of the novel…or is it the racism and horrors of Jim Crow, which still echo through the years to the present day.
Mariana Enríquez, Our Share of Night: “Our Share of Night is a carefully layered novel of history, trauma, horror, and family of all kinds. The characters and their struggles are painfully real, as are the horrors they face, and Enríquez’s careful weaving of real history and cultural struggle makes for a novel that’s all the more powerful. Truly, this one will haunt me, and I can only hope she’ll write a sequel or others like it.” Thanks, @wytwavedarling, for the review!
Ashley Hutson, One’s Company: Do obsession, classic 70s t.v. shows, grief, and extreme cosplay sound like a great time? Then come and knock on our door, have we got a book for you! Bonnie wins a ton of money, Bonnie loves Three’s Company, and we can’t say anymore because you just have to experience it for yourself. We were also lucky enough to do a Q&A with Ashley Hutson, and she was hilarious and delightful!
L. (She, Her, Hers, Ella)
@L. (she/her/hers/ella) is a lover and reader of books, a huge supporter of public libraries, is all about abortion access, is anti-racist and anti-fascist, and loves music from across a constellation of genres.