A Screen Rant feature rounds up possession and exorcism novels that draw their horror from real-life cases, religious traditions and alleged historical incidents rather than pure invention.
01Summary
- 01The feature highlights Danielle Vega's 2014 novel The Merciless, which follows teenagers who attempt their own exorcism after believing a classmate is possessed.
- 02It says The Merciless draws on broader historical events, especially the Salem witch trials and the violence linked to religious persecution.
- 03Nick Roberts' 2022 novel The Exorcist's House is set in 1994 and centres on psychologist Daniel Hill, his daughter Alice and pregnant wife Nora in a West Virginia farmhouse that once belonged to a Catholic exorcist.
- 04Philip Fracassi's 2021 novel Boys in the Valley is set at St. Vincent's Orphanage in early-20th-century Pennsylvania and begins with a winter exorcism that goes badly wrong.
- 05Hailey Piper's The Possession of Natalie Glasgow, published in 2018, focuses on a young girl whose behaviour leads her family to suspect possession.
02Why it matters
For readers who enjoy horror, the piece points to books whose scares are tied to documented beliefs, rituals and past cases. It also shows how real-world religious history continues to shape modern horror fiction.
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