In celebration of Women in Horror Month, I'm passing along The Top 25 Women Horror Writers You Haven't Heard of But Probably Should Have, by Hellnotes that M.B. Partlow told me about, and adding one book by each of these women to the Best Horror list I'm doing, wherein I read a book that has been claimed to be one of the best and do a review every other Friday.
Now, technically WIHM is all about supporting females in horror films, but I'm choosing to see it as supporting all women involved in horror, be it film, writing, or other visual arts. After all, there are those who still don't take women in horror seriously. We don't know about blood and horror? Have you BEEN in a delivery room? How do girls know they've become women? Blood, that's how. We've got it down pat.
And, as addressed in my Psycho Horror Lovers Unite post, most of the horror fans I know are female. Comments on the post bore this out, as well. If that's so, shouldn't there be more women writing horror or producing/directing/writing horror films?
In all fairness, there are already books by women on the best horror list I'm reading. In fact, I've read the Kathe Koja book mentioned in the Hellnotes list and even done my review on it already. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but neither were a couple of the other books, whether by men or women. The women from this list who are already featured in the best horror lists I'm reading through are Caitlin R. Kiernan, Tananarive Due, and Kathe Koja. That leaves 22 women for me to read in addition to the rest of the list.
Have you read books by any of these 25 women? Did you know about WIHM? Do you think women are seen as scary as much as men are?
May you find your Muse.
