Sarah Langan’s Top 10 Corrupted Family and Haunted House Stories

Guest post written by Trad Wife author Sarah Langan
Sarah Langan, a Columbia MFA graduate and three-time recipient of the Bram Stoker Award, is the author of several novels including A Better World, Good Neighbors, and Trad Wife. She’s got an MS in environmental health science, grew up on Long Island, and she currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughters. Find out more at SarahLangan.com. 

About Trad Wife: A journalist descends into horror as she uncovers the sinister truth behind a trad wife influencer in this “flat-out brilliant” (Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author) blend of chilling suspense and razor-sharp commentary on modern femininity, performative domesticity, and social media—perfect for readers of Yesteryear, Mexican Gothic, and The Yellow Wallpaper. Releases September 29th 2026.


Good Behavior by Molly Keane

There is no great novel about a fallen house like an Irish novel!

Asylum by Patrick McGrath

Sometimes moms have to watch their kids drown because ennui.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman

That guy in the wall made me do it! Please pass the laudanum. 

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

I can’t quip on this one. It’s serious.

Educated by Tara Westover

Another one I can’t joke about. Except to say: Mormons! 

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Before Gatsby, there were these lunatics

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Sometimes evil children should also drown

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Sometimes the pig slaughterhouse is exactly what you think it is.

Houses without Doors by Peter Straub

You want disturbing? I’ll give you disturbing!

Trad Wife by Sarah Langan

Because sometimes it’s a bad idea to covet your frenemy’s husband, who, for weird reasons, lives on a farm that dates back to the Salem witch trials.

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