As a die-hard Gwendolyn Kiste fan, I was very excited to hear she woul be releaasing another short story collection this year. Her previous one, “And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe,” is from 2017, so it has been a good while since we’ve seen more collected short stories, and I am very excited.

The body horror that comes out runs strong throughout the collection, starting with “A New Mother’s Guide to Raising an Abomination.” It is a common theme in Kiste’s work — of not only the bodily fear to carry something inside for so long but then also of the fear of giving birth to something not quite human or right. It sets a strong tone for the rest of the collection.

The fourth-wall type story, “The Girls from the Horror Movie,” is about someone who says she is the giggling little girl from the horror movie, but as narrator, cautions the reader not to make the mistake to think she is the cute kid everyone hopes will make it until the end. She is, rather, the tiny monster who kwill keep others from making it to the end.

This actor is now at a convention signing autographs. While there are questions of this (now woman’s) sister doing a film again, she has to respond and say Zoe deosn’t act anymore. The narrative goes back and forth between the present and past, showing how casting agents do work with children and they have twins do the role of one child because of reasons of labour laws and so on, so it turns out that the protagonist might be a person who played a role that her sister also played. It’s a tale of profound sadness, of people who feel like their era is long gone, but they have obligations to try to keep it alive for fans. The story also depicts the strained relationship between the sisters. Definitely a poignant tale.

Next up is a more carnival-themed one with “The Sea Witch of the World’s Fair,” of a man looking for women who can suit up as mermaids. It’s for the World’s Fair. This is circa late 1930s and 1940. Except what the guy doesn’t know is that the protagonist may be a real mermaid, no pretending required. There are some satisfying revenge moments, which is what I’ll leave it at because I don’t want to spoil things.

One of the other type of stories that Gwendolyn does that I really enjoy are the vampire things like Mina Harker, or Lucy Westenra, and famous literary characters but done with a more intense bent. She has a tale in the collection with Lucy’s diary, “The Eight People Who Murdered Me.” I love to get the ignored/erased “OH just take the man’s perspective” things from fiction and to have those disrupted, like with this story, so fans of Dracula will enjoy it.

I also liked “Her Skin a Grim Canvas,” both for the title but also the tone, the unreliable narrator, wondering who is the predator and who is the prey. An interesting and intense piece.

“The Last Video Store on the Left” is a story that transports me back to when there were video stores and I’d love to go in and rent, browse, and be immersed in the experience. This story is about a person who works in one such video store. A reporter wants to interview her for a piece. There’s some kind of an entity or shadow that follows the protagonist around, and the tension builds as the reporter pushes again to get her story. Finding more about the protagonist’s story and all the things that led up to this point was very interesting. With a suspenseful climax, the ending was surprising in a pleasant way.

Another good story is “In the Belly of the Wolf” — anything with werewolf horror, and especially with female werewolves, is something I’m very fond of. It’s a short piece but a powerful intensity

I liked the unpredictability of “Sister Glitter Blood” which felt like a board game that Lady Gaga designed, and then we switch to the ghost of Rasputin in “The Mad Monk of the Motor City” with some very interested and unexpected juxtapositions. The protagonist sees Rasputin wherever they go. And it’s not Rasputin in the Russia of his time. It’s Rasputin’s ghost in modern America. Definitely a unique and unpredictable story.

As well, I really liked “The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own,” which is the title story of the collection. It’s kind of like a Stepford Wives and tradwife vibe and unfolds to be about the Black Dahlia, real name Elizabeth.

Overall, it’s another strong collection that brings together Gwendolyn’s best stories from the past almost 10 years or so, and any fan of her work needs to buy this. Those looking for a place to start but aren’t sure where to begin with her work, I would recommend they read this collection as well as her previous one.

I've been wanting to read Kiste's work for a while, and thought this collection of stories would likely be a great place to start. Oh my god, I was so right! Why have I waited so long?
The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own has something for all horror lovers - cursed movies, historical ghosts, creepy fairy tales...
Kiste's writing is beautifully poetic, while also remaining accessible.
My favourite stories were:
The Eleven Films of Oona Cashford - a unique take on the cursed movie trope. Genuinely creepy!
Sister Glitter Blood - A sentient board game with sinister consequences.
The Last Video Store on the Left - pure nostalgia!

The Haunted House She Calls Her Own is a collection of character-driven short stories that encompass the weird, supernatural, psychological and strange. The tone of the collection is set immediately from the first story and the reader is transported into an atmospheric world of eerie and unexplained occurrences that border the line of unsettling and disturbing. This is further developed as the stories progress and the reader is ensconced in an unsettling psychological thread of queer anti-heroines, morally grey characters, hauntings, monsters and ghosts.

The stories are mostly written in the first and second person voices which make the reader feel immersed in the plot alongside the characters in a way that engages the senses and causes an immediacy to the feel of the horrifying tales. There is a flow to the collection even though the stories do not need to be read in order; they have underlying themes of otherness, queerness, the patriarchy as systemically monstrous, the horror of societal expectations, and normalcy as terrifying.

