Fearless & Fabulous: Women Can Have It All in Horror

WATERSTONES’ WOMEN IN HORROR SUNDAY EXPERIENCE

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After the usual weeklong Halloween celebrations, a cosy weekend at Waterstones honouring horror fiction and the female writers that make words haunt our pages seems like the perfect way to conclude a Nottingham Halloweek. Held at Waterstones Nottingham, the event spanned from Friday to Sunday, where panels of female writers came to celebrate their works with readers and future-readers alike. We at The Literary Lounge had the honour of attending Sunday’s agenda of frightful fiction, where our eyes were opened not only to the genre, but to the wonderful female writers behind it.

THE DEADLY WOMEN PANEL – 11AM-1PM Written by Amelia Cropley

Lastly, Susan Barker also graced the panel with her latest novel Old Soul, where two grieving strangers uncover a seemingly ageless woman who has haunted centuries and left her victims for dead in the same way: with rearranged organs.

This trio of authors were a very spectacular group to place together, all of which described their own works in relation to their fellow authors, comparing and contrasting how they illustrate different features of a killer woman and the horror they bring into the genre. All three authors debated their protagonists’ ‘killerness’ as something innate and powerful or based on societal influence, an argument similarly represented in our world (all three however, agreed that in their works, the answer depends on the reader)

I think one of the most captivating, and distressingly important aspects of this panel was the conversation around female killer characters. At the beginning of the Killer Women talk, a lot of the discussion revolved around the genre being in reaction to the everyday; “What would you do if someone was running towards you with a knife”, especially as a woman, for the horror fiction, in a sense, prepares you, women, for such events that occur everyday. Interestingly, the authors debated between them what made their female killers so gruelling, to which the discussion of male verses female killers arose. That male killers are natural, seen before, they aren’t horror because we do not have to estrapolise male killers into the horror genre, but that is different of their female counterparts. Putting women into a role that is, in the non-fictional world, predominantly taken up by men, gives women the illusion of control for a few hundred pages. Phoebe Stuckes said that having a male killers ‘feels too scary’, and is never not in a woman’s conscience, but having a female killer can propel this fictional work into the horror genre, especially as female-killers are typically more functional, can hold commitments (like Marina as an actress in I Make My Own Fun) than their male counterparts-killers.

What made Sunday’s event goers erupt into laughter was the idea that “Women can have it all”, as expressed by Hannah Beer. This is something women have fought for for the longest time, and in the most satirical sense, it displayed that these women were domestic, professional, successful, charismatic, and of course, a killer. Not at all expressing that this feminist perspective of women extends to that of psychopathy, but to comment on the nature of their protagonists, how how horrifically mysterious they become, by being such assets in their day-to-day lives, yet the downfall for others.

Similarly, the motivations behind female protagonists in horror and women killers comes from a place of frustration. Not only does it subvert the feminine stereotypes we see in literature and real life, but their crimes come from a political subversion, and a reflection of their frustration in societal values. In the audience I was engrossed by this discourse, all three writers merging the literary field of horror (which you would think initially is so far from reality), is actually just a mere criticism and commentary on our life and society as we know it. That literature assumed to be far from reality fiction, is in fact, in parallel to it.

After reflecting on all three novels this panel included, I would recommend them all to a prospective reader of the horror, or feminist, genres. All three women killers displayed that sense of mystery enough to captivate me from first glance. Marina, in Beer’s I Make My Own Fun, is purposefully very cryptic and unexplained – an aspect Hannah Beer enjoyed not only writing, but seeing reader’s reactions and frustrations, for that was the point. Dead Animals and Old Soul, as anonymous narrators, explicitly plays into this mysterious role, Susan Baker even describing how she didn’t create a backstory for Old Soul’s killer to only amplify this for a reader’s reception.

HORROR AT HOME – 1:30-4 Written by Katie Barr

Leigh Radford opened with her reflections on her acclaimed novel “One Yellow Eye“. This novel follows a grieving scientist keeping her undead husband chained in their home while she fights for a cure. Her tone was wonderfully candid – equal parts tenderness and dry wit – as she discussed how the story emerged from her personal experience of loss. “It’s about how far we’ll go to keep the ones we love alive” and how this love can turn monstrous when we can’t let go. Her words captured the tragic beauty of devotion twisted by desperation, and the audience seemed spellbound. 

Vanessa Santos followed with “Make a home of me“, a chilling assortment of stories that explore how our sanctuaries can turn into foreign ground. One point in the conversation that struck me most was her striking analogy: if you’re in the woods and a wolf attacks, it’s horrifying, but hardly surprising. If that same wolf breaks into your home, the fear takes on an entirely new dimension. Extend it further — if the wolf turns out to be a loved one, someone who should inspire safety and protection, the sense of dread deepens. And finally, if you discover that you are the wolf, that is the most terrifying revelation of all.

It is thought we know the people we live with, but as Santos mentions, home can be a mask, and sometimes that mask can slip. Santos spoke beautifully about the influence of her upbringing and how gendered expectations of caretaking and domestic order inform her work. She highlights the valid point that when there is something wrong at home, women are often the first to notice and the last to be believed. This was one of several moments that connected horror writing to lived experience with striking clarity. 

Then came Leon Craig, bringing philosophical heft and quiet humour to the mix. Her novel, “The Decadence”, follows a group of twenty‑somethings escape into a remote house during lockdown, only to discover the walls harbour old secrets, resentments between them, and a haunting that blurs the line between their own inner ‘wolves’ and forces outside themselves. Her reflections on bodily horror and identity added a rich layer to the discussion. She spoke about how horror can explore the boundaries between self and other, and how queerness offers fertile ground for such explanations. It was a moment that encapsulated the evening’s blend of intellect and intimacy. 

As the conversation deepened, the panelists found connections between their seemingly different approaches. All three agreed that the domestic setting heightens horror precisely because it feels recognisable. Their exchange on the body as home was one of the most powerful turns. Craig tied it together nicely by suggesting that horror offers a way to metabolise the unbearable. 

Despite the heavy themes, the atmosphere never felt bleak. There was laughter, affection, and a shared understanding that horror, at its best, is a communal experience. One that lets us confront darkness together. By the end, the room felt charged with quiet electricity. As the applause swelled and the crowd spilled out, it was clear this panel had left its mark. 

SHARED REFLECTIONS

As a reader who is fascinated by the horror genre, however does not find themselves reading them often; this event allowed me to see horror in an entirely different light – not just with the aim to be scary or to exhilarate, but to be satirical, to critique, to replicate real world in a more extreme way so we can see ours more clearly. From haunted houses, to sci-fi-Covid-adjacent works, to killer women and power dynamics, the whole day captured the genre holistically, with humour, humanity and of course, horror.

The Women in Horror event at Waterstones Nottingham was an extraordinary celebration of the genre, showcasing the creativity, insight, and bold storytelling of contemporary horror writers. Panels like Horror at Home highlighted how horror can probe intimacy, identity, and the uncanny in spaces we thought we knew, leaving audiences both enthralled and thoughtfully unsettled. Across the day, authors, readers, and fans came together to share a love of horror, making the event an inspiring and immersive experience for everyone involved.

What book did you find yourself most captivated by? Katie: Old Souls by Susan Barker. Amelia: One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford

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All content is original to The Literary Lounge.

In-article images taken by Katie Barr, Amelia Cropley and Waterstones. No changes were made to these images. 

Featured Image credited to Waterstones and Ruthie.

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