Catriona Ward Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Catriona Ward is a horror fiction author from Washington DC that is best known for her debut novel “Rawblood.”
Growing up, she moved all over the globe with her family and lived in such diverse places as Morocco, the United States, Yemen, Kenya and Madagascar. Ward went to St. Edmund in Oxford, where she studied English and then went on to work as an actor in New York.

When she went back to London, she started working on the manuscript for her debut novel as she spent her days working for a human rights organization. It was also at this time that she attended the University of East Anglia, where she took a creative writing masters degree.

The novel would eventually become a bestselling title published in the US as “The Girl from Rawblood.” Ward has also written short stories and book reviews for several publications.

For her work, she has won several awards over the years including the Best Horror Novel at the August Derleth Awards and the Shirley Jackson Award. The Last House on Needless Street, which is her most popular gothic thriller, was published by Viper Books in 2021.

The first ghost story that Catriona Ward first read was WW Jacobs novel “The Monkey’s Paw.” She remembers the thrill and fear she felt when a father and mother cowered when their supposedly dead son came back and started pounding on their door.

But best of all, she had found what would become her favorite storytelling mode that gave expression to the childhood fear she sometimes felt. She immediately understood that horror and ghost stories give one permission to grapple around trying to explore the darker components of the psyche.
Apart from WW Jacobs, Catriona is also a huge fan of the likes of Sarah Pinborough, Barbara Comyns, and Shirley Jackson.

As an author of the horror genre, she has said that she can read in almost all of the subgenres even though she has a preference for gothic horror. What she loves about horror is how it is often found in many other genres, over every imaginable human concern, place, and time.

She believes that every good writing will usually contain some element of horror, which is what gives it spice.

Catriona Ward’s journey to becoming a published author was not so easy. She would spend half a dozen years writing the manuscript for her novels during the weekends and evenings as she worked a day job. Many of those years were spent by Ward learning to write as she made grievous errors while practicing.

When she could finally see the end in sight, she decided to enroll at the University of Anglia’s creative writing course as she believed it would spur her on. The workshops she had to attend provided the forum to discuss her manuscript with teachers and other aspiring authors and she learned a lot from this process.
When she finally started querying agents, things certainly moved faster. She sold her novel to Weidenfeld & Nicolson just three months after signing with her agent.

Catriona Ward’s novel “The Last House on Needless Street” goes back nearly eleven years ago when she visited a lake alongside her parents and her six year old sister. But her sister had gone missing on the trip leaving the family shattered for years. Dee will do anything to find her sister who she believes is still alive.

On the other hand is Ted who lives in a family home falling apart with the windows covered in plywood and the interior dark, cluttered and dusty. He has a tendency to lose time for days and sometimes can not remember names let alone anything substantive.

He usually speaks into an old cassette tape so that he can remember things. His only comfort is his cat and an out of control daughter even as he tries to not think of his father or mother. He usually hides from his neighbors even though he is tired of the hermit life he has been living.
Told from the third perspective, it is a story that is claustrophobic, suffocating and horrifying.

“Cursed” by Catriona Ward is a great collection of stories that you most probably will love to pieces. They are just the kind of stories that you would tell to family and friends and everyone else who cares or does not care to listen.

There are some stories you may have to read again to understand what they mean which is normal for anthologies as not every story will be a great read for everyone. But all the stories are atmospheric, beautifully written tales and there is hardly any that you will force your way through or hate.

Ward embraces the dark in the title of her anthology and goes wild with it. Just when you think you have figured out the collection’s theme, he brings out something very different that makes you think again.

It is not easy to pick favorites but the stories that are most impressive in the collection are the Beast mashup Henry wrote, The Snow White Beauty story, the man that lost all his popularity , the story of the demon box which makes wishes come true and the story of the Red Shoes.

Catriona Ward’s debut novel “Rawblood” is a gothic horror tale that has undercurrents of the “Woman in White,” “Wuthering Heights,” “Rebecca” and “The Turn of the Screw.”

The novel introduces the Villarcas, the Coulsons and Gilmores. The story goes back and forth as it introduces minor and major members of each family’s tree and how they are related to each other.

On the Devon moors with its bogs, downpours and mists is a house named “Rawblood.” It is a house haunted by a vicious spirit and steeped in blood. The spirit has been known to seek the death of the Vilarcas and any other inhabitants of the haunted home.

Iris has always been shunned by the local community and given that her father wants to protect her, he forbids her from socialising with the locals or ever leaving the house. But things become interesting when she becomes attracted to Tom, a local boy.