While subtle and nuanced the author’s use of imagery is rich and unflinching, like the descriptions are grappling to be more than seen, but also felt. Overall, this was a rich and terrifying plunge into a short-story horror collection that is atmospherically gothic and haunting in the best ways.

Favourite story standouts: “The Sea Witch of the World’s Fair” & “Ides”

Thanks NetGalley and RDS Publishing for this free arc/copy of The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own; all opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A solid collection of original and clever ideas and plots, this is a keeper. I loved the stories of a cursed film star and her movies, the sisters who had been in a horror film, the tale of the woman running the last video store, and that of a game that really does enthrall its players. I am a little uncomfortable about the use of Elizabeth Short in a story here, but overall this is a strong set of horror with unique angles.

"They say you have to suffer for your art. So that's exactly what I'll do."

Gwendolyn Kiste's new collection of short stories centre around character driven tales. Some of these span many decades but each tell a similar tale where the message is loud and clear.

Featured are:

A New Mother's Guide to Raising an Abomination
The Girls from the Horror Movie
The Sea Witch of the World's Fair
The Eight People Who Murdered Me
Melting Point
Her Skin a Grim Canvas
The Last Video Store on the Left
Ides
In the Belly of the Wolf
Sister Glitter Blood
The Mad Monk of the Motor City
Best Friend's Forever
The Eleven Films of Oona Cashford
All the Hippies Are Dying
Lost in Darkness and Distance
The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own

I was first introduced to this author's works from the novel "The Haunting of Velkwood". I enjoyed how beautiful yet harrowing way in which the author wrote that book. With this collection she does exactly that making them all the more memorable. For that reason a lot of these really stuck with me. These range from the supernatural to psychological and body horror.

This was a good collection and one that would be great for any new readers of this author..

I freaking *adored* this book. Messy, terrifying, queer, each of the propulsive short stories in this collection just left me wanting more of Kiste's work. "Sister Glitter Blood" was a particular favorite, but I also really appreciated that the first story in the collection, "A New Mother’s Guide to Raising an Abomination", and the titular story, "The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own", do such a good job of lifting heavy as pillars of support for the collection. All in all, this one definitely scratched the short-horror itch I've been feeling lately!

Gwendolyn Kiste's writing is thoughtful, lyrical, and emotionally rich. The collection explores themes of memory, identity, and belonging through a unique horror lens. Not every story is equally memorable, and a few feel more atmospheric than substantial. Even so, the strongest entries are excellent and showcase Kiste's talent for blending emotional depth with unsettling imagery.

Every single one of these stories was a banger.

I love stories written in second POV, and it feels like all our characters either know they're narrating to an imaginary someone, or they're outright addressing the reader. It brought me into the stories so quickly.

I recently re-read Dracula this year and the feminist retelling in the story, "The Eight People Who Murdered Me" captures the tone so well. There are also so many one line bangers here that are immensely quoteable and relateable:
- Never trust a man who calls women dames
- I'm a living crime scene
- I'm the tiny monster who keeps the others from making it this far.
- With a hand on your shoulder and another through your heart, I promise you that I'll never let you go.

I love this story collection so much and will keep reading Gwendolyn whatever she writes next.

It has been so amazing to see Gwendolyn Kiste’s career accelerate over the last few years. My first encounter with her work was her debut collection, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, which contains one of my all-time favorite stories, The Man in the Ambry. Her novels are also great, but especially The Haunting of Velkwood. All of this is to say, I’m a big fan of Kiste’s work.

Kiste’s new collection, The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own, contains more creepy and moving stories.

I love Kiste’s creature stories, and there are a couple of great ones here. In A New Mother's Guide to Raising an Abomination, a woman gives birth to a strange baby. And we also meet The Sea Witch of the World's Fair, a story set in a 1940s Dali Exhibit in New York, which has an incredibly satisfying ending.

But as well as horror, Kiste is capable of writing incredibly moving stories, such as Melting Point, in which a nuclear reactor threatens to blow, and two women leading trapped lives find each other. And in All the Hippies are Dying, a woman looks after her Woodstock-obsessed mother, and music plays a strange part in the mother’s illness.

A few notable figures from history pop up in these stories. We meet a female Caesar, the ghost of Rasputin, Marie Antoinette spends some time with Mary Shelley, and Elizabeth Short, the victim of the infamous Black Dahlia murder.

I could go on and on about these stories; I love them. There is such a mixture of tones in this collection, yet it feels cohesive. I recommend this book to horror readers, lovers of feminist fiction, and anyone who enjoys a well-written story. Yay for Gwendolyn Kiste!

The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own feels like a meditation in so many of the ways women find refuge in horror. The very bloodiness acts as a gateway to validate and explore very really pain and fear women experience with a deft and interesting hand. Kiste plays with literary references, history, pop culture, and even fairy tales in stories rich with horror and weirdness. The collection is surprisingly cohesive in part because Kiste has a gift for writing about the relationships between women and showing off their complicated diversity. The end result is a fascinating short story collection that contains:

"The Last Video Store on the Left," "The Girls From The Horror Movie," and "The Eleven Films of of Oona Cashford" are three very different explorations of disappearing into a story. "Ides" explores the inevitably of loss and change while playing with historical and literary references set in an apocalyptic cult. If you love a 'good for her' story, there are a few options to pick from that all manage to avoid the pitfalls of playing to cheap or easy wins. There other are beautiful explorations of monstrosity and the way it can become armor or relief, and "A New Mother's Guide To Raising an Abomination" somehow finds something delicate and sweet in its bloody resolution.


