Best of Horror with Meredith Monday Schwartz (Currently Reading) | Ep. 216
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.7 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode 216 continues the Best of… series with a deep dive into the horror genre. Meredith Monday Schwartz of the Currently Reading podcast joins the show to discuss her all-time Top Ten favorite horror books, along with a few buzzy titles that didn't quite work for her. Meredith also talks about how she came to the genre and the wide range of reading experiences horror has to offer.
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CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog.
Highlights
- How Meredith defines the horror genre — and where she draws the lines
- Subgenres of horror that don't get talked about as much
- Meredith's personal relationship with reading horror
- What draws her to the genre and how she approaches her horror TBR
- The role of women in horror, both as authors and within its themes
Meredith's All-Time Top Ten Horror: Ranked [18:47]
- 10) Daphne by Josh Malerman (2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [19:33]
- 9) How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [22:10]
- 8) The Ruins by Scott Smith (2006) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [24:42]
- 7) Near the Bone by Christina Henry (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [27:02]
- 6) Diavola by Jennifer Thorne (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [29:19]
- 5) We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [31:44]
- 4) Slewfoot by Brom (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [34:01]
- 3) The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James (2020) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [37:40]
- 2) The Stand by Stephen King (1978) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [39:46]
- 1) I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid (2016) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [44:50]
High-Profile Horror She Didn't Love [49:39]
- The September House by Carissa Orlando (2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [50:03]
- The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (2021) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [50:55]
- Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [52:34]
Other Books Mentioned
- The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson (1977) [9:57]
- 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered by Sadie Hartmann (2023) [13:25]
- Feral and Hysterical by Sadie Hartmann (2025) [13:37]
- Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024) [22:47]
- The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi (2025) [28:33]
- Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959) [31:01]
- The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer (April 21, 2026) [33:29]
- Krampus by Brom (2012) [36:42]
- The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James (2012) [39:07]
- The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James (2022) [39:23]
- 11/22/63 by Stephen King (2011) [43:13]
- Foe by Iain Reid (2018) [49:00]
- Bird Box by Josh Malerman (2014) [52:39]
Other Links
- Sadie Hartmann (@Mother.Horror) on Instagram
- Talking Scared with Neil McRobert
- Slow Read: The Stand with Sarah Stewart Holland & Laura Tremaine
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. |
| 0:11.9 | I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. |
| 0:13.9 | Join me every other week as we get real and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. |
| 0:19.2 | Let's get rolling. |
| 0:22.5 | Welcome to the latest installment of our best of series, which we launched last year. Best ofs are episodes where we bring on guests |
| 0:28.0 | who are great evangelizers for a particular genre that Catherine, Chrissy, and I may not read as |
| 0:32.8 | much of. Our guests are expert readers of a particular genre, not necessarily industry experts. |
| 0:39.3 | And they share their all-time top 10 best-of list for that particular genre and a couple of well-known books in that genre that they didn't like. |
| 0:47.2 | One of the genres I've wanted to do for a while is horror. |
| 0:50.4 | I dip my toe in every now and then, but I don't read a ton of horror, and I'm certainly nothing close to an expert. |
| 0:57.2 | So I am thrilled to have a familiar voice on today to impart all of the horror wisdom. |
| 1:02.9 | Meredith Monday Schwartz of the currently reading podcast and one of my podcasting buddies is here with us. |
| 1:08.3 | Welcome, Meredith. |
| 1:09.3 | Hi, Sarah. I am so glad to be here. And I think saying that I am |
| 1:13.8 | someone to impart my horror wisdom, that needs to be on my gravestone. It would fit nicely on a |
| 1:20.9 | gravestone. Right, exactly. And Meredith, I am thrilled to have you back on Sarah's bookshelf's lives. You may not even |
| 1:28.7 | remember the last time you were on. It has been so long. It's been seven years. Oh, wow. |
| 1:34.3 | You and Katie came on episode 16, way back in the beginning of the podcast. Yes. Yes. No, I do |
| 1:42.1 | actually remember. And I'm so glad to be back. I know you and I get a chance to talk a lot behind the scenes, but it's really great to be on mic with you. |
| 1:51.0 | Yes, I agree. And yeah, y'all, we do communicate behind the scenes, if case anyone's wondering, I feel like people always ask me that. |
| 1:57.4 | It's very helpful to have a podcast friend. It is because you feel like you're on an |
| 2:02.0 | island a little bit. Right. Especially, you know, we do really similar things, so we really |
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