Love The VVitch? Read These 6 Horror Books

Or, six books to bring out your inner Black Phillip

Robert Eggar’s The VVitch (I love how everyone just lovingly and collectively decided to type out the double Vs. I’m not sure that was Eggar’s original intent, but I’m here for it. It certainly differentiates it from the myriad of other movies and books titled The Witch) is one of my favorite horror movies. And lately I’ve been craving its particular milieu, which I have broken down into the following characteristics:

-Puritanical fervor

-that worn, browbeaten colonial aesthetic

-paranoia

-isolation

-ostracization and “the other”

-witchcraft, but not the fun kind (the kind where you have to grind up a baby in order to fly)

This list contains six books with these characteristics. If you loved The VVitch, you need to give these books a try!

1. Slewfoot by Bromm

Goodreads Synopsis: A spirited young Englishwoman, Abitha, arrives at a Puritan colony betrothed to a stranger – only to become quickly widowed when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. All alone in this pious and patriarchal society, Abitha fights for what little freedom she can grasp onto, while trying to stay true to herself and her past.

Enter Slewfoot, a powerful spirit of antiquity newly woken ... and trying to find his own role in the world. Healer or destroyer? Protector or predator? But as the shadows walk and villagers start dying, a new rumor is whispered: Witch.

Both Abitha and Slewfoot must swiftly decide who they are, and what they must do to survive in a world intent on hanging any who meddle in the dark arts.

Why it’s like The VVitch: I’ll never skip an opportunity to talk about Slewfoot! The setting and characters are so rich and appealing, and Bromm’s illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. The rich mythology makes this feel like a blend of horror and fantasy.

There’s the puritanical setting, of course, but there are also themes of isolation and ostracization, as well as how accusing someone of something can ultimately be what turns them into the monster you say they are.

2. In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt

Goodreads Synopsis: "Once upon a time there was and there wasn't a woman who went to the woods."

In this ingenious horror story set in colonial New England, a woman goes missing. Or not missing–perhaps she has fled, abandoned her family. Or perhaps she's been kidnapped, and set loose to wander in the dense woods of the north. Alone and possibly lost, she meets another woman in the forest. Then everything changes.

On a journey that will take her through a wolf-haunted wood, down a deep well, and onto a living ship made of human bones, our heroine is forced to confront her past and may find that the evil she flees has been inside her all along.

Why it’s like The VVitch: Both share a similar setting, with themes of isolation and rugged self-sufficiency. Both have a dream-like feel to them at times. Actually, this book also reminds me of the movie Gretal and Hansel.

3. Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Goodreads Synopsis: Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.acknowledge her presence.

Why it’s like The VVitch: This is another one I find myself recommending a lot. While it’s an English adaptation of a Dutch book, the storyline translates well to the New England setting, tapping into the history of the witch hunts and Puritanism there. It’s set in modern times, and has one of the most original story premises I’ve ever encountered.

4. The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Goodreads Synopsis: A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut.

Why it’s like The VVitch: While this one is set in an alternate, almost high-fantasy setting, it’s definitely based on the strictly enforced Puritanical society of New England, and, of course, witchcraft. Instead of isolation, this one focuses more on racism, ostracization, and othering.

5. Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

Goodreads Synopsis: A young Puritan woman--faithful, resourceful, but afraid of the demons that dog her soul--plots her escape from a violent marriage in this riveting and propulsive historical thriller.

Why it’s like The VVitch: This is one of two books on this list I haven’t read at all, but the synopsis tells of a young woman trapped in Puritanical society, married to a cruel, zealous man. She is, of course, eventually accused of witchcraft. It’s described as a thriller rather than straight-up horror, but how could I not include it on this list?

6. The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff

Goodreads Synopsis The panic began early in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister's niece began to writhe and roar. It spread quickly, confounding the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, husbands accused wives, parents and children one another. It ended less than a year later, but not before nineteen men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death.

Speaking loudly and emphatically, adolescent girls stood at the center of the crisis. Along with suffrage and Prohibition, the Salem witch trials represent one of the few moments when women played the central role in American history. Drawing masterfully on the archives, Stacy Schiff introduces us to the strains on a Puritan adolescent's life and to the authorities whose delicate agendas were at risk. She illuminates the demands of a rigorous faith, the vulnerability of settlements adrift from the mother country, perched--at a politically tumultuous time--on the edge of what a visitor termed a "remote, rocky, barren, bushy, wild-woody wilderness." With devastating clarity, the textures and tension of colonial life emerge; hidden patterns subtly, startlingly detach themselves from the darkness. Schiff brings early American anxieties to the fore to align them brilliantly with our own. In an era of religious provocations, crowdsourcing, and invisible enemies, this enthralling story makes more sense than ever.

Why it’s like The VVitch: This is the only nonfiction book on this list, and one of two that I haven’t personally read–but I plan to! Eggars modelled much of the panic and fear in The VVitch on the hysteria surrounding the actual Salem witch trials. Why not read an account of what actually happened?

Bonus: Anything by Nathanial Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was notoriously very critical of the Salem witch trials, especially of his own ancestor, John Hathorne, who was one of the judges who presided over the trials. The different spellings of their surnames is not a typo; Nathaniel actually added the W to distance himself from his infamous ancestor.

His shame and criticism of the New England witch hysteria and Puritanism itself are evident in both The House of the Seven Gables and The Scarlet Letter.

H. H. Duke is a writer, author, and podcaster. Most importantly, she loves horror! Currently she’s working on a book about a weird cave. OoooOOoo! For scary book recommendations, horror movie reviews, and other spooky things, subscribe to H. is for Horror now - If you dare!