The best dark fantasy novels about supernatural women

This was the first dark fantasy novel I ever read on the matter of divine feminine power, and it remains by far the greatest. Dripping in lush, elegant prose, Anne Rice’s story of the haunted Mayfair family has never left my mind. Rice exposes the histories of thirteen incredible women, each haunted by a diabolical ghost who follows their bloodline through the centuries.  

You’ll need a month and an organization chart to ingest every detail, but you won’t regret getting lost in this magnum opus. The sequels are far more digestible and focused, but nowhere near as delicious as this big, beautiful book of rich, powerful, and erotic witches.

At its heart, this is a coming-of-age story about an abused and humiliated girl who doesn’t know how much power lies waiting inside her. Strength, dignity, and forgiveness, you wonder? Sure, Carrie White bears all that in her heart. But she has one other source of feminine strength you’ll never forget.  

What works best in Stephen King’s dark fantasy is the pure, unapologetic dish of supernatural revenge Carrie serves her foolish peers when they poke the dragon one too many times.

At the outset, Sookie Stackhouse seems like a normal young woman living the best life she can in a not-so-fabulous part of rural America. She has all the problems you’ve likely faced yourself. But she has a secret that sets her apart from everyone else: you’ll never keep a secret from her. She doesn’t just read a room well, Sookie can hear your very thoughts… and you disgust her, son. But all that changes the day she meets a man whose mind is closed to her. 

Harris’ legacy character from Dead Until Dark spawned a powerhouse series filled with vampires, shifters, witches, fairies, and so much more to haunt her readers. It’s an excess of riches that’s just too much fun to read. But what makes the whole adventure possible—what makes all those other hearts bleed—is an ordinary, small-town girl named Sookie.

I read Isabelle Allende’s first book against my will, having lost a bet with my mother at seventeen, and it continues to be one of my favorite books ever. A generational saga set in the revolutionary world of post-colonial Chile, the story begins with young Clara del Valle, whose eyes are open to the spectral world. She’s able to predict the future, and the horrifying realities of that gift almost destroy her. 

This was one of the stories that made me interested in spiritual realism in literature, and it was a huge inspiration for several of my own works. And whenever my mom complains that I need to stop writing so much about witches, werewolves, and ghosts, I remind her of the day she forced me to read her favorite historical fiction novel.

This novel is a marvelous read and so unlike anything I’ve come across outside an ancient history course. Set in the world of Greek mythology, it starts with the mildly interesting story of Circe, the divine but plain and powerless daughter of Helios, mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey. When the girl falls in love with a mortal fisherman, Glaucous, she violates the tenants of her world to turn him into his ‘true’ self through witchcraft. She then learns the price of her crime and the true nature of men.

Madeline Miller knocks you on your ass as she opens the door to a sweeping story of one woman’s refusal to be mistreated. Crafting the ultimate feminist icon, her protagonist never bows or scrapes or leaves a single abuse unanswered. Instead, Circe finds her true power is her ability to stand tall whatever the price.