Thank you to NetGalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press for the arc of this book.

This stellar collection includes sixteen stories. Thirteen are reprints which were originally published in anthologies and magazines such as Nightmare and Cosmic Horror Monthly. The stories feature 3-D characters, unsettling settings that live and breathe, complex relationships, and plenty of heart, whether haunted, hurting, or pumping out buckets of oxygenated blood. Readers are always in good hands with this multiple award winning author.

The collection includes the following stories:

“A New Mother’s Guide to Raising an Abomination” is loaded with more disturbing details than onesies on a baby shower registry.

In “The Girls from the Horror Movie,” An actress is haunted by a role she and her sister shared as a child.

“The Sea Witch of the World’s Fair” explores friendship, identity, and men who abuse their authority.

“The Eight People Who Murdered Me (Excerpt from Lucy Westenra’s Diary)” provides fresh insight on Bram Stoker’s DRACULA.

In “Melting Point,” two domestic violence survivors navigate the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accidental partial nuclear reactor meltdown.

The opportunity to be a model and a muse for a visionary fashion designer turns out to be too good to be true in “Her Skin a Grim Canvas.”

A reporter shakes up the world of the proprietor of “The Last Video Store on the Left.”

When a doomsday cult comes together to murder their leader in “Ides,” the members suffer terrible consequences. The assassination of Julius Ceasar on the Ides of March serves as the inspiration for the story.

“In the Belly of the Wolf” focuses on the steep costs of a bloody betrayal.

“Sister Glitter Blood” features a glittery and gruesome board game which is “…thrilled to guide you through our sparkly little corner of hell.”

In Detroit, Rasputin’s ghost, “The Mad Monk of MotorCity,” haunts an apartment building mostly inhabited by widows.

“Best Friends Forever” shows a long-term friendship turn murderous.

“The Eleven Films of Oona Cashford” tells the story of an eccentric horror filmmaker via a retrospective film festival booklet which describes each of Oona’s films, her relationship with her beloved actress collaborator, and the uncanny things that happen when Oona’s film ran showing.

In “All the Hippies are Dying,” a daughter honors her Woodstock-obsessed mother’s funeral wishes.

“Lost in Darkness and Distance” follows a beheaded and undead Marie Antoinette as she meets a group of famous writers.

In “The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own,” the ghost of a famously murdered woman haunts various Los Angeles locales.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Raw Dog Screaming Press for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This anthology absolutely got under my skin. I had literal goosebumps at times and finished this book thoroughly creeped out.

The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own is a unique collection of stories where every single tale lingers. Each one starts off with a creeping unease and slowly twists until you realize the horror was never what you thought it was. The “normal” is what’s unsettling and the monsters are the ones you end up rooting for.

Kiste has such a sharp, immersive writing style. It feels impossible how much she fits into just a few pages at a time. Every story felt complete, fully realized, and haunting. I felt like I'd stepped into 16 different worlds and left each one just a little more unsettled than before.

The vibes sat perfectly between American Horror Story and The Twilight Zone with a distinctly serrated edge, leaning fully into body horror, feminine rage, and the enticing question of who the real monster is. This collection blurs that line seamlessly. Women facing monsters, becoming monsters, defeating monsters—and sometimes all three at once. There’s a cathartic, almost poetic sense of justice running through these stories that makes the horror feel purposeful instead of just shocking.

It’s eerie, unnerving, and viscerally sticks with you long after you’ve finished.

Much like the narrator in “Her Skin Was a Grim Canvas” could not merely wear clothes, there is no such thing as merely reading a Gwendolyn Kiste work. The stories in The Haunted Houses She Calls Her Own have to be savored, lived in, passages - and even whole stories - read again to relive the language or extract more meaning or wallow in the emotion - be it fear, horror, dread, grief, humor - on the dark side, of course.

Kiste’s stories are about mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, lovers and what the world does to these women (sometimes with their intersectional queer experiences), very literally in some stories like the aforementioned “Her Skin Was a Grim Canvas” in which the narrator accuses the rich of wanting “to possess the broken pieces of me” or tongue-in-cheek like the introductory story “A New Mother’s Guide to Raising an Abomination” in which the infant flies, oozes decay, and grows at an astronomical rate - which barely feels like an exaggeration if you’ve ever known a baby.

In an overall strong collection, besides those mentioned, highlights for me are the “good for her” plot in “The Sea Witch of the World’s Fair”, whose main character is “a sea creature pretending to be a human pretending to be a sea creature,” and the cursed films and the lives of those in “The Eleven Films of Oona Cashford,” but I am sure to revisit all the stories.

NetGalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press provided an advance copy for my honest review.