Why am I passionate about this?

My name is Mia Dalia. I write dark speculative fiction across genres. A lot of it is psychological horror, which I love! My latest novel features a rather unique haunted house and a family who spend their summer vacation there. Hauntings are a theme I have visited before in shorter forms and were very excited to explore in full. My goal here was to deconstruct the myth of an all-American happy family within the frame of a classic may-or-may-not-be-haunted house. Those who have dared to stay in Haven have been profoundly unsettled. It is a hungry house, always looking for more visitors. I hope youā€™ll come for a stay!


I wrote...

Haven

By Mia Dalia,

Book cover of Haven

What is my book about?

What if revenge ripples and echoes through time?

You canā€™t choose your family, your destiny, or your legacy. But onceā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Haunting of Hill House

Mia Dalia Why did I love this book?

It is impossible to talk about haunted house books and not mention the foremother of them all, The House of the Haunted Hill. I love everything about it from its brilliant use of setting as a character to its tone of creeping unease to the way the readers are slowly drawn into its madness.

This book is a UR-text in the genre and quite revolutionary for its time in many ways: being authored by a female writer, featuring a queer icon of Theodora, etc. But most of all, itā€™s just a really great read and a true classic. Granted, the characters in it are not exactly on vacation, but all the same, in the end they probably wish they had spent their summer in a different house.

By Shirley Jackson,

Why should I read it?

38 authors picked The Haunting of Hill House as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Part of a new six-volume series of the best in classic horror, selected by Academy Award-winning director of The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro

Filmmaker and longtime horror literature fan Guillermo del Toro serves as the curator for the Penguin Horror series, a new collection of classic tales and poems by masters of the genre. Included here are some of del Toro's favorites, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Ray Russell's short story "Sardonicus," considered by Stephen King to be "perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever written," to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and storiesā€¦


Book cover of Burnt Offerings

Mia Dalia Why did I love this book?

Speaking of vacations, the Rolfes, the family In this book, another beloved, if less famous, classic, do just that with their haunted house. I found this old paperback in a used bookstore ages ago and couldnā€™t put it down. This tale of a summer stay in a shockingly affordable (for a reason!) house in Long Island spirals out in a genuinely unsettling manner.

I can still recall the profound claustrophobia of this reading experience. Which Iā€™d say is precisely how a novel about a place that wonā€™t let you leave (or at least wonā€™t let you leave the same!) ought to make you feel. The notion of a house that changes its occupants has stayed with me ever since.

By Robert Marasco, Stephen Graham Jones,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Burnt Offerings as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ben and Marian Rolfe are desperate to escape a stifling summer in their tiny Brooklyn apartment, so when they get the chance to rent a mansion in upstate New York for the entire summer for only $900, itā€™s an offer thatā€™s too good to refuse. Thereā€™s only one catch: behind a strange and intricately carved door in a distant wing of the house lives elderly Mrs. Allardyce, and the Rolfes will be responsible for preparing her meals.

But Mrs. Allardyce never seems to emerge from her room, and it soon becomes clear that something weird and terrifying is happening inā€¦


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Book cover of The Vixen Amber Halloway

The Vixen Amber Halloway by Carol LaHines,

Ophelia, a professor of Dante, is stricken when she discovers that her husband Andy has been cheating on her with a winsome colleague. What follows is Opheliaā€™s figurative descent into hell as she obsessively tracks her subjects, performs surveillance in her beat-up Volvo, and moves into the property next doorā€¦

Book cover of The Shining

Mia Dalia Why did I love this book?

And speaking of hotels, there is, of course, the infamous Overlook Hotel, staying in which does terrible things to the Torrance family. I loved the idea of the place jeopardizing peopleā€™s sanity as it reveals its nightmarish secrets to them. Plus, a haunted hotel concept really works for meā€“why limit yourself to a single-family history of horrors when you can have a variety?

This book is a more in-your-face approach to the haunted house theme and, in my opinion, incredibly effective as such. Also, this one traps its characters, and the readers along with them, inside a winter storm to double down on that stuck-can't-leave feeling. Brr.

By Stephen King,

Why should I read it?

28 authors picked The Shining as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ā€¢ Before Doctor Sleep, there was The Shining, a classic of modern American horror from the undisputed master, Stephen King.

Jack Torranceā€™s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, heā€™ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering aroundā€¦


Book cover of The Elementals

Mia Dalia Why did I love this book?

Most vacations take place in the summer, and this next book is a perfect example of how wrong they can go. I love how unique this take on the genre is: it actually takes place over three houses on Beldame, a small island on the Gulf Coast of Alabama.

I really appreciated the dramatic tensions between the two families, amplified by heat, secrets, and worse. This gem of Southern Gothic fiction does a stellar job of walking the line between real and supernatural. Like a tidal island, the reader may find themselves slowly submerging into horror. The way each characterā€™s nightmares are slowly revealed and realized has stayed with me for a long time.

By Michael McDowell,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Elementals as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"The finest writer of paperback originals in America." - Stephen King

"Surely one of the most terrifying novels ever written." - Poppy Z. Brite

"Beyond any trace of doubt, one of the best writers of horror in this or any other country." - Peter Straub

"Readers of weak constitution should beware!" - Publishers Weekly

"McDowell has a flair for the gruesome." - Washington Post

After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama's Gulf Coast, where three Victorian housesā€¦


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Book cover of Alba

Alba by Verity Croker,

ALBA - Hidden Secrets is a tale of blood, broken dreams, and buried secrets.

When I was in high school, several young teenage boys died in car accidents, with tragic outcomes for all involved, and I wanted to honour their memory without specifically identifying them.  

This novel is about secretsā€¦

Book cover of Diavola

Mia Dalia Why did I love this book?

Most of the books on this list are older. This was one of my favorite recent haunted house reads. This time, the vacation takes place in Italy, in a beautiful villa with an ugly secret. The book comes with a cleverly tongue-in-cheek ā€œWarning: May invoke feelings of irritation, dread, and despair that come with large family gatherings.ā€ It couldn't be more on the money.

The book drew me in immediately and refused to let go. I loved the way it slowly infused the sense of dread into the fraught dynamics of a family that really shouldnā€™t vacation together. Or stay in haunted villas for that matter. A diabolically good book.

By Jennifer Thorne,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Diavola as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive.

It isn't easy when she's the only one in the family who doesn't quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he's practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone - including her blandly docile husband and two kids - falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question. Mum seizes every opportunity to question her life choices, and Dad, when not reminding everyone who paid for this vacation, justā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

Haven

By Mia Dalia,

Book cover of Haven

What is my book about?

What if revenge ripples and echoes through time?

You canā€™t choose your family, your destiny, or your legacy. But once upon a time, a woman named Ava St. James had tried to build happiness upon the remains of her broken heart. For better or worse. Decades later, the Bakers are headed for a perfect family vacation. A full month at a house by the lake; the house passed down from a mysterious aunt no one ever talks about. What begins as a relaxing vacation turns into a nightmare. Is it the Baker's fraught family dynamics, or is something more sinister at work? The house has welcomed them, but will it ever let them leave?

Book cover of The Haunting of Hill House
Book cover of Burnt Offerings
Book cover of The Shining

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