8 Folk Horror Books for Unsettling Reading
Author C.N. Vair shares her list of eight great folk horror books for readers to feel a little unsettled even as they continue turning pages.
The wind whistles long and lonely through the field of corn around you, green leaves sharp as blades brushing your skin.
The deep stillness of the untouched woods smothers you like a blanket, closing you in the unwelcoming presence of trees older than the name given to the land.
The ever-watching, ever-judging eyes of the neighbors, the congregation, the town follow you, the hiss of their whispers and condemnation raising the hair on the back of your neck.
Folk horror thrives in isolation and grows on ritual, seeding itself in the homey veneer of little cabins and small rural villages. The animals are strange, the people are a little off, and the land is resentful, and beneath these small communities and little traditions the sense of the ancient and inhuman looms large. There are threats out there in the dark, things that must be satiated moving unseen through the trees, but more often than not, the monsters are within rather than without. If you want to explore the fringes and confront the beasts they hide, this is the subgenre to reach for next.
Here are eight folk horror novels for an unsettling summer of reading.
Slewfoot, by Brom
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A determined young widow becomes entwined with a melancholic devil in a Puritan village in 1666, and their path to freedom is soaked in blood, sacrilege, and vengeance. No folk horror list would be complete without this one, and if you can get a copy with the artist-author's eerie paintings, even better.
Curdle Creek, by Yvonne Battle-Felton
In the town of Curdle Creek, it's one in, one out, and widow Osira is always the odd one out. This fictional Black community controls its population with a series of esoteric rituals, judgments, and punishments, and this book never gives you answers—it keeps you running like you're on hot coals, only becoming stranger and more violent.
The Bog Wife, by Kay Chronister
What happens when the new patriarch's wife doesn't emerge from the bog as promised? One of my favorite books of all time, this is a gorgeous, harrowing study of a family and the lies that hold them together, absolutely soaked in the deep knowledge of a particular landscape.
La Reina de las Chicharras (The Queen of the Cicadas), by V. Castro
A dual-timeline story about a murdered migrant worker whose plea for vengeance is heard by the Aztec goddess of death and comes to fruition decades later. Brutalist prose and propulsive storytelling combine for one of the most satisfying and sensual revenge stories I've ever read.
Gorse, by Sam K. Horton
In the Cornwallian village of Mirecoombe in 1786, Keepers balance the worlds of fey and human, and the regime is changing. Heavy on the folk and lighter on the horror, this book is steeped in the history and magic of a specific place, a place that comes to life and roots itself in your bones through the pages.
The Seventh Sister, by Dawn Kurtagich
Dripping with moss and dread, this rumination on the magic and terror of childhood follows seven sisters who descend into the ecstatic madness of their own bond. The mystery of their island home and the shared secrets of their past haunt them into adulthood.
Little Eve, by Catriona Ward
On the Scottish island of Altnaharra, a secretive clan awaits the ending of the world with the arrival of The Adder, but their ruin comes in a form they never expected. This is harrowing family horror with a folk spin, and it made me a devotee of Catriona Ward.
The Year of the Witching, by Alexis Henderson
A fantasy setting but folk horror nonetheless, this blood-soaked coming-of-age story follows a young woman living in a recognizably puritanical society and awakening the dark inheritance of her mother's heretical powers.
