Skyla Arndt Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

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Skyla Arndt
Skyla Arndt has always loved the crawly and creepy side of life. When she was younger, she believed loved might translate into hunting down Bigfoot, however luckily for him, writing proved to be easier for her.

She can be found writing her stories by candlelight, splurging for candles for her office, and staying on the lookout for Bigfoot, since you just never know.

The majority of the finished version of “Together We Rot” came to life while she was revising. Her initial spark was just a glimmer of an idea: a religious boy possessed by something otherworldy and the rebellious girl here to save him. From there, it took numerous revisions in order to slowly flesh out the characters and the terrifying world they each inhabit.

“Together We Rot” was the first time that she had fell in love with a story that she had created. Authors often tout different projects as being the “book of their heart” and this book was definitely that for her. She poured so much of herself into the novel and in doing so, she had created a story that she was just happy to rewrite over and over again. She went through several significant rewrites and had a lot of fun diving back into the world each time she did so.

With the novel, she wanted to write a genre-blended novel; one that toed the line between humor and horror, romance and thriller. Even though the plot itself is quite dark and the subject matter can get rather heavy at times, the key to the balance is in the cast itself. Elwood and Wilhelmina, her lead characters, are a world away from each other. Elwood would much rather hide under his bed most days than fight anybody, whereas Wil is fiery, headstrong, and impulsive. The sharp contrast coupled with their complex and long history makes for such great back-and-forth banter between the two.

Throughout Elwood’s character arc, she really played up the physical and emotional “metamorphosis” from childhood into adulthood. It signifies what it truly means to grow up in a cruel world where you’re changing suddenly without any idea of what’s waiting for you on the other side.

“Together We Rot” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2023. A teen girl seeking the truth about her missing mom forms this reluctant alliance with her former best friend, in exchange for hiding him from his cult-leading family.

Wil Greene’s mother has been missing for more than a year at this point, and the cops are ready to call it a closed case, claiming that she skipped town and you just cannot find a woman that wants to vanish. However she knows that her mom would not just leave, and she knows that the family of Elwood Clarke (her former best friend) has got something to do with it.

Elwood has been counting down the days until he turns 18, and dreading it. It marks leaving school and joining up with his pastor dad in dedicating his life to the Garden of Adam, their congregation. However when he arrives back home after this final goodbye with his friends, already self-flagellating for the sins of disobeying his dad and drinking, he finds that his path isn’t quite as virtuous as he previously thought. He is not his dad’s successor, however his sacrifice. For the woods he has grown up with are thirsty, and have to be paid off in blood.

Now he’s on the run from a family that wants him dead, he turns to the only person that’ll believe him: Wil. Together, they form this rather reluctant partnership; she will help hide him if he’ll help her find some evidence that his family killed her mom. However in the end they find more secrets than they’d bargained for, unraveling decades of dark cult dealings in their town, which is led by the Clarke family.

And there is a reason that they need Elwood’s blood for these satanic rituals. Something inhuman has been growing inside of him. Everywhere he goes, the plants all come alive and the forest is calling to him, and Wil is unsure if she can save the boy that she cannot help but love.

This is a twisty and atmospheric read which seamlessly blends romance and horror together. Skyla’s incisive character work and punchy prose conjure up two leads that are impossible to not root for, and her well drawn and immersive setting is quite a riveting character on its own. Her tough to put down debut novel crackles with wit and it seethes with horrors lurking under the surface. Equal parts grisly and tender, this is sure to sink its roots into you.

“House of Hearts” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2025. Solving her best friend’s murder means resisting one forbidden love, infiltrating a secret society, and running away from a vengeful ghost.

Violet Harper knows that her best friend was murdered. Even if everybody else has labeled her death as some ‘freak accident’, Vi is certain that she had been trying to tell her something just before she died. Cryptic messages about her friend’s elite boarding school, the mysterious secret society that she was entangled in, and her whirlwind romance each point to a more sinister fate.

Violet does what nobody else appears willing to do: She transfers into the same fancy school so she can dig into the murky history of the school to learn what actually happened to her friend. Vi knows that the truth probably won’t be pretty, however what she never bargained for is the handsome boy at the center of everything: Calvin Lockwell, who is the brother of the prime suspect and descendant of the founder of the school. He is privileged and obnoxious, and Vi cannot deny their haunting attraction.

It quickly becomes obvious that his family’s hiding this dark secret which might not even be of this world, and Violet is suddenly following her friend’s doomed footsteps down the rabbit hole. Even while details merge of this deadly curse that plagues the school, she cannot escape from her true feelings for Calvin. However loving him might just be the very last thing she’ll ever do.