Eerie Reads Like Our Wives Under the Sea

Jacqueline Harpman’s provocatively titled novel I Who Have Never Known Men (translated by Ros Schwartz) is a heartbreaking exploration of women’s issues, female friendship and the meaning of life. This disquieting story unfolds in an underground bunker where forty women have been imprisoned, with no clue as to how they got there or how they lived before—until the day dawns when they can finally escape. 

Bleak and terrifying, Harpman’s novel is considered a classic of feminist speculative literature. First published in the '90s, I Who Have Never Known Men is now back in print with an afterword by Sophie Mackintosh. 

If you were intrigued by all the surreal deep-sea exploration bits in Our Wives Under the Sea, you can check out Island 731 by Jeremy Robinson—a horror thriller with a strong focus on exploring a mysterious tropical island. The book follows Mark Hawkins, a former park ranger and tracker aboard the research vessel Magellan. But soon, strange incidents happen and after a furious storm, the ship is anchored within a cove of an island—with its systems malfunctioning and crewmen dead or missing. Packed with adventure, suspense and horror, Island 731 is a haunting page-turner.

If you’re in the mood for a fast-paced psychological thriller, you might like The Patient by Jasper DeWitt that has been described as “The Silent Patient by way of Stephen Parker.” The Patient narrates the harrowing experiences of Parker H, a young, idealistic and overconfident psychiatrist who tries to cure an extremely dangerous patient—a patient with a track record of driving his past doctors to suicide or madness. Freakishly scary and compulsively readable, you’ll probably be able to devour The Patient by Jasper DeWitt in a single sitting if you’re brave enough.

There’s something about the audio form that easily lends itself to horror stories and Ghost Radio by the multi-talented Leopoldo Gout certainly taps into such associations, in its gripping story about a Mexican late-night radio show where listeners can call in and share their own ghostly experiences, that later on, accidentally opens a doorway to the other side. Suffused with urban legends and spine-tingling chills, Ghost Radio is perfect for fans of horror and even has an audiobook version narrated by Pedro Pascal, which is definitely worth a listen!

In Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield writes, “The deep sea is a haunted house, a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness.” Indeed, much of the ocean depths remain unexplored—more people have been to the moon than to the Mariana Trench—which makes the deep-sea a prime setting for sci-fi horror tales. David M. Salkin’s Deep Black Sea is one such book that follows seven crew members who agree to stay on the ocean floor in a specially-designed research submarine for an entire year. But soon disaster strikes and things go from bad to worse. Those in the mood for a terrifying undersea adventure filled with realistic details should definitely check this one out.

A nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award, Lakewood by Megan Giddings is a fascinating deep-dive into the world of medical experimentation. It masterfully interrogates themes of race, class and power, through the narrative of Lena Johnson, who is saddled with debt after the death of her grandmother and participates in a secret research program in the remote town of Lakewood. Lena is told her contribution will help advance medical science and save the world—but the toll on the subjects might be too high. Lakewood offers a chilling depiction of the dark side of medical science—and the sacrifices that power it.  

Rouge by Mona Awad is a lush, lyrical and hallucinatory novel that delves into the dark side of the beauty/make-up industry, through the lens of a fractured mother-daughter relationship. It’s a gothic fairytale that follows young Belle, obsessed with skincare videos, as she’s lured to a cultish spa after her mother’s death and her tenuous grip on reality slips further.  Like Leah’s perspective in Our Wives Under the Sea, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s an illusion in Belle’s world, but it enhances the phantasmagorical fever dream that Awad carefully and skillfully builds up.  

Finally, this co-written award-winning sci-fi novella will appeal to all those who enjoy poetic prose, time travel stories and epistolary narratives. Like Our Wives Under the Sea, this one also prioritizes mood over plot, features alternating perspectives and makes for a haunting and heartbreaking reading experience. 

This Is How You Lose the Time War narrates the story of two spies, Agents Red and Blue, on the opposite sides of a multi-dimensional war, who slowly fall in love and have to hide their feelings from the empires they serve. Overall, This Is How You Lose the Time War is a gut-wrenching sapphic read with gorgeously poignant prose.