I think you’ll find
Little Deaths by Emma Flint to be a particularly haunting read when it comes to the consequences of failing to live up to gendered expectations. In Flint's quiet masterpiece, a single mother is accused of the murder of her two young children; her habits, choices, and proclivities are all fodder for neighbors and detectives bent on blaming her instead of seeking the real killer. Flint's novel takes inspiration from a real case, with plenty of resonance for the present day.
I'd also like to recommend a trio of horror novels about menopause:
Mary by Nat Cassidy,
Femme Feral by Sam Beckbessinger, and
The Change by Kirsten Miller.
In Nat Cassidy’s
Mary, the titular character is already dealing with hot flashes and age discrimination even before she moves back to her hometown and finds herself beset by terrifying memories and a murderous cult. The character's internalized misogyny feels more violent than all the novel's gore-soaked pages, and the ending has a bloody payoff for the ages.
In Sam Beckbessinger's forthcoming
Femme Feral, “the change” of perimenopause turns out to be obscuring a far stranger transformation: from woman to werewolf. A dark comedy of epic proportions and sly symbolism ensues.
Finally,
The Change by Kirsten Miller is a novel in which three women find their hot flashes to be the signs of incipient magical powers. They quickly begin to use their newfound witchcraft to exact meticulous revenge on all those who have wronged them. Wouldn't you?
–Molly Odintz,
CrimeReads Managing Editor
