13 Mother-Themed Horror Books
We all have, or had, a mother.
At times they can be loving, at others frightening.
No one is off limits to horror authors and mothers are no exception, with many playing a variety of different roles in horror stories. These authors look at mothers and the mothering role and twist them ever so slightly. And some not so slightly.
In appreciation of all the mothers, we bring you this list of 13 mother-themed horror stories.
The stories ask such questions as: How far would a mother go to protect, nurture, and nourish their child? What can a mother do when her offspring is a psychopath? What can children do when their mother is just not right? What would a mother do if she knew, without a sliver of a doubt, that the children in front of her are not really her children at all? But what if they are?
We hope all mothers have a wonderful Mother’s Day and that all mothers who are horror fans receive at least one of these books as a gift this year.
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Table of Contents
Mother Knows Best – Lindy Ryan (editor)
Women in horror anthology
New and exclusive short stories and poems inspired by bad mothers from some of today’s fiercest women in horror.
From mama trauma to smother mother, this all-new women in horror anthology features stories about the scariest monster of them all: our mothers.
Featuring Rachel Harrison, Gwendolyn Kiste, Kristi DeMeester, and Kelsea Yu, edited by Lindy Ryan with a foreword by Sadie Hartmann.
“…mothers wield tremendous power – power that can calm or cut, harm or heal, nurture or needle.”
Baby Teeth – Zoje Stage
Psychological horror
A battle of wills between mother and daughter reveals the frailty and falsehood of familial bond.
Seven-year-old Hanna is a sweet-but-silent angel in the eyes of her adoring father Alex. He’s the only person who understands her. But her mother Suzette stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good.
Suzette loves her daughter, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. She’s also becoming increasingly frightened by Hanna’s little games, while her husband Alex remains blind to the failing family dynamics. Soon, Suzette starts to fear that maybe their supposedly innocent baby girl may have a truly sinister agenda.
“Sweetness can be deceptive.”
Motherthing – Ainslie Hogarth
Psychological ghost horror
When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect.
After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give – to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works.
But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.
When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves.
To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy’s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the home, leaving Abby totally alone.
With everything on the line, Abby comes up with a chilling plan that will allow her to keep Mrs. Bondy, rescue Ralph from his tortured mind, and break Laura’s hold on the family for good. All it requires is a little ingenuity, a lot of determination, and a unique recipe for chicken à la king…
“The night Ralph’s mother flayed her forearms, a woman in a red dress handed him a business card.”
The Push – Ashley Audrain
Psychological horror
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.
But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter – she doesn’t behave like most children do.
Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.
Then their son Sam is born, and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she’d always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.
“Your house glows at night like everything inside is on fire.”
The Changeling – Victor LaValle
Dark fantasy horror
When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, he left his son a box of books and strange recurring dreams. Now Apollo is a father himself, and as he and his wife, Emma, settle into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll.
Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. At first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression. But before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act and vanishes.
Thus begins Apollo’s quest to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His odyssey takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.
“Right after Brian went missing, the boy began having a recurring dream.”
Portrait of a Nuclear Family – JP Behrens
Psychological horror
Wanda has uncovered a dark secret that could shatter the image of her perfect family.
Attempting to force the situation back into the societal framework she’d strived for years to present, events spiral out of control. Secrets threaten to emerge from a carefully suppressed past and become public.
To save her family’s reputation, Wanda succumbs to a madness no one could have expected.
“Wanda knew Nathan had a secret.”
Just Like Mother – Anne Heltzel
Psychological horror
The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult they were raised in. For the past two decades, Maeve has worked hard to build a normal life in New York City, where she keeps everything, and everyone, at a safe distance.
When Andrea suddenly reappears, Maeve regains the only true friend she’s ever had. Soon she’s spending more time at Andrea’s remote Catskills estate than in her own cramped apartment. Maeve doesn’t even mind that her cousin’s wealthy work friends clearly disapprove of her single lifestyle. After all, Andrea has made her fortune in the fertility industry, so baby fever comes with the territory.
