Women in Horror Month: Kristi DeMeester
Created by Bob Helmbrecht, collection development librarian
Our Women in Horror Month author for today is novelist and short story writer Kristi DeMeester.
“Beneath” was DeMeester’s 2017 debut novel. A journalist with a history of abuse from a preacher is asked to go to a small town in rural Appalachia to write a story about a snake-handling cult. The cult itself is bad enough, but the story quickly ramps up the horror with long-hidden secrets of an ancient power. Secrets never sleep forever. It is a very dark, eerie tale of cosmic horror.
DeMeester’s most recent novel “Such a Pretty Smile” came out in January. A killer known as “The Cur” preys for years on “trouble-making” women. The story is told in intertwined narratives of a troubled teen in 2019, and her disturbed mother’s story in 2004. Both of them must fight their demons, both within and without.
The author first gained recognition writing short fiction. You can find 18 of DeMeester’s horror and dark fantastic short stories in the collection “Everything That’s Underneath.” You can also find stories in several anthologies in the Library’s collections: “The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Eleven,” “The Bad Book” and “Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities, & Other Horrors.” Check out Kristi DeMeester’s books today!