Goodnight Monsters
Southern suburban housewife Lia and her husband Evan have long dreamed of becoming parents—but when a pregnancy test shows positive, Lia questions whether she wants the child and keeps her pregnancy a secret.
As she’s holding new life inside, she intentionally surrounds herself with death by blackmailing her way into a job at a forensic anthropology center endearingly called The Body Farm. At The Farm, monsters emerge from within Lia—the desire to kill—and she begins daydreaming about murder. Because fantasizing never hurt anyone. Or so she thinks.
Then a body donation to The Farm turns out to be someone she’s imagined killing, and reality and fantasy begin to blur. As people around her begin to die, Lia loses trust in her loved ones and herself . . . and ultimately must put her monsters to bed.
This Spotify playlist was created while writing Goodnight Monsters
Advance Praise
“Junered’s prose is compulsively readable—the writing is often elegant, with a sinister undertone.”
“Junered skillfully juxtaposes the banal and the macabre: neighborhood gossip and Pilates sit alongside vivid, intrusive imagery of death and decay, including Lia’s fascination with decomposing bodies and visions that blur reality and imagination. The result is a creeping tension that builds less through plot than through the erosion of Lia’s sense of self. Lia’s voice is sharp, darkly funny, and often disarmingly candid, especially in moments where her thoughts veer toward violence or detachment.”
“Goodnight Monsters is delightfully dark and obsessive, so sharp-eyed and full of tension that I haven’t stopped thinking about this book since I started reading. It’s gripping and full of surprises—I have never read a book that tackles the fear of motherhood in such an absorbing way. A must-read for fans of propulsive psychological horror and masterful prose. And that ending. I never saw it coming.”
—Penny Zang, author of Doll Parts
“Goodnight Monsters is a heady, fever-dream concoction of nightmare, fantasy, and half-imagined killings, all emanating from the disturbed brain of a woman who fears she’s losing her grip on reality. Pitting primal feminine desire and rage against the cultural expectations of women and motherhood, Junered has crafted an unforgettably spiky and deeply human heroine as well as a story that will have you wondering what the hell you just read.”
—Emily Carpenter, author of Gothictown
“Goodnight Monsters is a twisty exploration of motherhood, marriage, and murder that brazenly probes the extremes of birth and death. Part thriller, part horror, this novel breathtakingly captures the miracle and mayhem that is pregnancy as it builds to its shocking conclusion. Perfect for fans of Anne Heltzel’s Just Like Mother.”
—Erin Flanagan, Edgar Award–winning author of Deer Season, Blackout, and Come With Me
“Suzanne Junered’s Goodnight Monsters is a delicious twist on the choices women face with impending motherhood. Incredibly timely in a post-Roe world, with a plot that will keep you guessing all the way to the end.”
—Michelle Cruz, author of Even When You Lie
In the Works
HOUSE OF MANNEQUINS
Status: Coming Fall 2027
About: The Astrology House meets Here One Moment and Doctor Sleep
INCITING INCIDENT
Status: Manuscript complete and edited
About: His & Hers meets Bright Young Women with Young Rich Widows vibes
MANIFESTATION
Status: Manuscript in progress
About: Dark Matter plus Nine Perfect Strangers with a touch of The Secret and The White Lotus vibes