The more Maeve immerses herself in Andrea’s world, the more disconnected she feels from her life back in the city; and the cousins’ increasing attachment triggers memories Maeve has fought hard to bury. But confronting the terrors of her childhood may be the only way for Maeve to transcend the nightmare still to come.
“It is our song. If we’re singing it, nothing can hurt us.”
Mine – Robert McCammon
Psychological horror
Back in the 1960s, Mary Terrell shot and killed a man. A former member of the fanatical Storm Front Brigade (a splinter group of the notorious Weathermen) Terrell has stayed one step ahead of the FBI for decades. Living with numerous identities and menial jobs, Terrell’s only constants in life have been LSD, psychotic delusions of motherhood, and murderous rage.
The sixties are long gone, but Mary is still out there. Now, provoked by a message she reads in Rolling Stone, she’s convinced that the surviving leader of her old band of radicals wants to build a life with her. So, one night, Mary sneaks into the maternity ward of an Atlanta hospital.
Laura Clayborne has a successful career and now, a newborn baby. She’s the type of person who is sensitive to suffering and injustice. But the kidnapping of her infant son has brought out a white-hot fury. She’s not going to sit and wait while the FBI investigates. She’s going after Mary herself on a twisting and violent cross-country pursuit to get her child back. But to track a madwoman, Laura will have to think like one.
“She loved this child, better than she’d loved anything for a long time, but the baby did cry a lot.”
Sealed – Naomi Booth
Post-apocalyptic horror
Heavily pregnant Alice and her partner Pete are done with the city. Alice is haunted by rumors of a skin-sealing epidemic starting to infect the urban population.
She hopes their new remote mountain house will offer safety, a place to forget the nightmares and start their family. But the mountains and their people hold a different kind of danger.
With their relationship under intolerable pressure, violence erupts and Alice is faced with the unthinkable as she fights to protect her unborn child.
“I’ve been watching him for any signs that he’s still upset. I know he was scared by what he saw in town, I saw it in his face.”
Crossroads – Laurel Hightower
Supernatural horror
When Chris’s son dies in a tragic car crash, her world is devastated.
The walls of grief close in on her life until, one day, a small cut on her finger changes everything. A drop of blood falls from Chris’s hand onto her son’s roadside memorial and, later that night, she thinks she sees his ghost outside her window.
But, is it really her son’s ghost, or is it something else, something evil?
Soon Chris is playing a dangerous game with forces beyond her control in a bid to see her son alive once again.
“The first time Chris buried a part of herself by her son’s roadside cross, it was an accident.”
Suffer the Children – Craig DiLouie
Apocalyptic horror
A mysterious disease claims the world’s children before bringing them back.
To continue surviving, however, they need to ingest human blood.
As the blood supply wanes, parents struggle and compete to keep their children alive.
In the end, the only source left will be each other.
For them, the ultimate question will be: How far would you go for someone you love?
“So many mouths to feed”
The Lost Thumb – Orla Owen
Psychological horror
Lara and Luella Jeffreys lead isolated lives until the night they are left alone for the first time, and Luella decides to have some fun.
That evening goes horribly wrong.
After Luella wakes up in hospital, she’s kept prisoner at home with her mother acting as her warden. Lara is sent to school to keep up the pretence that she is fine, her sister is fine, and the world is fine. Except they aren’t.
Sensing that something’s wrong, the local storekeeper’s son befriends Lara, but the results of his meddling are deadly.
“Mother tells people Luella and I are identical twins but you can tell us apart. I’m missing the top of my left thumb.”
Little Darlings – Melanie Golding
Psychological horror
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.
A month passes and one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. When they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley… to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, ‘These are not my babies’.
Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw, she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.
“Through the binoculars, Harper saw the woman collapse into a sitting position on the dried-out silt, her face turned to the sky, still clutching the babies. Perhaps she wouldn’t do it, after all.”
Published: 9 May 2024
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