Ten suspenseful horror novels featuring domestic terrors

T. Marie Vandelly has wanted to write her entire life but (after a career change) has only recently been granted the freedom to pursue her dream full-time. She lives on Gwynn’s Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, with her husband and their two dogs. Theme Music is her first novel.

At CrimeReads Vandelly tagged "ten suspenseful horror novels featuring housebound terrors will scare the hell out of your inner child," including:

Victor Lavalle, The Changeling

Be careful what you wish for when reading The Changeling by Victor Lavalle, especially if it’s “a life full of adventure.” And what an adventure this story was! When Apollo Kagwa’s father abandons him as a young boy, a disturbing storybook and a lifetime of nightmares are all that Apollo has to remember him by. Now as an adult, and a rare book dealer, Apollo and his wife, Emma, a librarian, have a baby of their own to raise. Knowing firsthand the heartache of a broken home, Apollo swears to be a better father to his son than his father was to him. But when his wife’s sudden and strange behavior threatens to destroy their happy home, Apollo begins to worry that a stable family unit may not be possible. After receiving cryptic text pictures of her baby boy in situations that are as implausible as they are dreadful, Emma starts to deteriorate both physically and mentally. Troubles at home reach a perilous pitch when Apollo awakes chained to a radiator, a red hot kettle screaming on the stove top. Emma states “it’s not a baby” just before entering the nursery with the kettle of boiling water balanced on her bare palm. After being released from prison for holding his wife’s coworkers at gun point to obtain information on her whereabouts, Apollo embarks on a dangerous crusade to find the truth of what happened to his son. But as the truth leads him down a dark path in a forest just outside of New York City, the meaning behind the ghastly fairytale his father read to him as a child becomes frighteningly clear: “Monsters aren’t real until you meet one.”

Read about another entry on the list.

The Changeling is among C.J. Tudor's six thrillers featuring missing, mistaken, or "changed" children.

--Marshal Zeringue