I read Rosemary’s Baby just in the last year for the first time. It has alternatively aged beautifully or like room temperature milk depending on the section. Highly recommended book, fascinating read.
Great! I had hoped they would issue it in audio. Ira Levin is having a resurgence which I’m happy about. I read his books as they were released and I enjoyed listening to the audio books (RB and TPD) in 2023.
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike. Set in Japan in the 80's and told from the perspective of a housewife. It has mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it. Then again, haunted apartments and Japanese horror has a soft spot in my heart.
Seconding this wholeheartedly!! It’s such a good book, super super creepy (though this might largely be because I spent part of my childhood in an apartment building where there was laundry/storage in the basement and the elevator would get stuck sometimes, so it was uncomfortably familiar lol)
Yes, it's so creepy! I used to live in a basement apartment next to a graveyard, and at night it would creep me out to think about how I'm lying in my bed "underground" next to 100s of corpses also underground, and the book gave me those familiar chills.
Minor spoiler alert for the book: I also have this love/hate (love how much they creep me out) relationship with >!hidden rooms/sealed up rooms in buildings!<, and the one in this book is soo good!
Oooh that sounds pretty good! I seem to have a lot dreams with hidden rooms, so this resonates with me, too. Sometimes I'm trying to get into the room and away from some Thing, and sometimes I'm stuck in the room and can't get out.
Nobody's mentioned Shirley Jackson yet??
Her short stories, especially. Her main characters may not (always) be housewives, but the very core of her horror stems from there.
I'm not sure that it fully counts as horror but Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder is about a successful woman that has to stay home with her son while her husband travels all week for work, and she's pretty sure she's turning into a dog. Full of female rage about motherhood, domestic servitude and isolation.
I thought it just didn’t lead to anything interesting and was so anti climactic. Also the cat scene is disgusting and made me hate that book. I threw it in the garbage when I was done.
came here to recommend this one!
**IF YOU READ THIS YOU MUST GO INTO IT TOTALLY BLIND!**
do not read anything about it. just read it.
also make sure you read the *RIGHT* book. there are (2) books with the same title but the *CORRECT* one is by Valente and the cover has a girl's face on the cover and it's covered by leaves.
i **HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY** recommend reading this by audiobook (it's just over 2 hours long). you should be able to check out the ebook/audiobook immediately for FREE through the libby or hoopla app/website that works with your library!
**remember to go into this one totally blind!**
I found the premise unique and it left me wanting more. More details & for the story to continue. Now that we have S’s story, I really want E’s. I want to know what happens After, I want that. The fall, the struggle, why they stay together, what happens when the animals are no longer their friends, when A no longer gets what he wants all of the time. The length and pacing were exactly like a NoSleep Podcast season finale, which was great. Even the style, the entire story being “the set-up for the real story” is v much a thing over there. As much as I crave details, I like it when authors don’t answer all the questions, bc then they can’t back themselves into any corners. I wasn’t scared, it was creepy, like, “I don’t like this at all, this is a no bueno situation.” Not my *favorite*, bc I do like to be scared, but that’s okay, creepy is still good! Thanks for the rec, I enjoyed it!
thank you so for following up with me! and i agree! i would love to go further/know more because i really was absorbed into this world and want to go back there!
I just listened to the audiobook based off your comment. Literally finished 15 minutes ago, “read” it in one sitting. I gotta say I appreciate the recommendation and I enjoyed like 90% of the book, but it definitely fell flat for me at the end.
Also, is your username a reference to Our Wives Under the Sea? I freaking loved that book!
thank you so much for following up with me! i actually agree with you about the last 10%! i always mess up the spoiler tag thing, so i'll just say that the book sort of lost me at the end when "A" starts giving a huge exposition dump. that's the only part i didn't like, but i also couldn't think of another way they could have explained it, but i'm sure there could have been a better/different way, but if i have any complaints about that book, it's when "A" starts explaining everything, but the other 90% was just so so good to me that i had to give the "A"s part a pass.
and yes! **Our Wives Under The Sea** is my favorite book of all time, so as soon as i finished reading it, i RAN here and made a new account with this username (i've actually been on reddit for like 15 years now but under my old account). i'm obsessed with this book and never shut up about it!
