Chilling Crime Fiction Focused on Children and Their Families
Evil kids are number one in the trifecta of shit I can’t handle (followed closely by demons and aliens, and no, they’re not mutually exclusive). I’m convinced that there are several reasons why we (because I know I’m not alone in this disturbia) find evil children scarier than evil adults:
1) We expect children to be innocent, good, and sweet, even though they are not. It’s our oxytocin talking here.
2) We expect children to depend on adults, so when they act of their own accord, especially to our detriment, it’s both shocking and unsettling.
3) In the case of one’s own biological children being evil…well, you just never want to think about the myriad ways in which the parasite you’re growing in your womb could turn against you. It’s like your own body betraying you.
This evil kid trope is ubiquitous onscreen, from classics like The Omen and Rosemary’s Baby to more recent debuts like Orphan, mother!, or even small-screen sensations like Stranger Things and The Haunting of Hill House. Or, God forbid, the scariest movie of all time, Robert Eggers’ The Witch. It should come as no surprise that evil children, pregnancies, and the crimes involving them are just as present in books. Here are six favorites—yes, I said I can’t handle them, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try.
When one of Emily Atkinson’s party bender’s lands her in the hospital, she learns that she’s pregnant. Soon after this realization, Emily realizes she’s being stalked, too, but when she tries to tell people, no one believes her. It’s not until women in her glamor-party circles go missing that she learns just how dangerous her life has become.
After witnessing a crime, mother, wife, and pilot Leah Trenton faked her death in Florida and went into hiding to protect her family from the retaliation of the criminal. When her husband dies in a freak accident, Leah’s children are returned to her in Maine, and they’re told she’s a distant aunt. Though happy at the reunion, Leah now has more attention on her than ever, even as she still evades the blowback from the crime she witnessed a decade before.
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Mary Kay McBrayer is the author of America’s First Female Serial Killer: Jane Toppan and the Making of a Monster. You can find her short works at Oxford American, Narratively, Mental Floss, and FANGORIA, among other publications. She co-hosts Everything Trying to Kill You, the comedy podcast that analyzes your favorite horror movies from the perspectives of women of color. Follow Mary Kay McBrayer on Instagram and Twitter, or check out her author site here.