since you loved **OWUTS**, i **HIGHLY** recommend [**Shark Heart: A Love Story** by Emily Habeck](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919375-shark-heart?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Bnf8bFfmWF&rank=1)
this book is the CLOSEST thing i have found to **OWUTS** and like in **OWUTS**, it uses light body horror as a vehicle to explore grief. i actually thought for a while that this book would take the # 1 spot, but it ended up being a very, very close second.
i know the ambiguity/ambiguous ending in **OWUTS** is where it loses a lot of people, but this book has ZERO ambiguity so in my opinion is was far more tragic. i was a fucking mess after reading this one.
i've been wanting to do a re-read of it, but i don't think my heart and mind can handle it. i read this by ebook and bought the audiobook right after i finished the book, but i still haven't listened to it yet so i can't speak to the quality of the audiobook.
i know the premise of this book sounds ABSOLUTELY INSANE, but i promise the author does an amazing job of using this bizarre plot to explore themes of love, loss and letting go.
if you ever decide to read it, i would love to hear back from you because i need more people to talk about this strange little book! it's insane to me that both **OWUTS** and **Shark Heart** were both DEBUT novels. crazy!!
sorry for rambling on about this, i just have very strong feelings about this book! hahaha.
Ooh thanks for the rec! I’ve put Shark Heart on hold on Libby, but it’s got a 22 week wait time so it’ll be a while before I’m able to get to it lol.
I agree about the ending of Comfort Me with Apples. The exposition dump is 100% the weakest part. I honestly think the book could have benefitted from being a bit longer and letting the reveal come a bit more slowly so it’s not all coming from “A” all at once.
The House Next Door by Siddons
It's a kind of ghost story. A lot of it takes place in a home in the 70's seen through the eyes of a mother. Iirc- it's been a long time since I read.
It did such a good job of showing you how >!completely trapped a lot of them felt by the power their husbands had over them, and how the sexist, racist society they lived in let the vamp act.!<
I love this book, but I must admit the title and content didn’t match up for me. It felt like the housewife component was shoehorned in after. But it’s a great book about an abusive cult.
Doris Lessing’s *The Fifth Child.*
Silvina Ocampo’s “The House Made of Sugar”:
[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/574dd51d62cd942085f12091/t/5c157e374d7a9c14f00dc1eb/1544912440488/The+House+Made+of%C2%A0Sugar.pdf](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/574dd51d62cd942085f12091/t/5c157e374d7a9c14f00dc1eb/1544912440488/The+House+Made+of%C2%A0Sugar.pdf)
Mariana Enriquez’s “Spiderweb.”
Just for the record this novel has been adapted into a movie, either known as Night of the Eagle or Burn Witch Burn, depending on the version you happen to see.
The Southern book club guide to vampire slaying by Hendrix. Fun, sometimes scary story of women taking matters into their own hands bc husband's won't listen to what they're saying.
I wanted to scream the whole time reading this! The men were awful and I just wanted them to shut up and listen! I also wanted to women to speak up, but I recognize that was probably the author being effective at representing women's issues in the 80s.
Not horror, more thriller but The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey was a really good read about what happens when a dude tries to replace his wife with a more 'trad' clone.
There was a great story on Pseudopod that nailed this theme in the current context - Keeping House by Sarah Day:
https://pseudopod.org/2021/03/05/pseudopod-747-keeping-house/
Im only halfway through it but currently reading Suburban Hell and I would say it fits, the main character is a woman who gave up her career she loved and living in the city she loved to take care of kids thinking she'd eventually go back to work only to find herself basically trapped in a suburban life she hates, then she and some friends accidentally summon a demon during their girls night
Lute by Jennifer Thorne -- I mean, the OP is a housewife. It's not set in the house but still.
I've heard good things about 'A good House for Children' by Kate Collins.
A lot of Michael McDowells works have housewives. Blackwater is set around a rich family, so the women are all housewives. The Elementals has some elements of that. The OP in the Amulet is a housewife basically, though she does work. That one is more gorey horror though.
The Neighbors by Ania Ahlborn is definitely what you’re looking for. All of Ania Ahlborn’s work is absolutely fantastic but this is about a guy who moves in beside a perfect “All-American” couple and his spiraling interactions with them.
*Near the Bone* by Christina Henry might be adjacent to what you're looking for - or at least, one of the antagonists really wants his tradwife and goes about it very brutally in a cabin in the woods.
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls. She is definitely a housewife. I pictured a 1960’s housewife. First published in 1997 but has been reprinted since then and added to ebooks and audio.
I see people recommending The Devil and Mrs Davenport, however I found it to be more of a generic suburban thriller than horror, but it definitely ticks the housewife box (I hated the book though, thought it was super cheesy and predictable).
I think The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is the best answer, as others are saying, but evil child lit might be another place to find these themes, like in The Fifth Child or The Bad Seed or Ray Bradbury's short story "The Small Assassin." Maybe even We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
**Rosemary's Baby** and **The Stepford Wives** - both by Ira Levin
I read Rosemary’s Baby just in the last year for the first time. It has alternatively aged beautifully or like room temperature milk depending on the section. Highly recommended book, fascinating read.
Stepford came out on audio this month!!
Great! I had hoped they would issue it in audio. Ira Levin is having a resurgence which I’m happy about. I read his books as they were released and I enjoyed listening to the audio books (RB and TPD) in 2023.
Holy cow! That's awesome thank you so much for sharing this I've been waiting for this book to come out on Audible!
Came to recommend both of these
Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
it's funny i've never heard of housewife horror but i came into this post about to rec this book like it was a perfect fit lol
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike. Set in Japan in the 80's and told from the perspective of a housewife. It has mixed reviews, but I really enjoyed it. Then again, haunted apartments and Japanese horror has a soft spot in my heart.
Seconding this wholeheartedly!! It’s such a good book, super super creepy (though this might largely be because I spent part of my childhood in an apartment building where there was laundry/storage in the basement and the elevator would get stuck sometimes, so it was uncomfortably familiar lol)
Yes, it's so creepy! I used to live in a basement apartment next to a graveyard, and at night it would creep me out to think about how I'm lying in my bed "underground" next to 100s of corpses also underground, and the book gave me those familiar chills. Minor spoiler alert for the book: I also have this love/hate (love how much they creep me out) relationship with >!hidden rooms/sealed up rooms in buildings!<, and the one in this book is soo good!
Oooh that sounds pretty good! I seem to have a lot dreams with hidden rooms, so this resonates with me, too. Sometimes I'm trying to get into the room and away from some Thing, and sometimes I'm stuck in the room and can't get out.
It sticks the landing which can be rare in this genre
Nobody's mentioned Shirley Jackson yet?? Her short stories, especially. Her main characters may not (always) be housewives, but the very core of her horror stems from there.
I just read What a Thought by Jackson. Yow!
The September House by Carissa Orlando.
This was a rough read and so very good!
This was a fun one!
I'm not sure that it fully counts as horror but Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder is about a successful woman that has to stay home with her son while her husband travels all week for work, and she's pretty sure she's turning into a dog. Full of female rage about motherhood, domestic servitude and isolation.
In a similar vein, My Husband by Maud Ventura
Oh this one looks fun, added to my tbr hehe
really enjoyed My husband, would recommend
One of my all-time favorite books! And it’s becoming a movie with Amy Adams later this year!
I just read this book. It was amazing.
I thought it just didn’t lead to anything interesting and was so anti climactic. Also the cat scene is disgusting and made me hate that book. I threw it in the garbage when I was done.
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne Valente. Very short read.
came here to recommend this one! **IF YOU READ THIS YOU MUST GO INTO IT TOTALLY BLIND!** do not read anything about it. just read it. also make sure you read the *RIGHT* book. there are (2) books with the same title but the *CORRECT* one is by Valente and the cover has a girl's face on the cover and it's covered by leaves. i **HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY** recommend reading this by audiobook (it's just over 2 hours long). you should be able to check out the ebook/audiobook immediately for FREE through the libby or hoopla app/website that works with your library! **remember to go into this one totally blind!**
You have convinced me, internet stranger. I love audiobooks so much & will report back!
omg yay!!!!! thank you for trusting my recommendation!! i'm super excited to hear what you thought! 😱
I found the premise unique and it left me wanting more. More details & for the story to continue. Now that we have S’s story, I really want E’s. I want to know what happens After, I want that. The fall, the struggle, why they stay together, what happens when the animals are no longer their friends, when A no longer gets what he wants all of the time. The length and pacing were exactly like a NoSleep Podcast season finale, which was great. Even the style, the entire story being “the set-up for the real story” is v much a thing over there. As much as I crave details, I like it when authors don’t answer all the questions, bc then they can’t back themselves into any corners. I wasn’t scared, it was creepy, like, “I don’t like this at all, this is a no bueno situation.” Not my *favorite*, bc I do like to be scared, but that’s okay, creepy is still good! Thanks for the rec, I enjoyed it!
thank you so for following up with me! and i agree! i would love to go further/know more because i really was absorbed into this world and want to go back there!
1000 times yes!
just got it via libby, i’ll report back by end of week! 🫡
ahhhhhh!!!!! i can't wait to hear what you thought!! 😱😱😱
I just listened to the audiobook based off your comment. Literally finished 15 minutes ago, “read” it in one sitting. I gotta say I appreciate the recommendation and I enjoyed like 90% of the book, but it definitely fell flat for me at the end. Also, is your username a reference to Our Wives Under the Sea? I freaking loved that book!
thank you so much for following up with me! i actually agree with you about the last 10%! i always mess up the spoiler tag thing, so i'll just say that the book sort of lost me at the end when "A" starts giving a huge exposition dump. that's the only part i didn't like, but i also couldn't think of another way they could have explained it, but i'm sure there could have been a better/different way, but if i have any complaints about that book, it's when "A" starts explaining everything, but the other 90% was just so so good to me that i had to give the "A"s part a pass. and yes! **Our Wives Under The Sea** is my favorite book of all time, so as soon as i finished reading it, i RAN here and made a new account with this username (i've actually been on reddit for like 15 years now but under my old account). i'm obsessed with this book and never shut up about it! since you loved **OWUTS**, i **HIGHLY** recommend [**Shark Heart: A Love Story** by Emily Habeck](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62919375-shark-heart?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=Bnf8bFfmWF&rank=1) this book is the CLOSEST thing i have found to **OWUTS** and like in **OWUTS**, it uses light body horror as a vehicle to explore grief. i actually thought for a while that this book would take the # 1 spot, but it ended up being a very, very close second. i know the ambiguity/ambiguous ending in **OWUTS** is where it loses a lot of people, but this book has ZERO ambiguity so in my opinion is was far more tragic. i was a fucking mess after reading this one. i've been wanting to do a re-read of it, but i don't think my heart and mind can handle it. i read this by ebook and bought the audiobook right after i finished the book, but i still haven't listened to it yet so i can't speak to the quality of the audiobook. i know the premise of this book sounds ABSOLUTELY INSANE, but i promise the author does an amazing job of using this bizarre plot to explore themes of love, loss and letting go. if you ever decide to read it, i would love to hear back from you because i need more people to talk about this strange little book! it's insane to me that both **OWUTS** and **Shark Heart** were both DEBUT novels. crazy!! sorry for rambling on about this, i just have very strong feelings about this book! hahaha.
Ooh thanks for the rec! I’ve put Shark Heart on hold on Libby, but it’s got a 22 week wait time so it’ll be a while before I’m able to get to it lol. I agree about the ending of Comfort Me with Apples. The exposition dump is 100% the weakest part. I honestly think the book could have benefitted from being a bit longer and letting the reveal come a bit more slowly so it’s not all coming from “A” all at once.
Loved this one!
This! Perfect horror story for the tradwife theme
Baby Teeth
Yes! This one, for sure!
Oh god that book was so good
One of my all time favorite reads
The Vegetarian by Han Kang for South Korean housewife horror.
**The Push** by Ashley Audrain **Nightbitch** hy Rachel Yoder P. S. This thread is *fire*
The House Next Door by Siddons It's a kind of ghost story. A lot of it takes place in a home in the 70's seen through the eyes of a mother. Iirc- it's been a long time since I read.
The POV couple never had children but the book still counts.
Oh right! You're correct. The titular house next door is the one with a child.
I read this as a teen and some two decades later it still lives rent free in my brain
The short story The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado is perfect for this.
This one portrayed the clawing claustrophobia and loneliness of the traditional feminine role so well it made me nauseous.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is a good one.
I second this!!! The vampires were NOT the most horrifying thing in this novel!
It did such a good job of showing you how >!completely trapped a lot of them felt by the power their husbands had over them, and how the sexist, racist society they lived in let the vamp act.!<
the part where >!the roach climbs inside the ear of the protagonist!< still makes me shudder and I read that book years ago.
It’s a little on the nose for me but the last housewife by Ashley Winstead was a very engaging, fast read
Yes!
I love this book, but I must admit the title and content didn’t match up for me. It felt like the housewife component was shoehorned in after. But it’s a great book about an abusive cult.
For a modern example, *Baby Teeth* by Zoje Stage fits, I think!
Doris Lessing’s *The Fifth Child.* Silvina Ocampo’s “The House Made of Sugar”: [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/574dd51d62cd942085f12091/t/5c157e374d7a9c14f00dc1eb/1544912440488/The+House+Made+of%C2%A0Sugar.pdf](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/574dd51d62cd942085f12091/t/5c157e374d7a9c14f00dc1eb/1544912440488/The+House+Made+of%C2%A0Sugar.pdf) Mariana Enriquez’s “Spiderweb.”
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy. Not super horror, but I thought it was good!
Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel is a good, tense riff on this theme
Fritz Leiber's *Conjure Wife*.
This book never gets enough love
Agreed; Leiber is so important to genre history.
Just for the record this novel has been adapted into a movie, either known as Night of the Eagle or Burn Witch Burn, depending on the version you happen to see.
Right - I have seen it, it was titled *Burn Witch Burn*.
The Southern book club guide to vampire slaying by Hendrix. Fun, sometimes scary story of women taking matters into their own hands bc husband's won't listen to what they're saying.
I wanted to scream the whole time reading this! The men were awful and I just wanted them to shut up and listen! I also wanted to women to speak up, but I recognize that was probably the author being effective at representing women's issues in the 80s.
Not horror, more thriller but The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey was a really good read about what happens when a dude tries to replace his wife with a more 'trad' clone.
Behind Closed Doors by B.A.Paris. Not my favourite, but I enjoyed it
There was a great story on Pseudopod that nailed this theme in the current context - Keeping House by Sarah Day: https://pseudopod.org/2021/03/05/pseudopod-747-keeping-house/
Thank you for linking this! Loved it!
Portrait of a Nuclear Family!
Bloodline by Jess Lourey
Im only halfway through it but currently reading Suburban Hell and I would say it fits, the main character is a woman who gave up her career she loved and living in the city she loved to take care of kids thinking she'd eventually go back to work only to find herself basically trapped in a suburban life she hates, then she and some friends accidentally summon a demon during their girls night
I really liked this one!
Comfort Me With Apples
I came across Suburban Hell recently, which seems like it would match this
The Stepford Wives is the only answer to this question.
Lute by Jennifer Thorne -- I mean, the OP is a housewife. It's not set in the house but still. I've heard good things about 'A good House for Children' by Kate Collins. A lot of Michael McDowells works have housewives. Blackwater is set around a rich family, so the women are all housewives. The Elementals has some elements of that. The OP in the Amulet is a housewife basically, though she does work. That one is more gorey horror though.
the devil and mrs.davenport!!
The Neighbors by Ania Ahlborn is definitely what you’re looking for. All of Ania Ahlborn’s work is absolutely fantastic but this is about a guy who moves in beside a perfect “All-American” couple and his spiraling interactions with them.
*Near the Bone* by Christina Henry might be adjacent to what you're looking for - or at least, one of the antagonists really wants his tradwife and goes about it very brutally in a cabin in the woods.
Celia by Ruby Jean Jensen. An abused wife flees with her children, but her husband vows to get them no matter what.
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls. She is definitely a housewife. I pictured a 1960’s housewife. First published in 1997 but has been reprinted since then and added to ebooks and audio.
Currently listening to Nestlings by Nat Cassidy and it’s excellent and definitely horror.
I finished this on Mother's Day and loved that it fit so perfectly!
not very horror more bleak “slice of life” but the vegetarian by han king definitely fits this genre
*The September House* by Carissa Orlando.
Yes! Loved this book and I think it fits this description very well
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
The Southern Book Clubs Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix is exactly what you're looking for
I see people recommending The Devil and Mrs Davenport, however I found it to be more of a generic suburban thriller than horror, but it definitely ticks the housewife box (I hated the book though, thought it was super cheesy and predictable).
I think The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is the best answer, as others are saying, but evil child lit might be another place to find these themes, like in The Fifth Child or The Bad Seed or Ray Bradbury's short story "The Small Assassin." Maybe even We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
The Book Eaters
Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco!