Kathleen Hale is the author of two young adult novels and one essay collection. She has written for the Guardian, Hazlitt, and Vice, and is a writer and producer for Outer Banks on Netflix. She was born in Wisconsin and lives in Los Angeles.
Hales new book is Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls.
At CrimeReads she tagged six "of the most chilling stories I’ve ever read about female psychopaths," including:
Good Me Bad Me: A Novel by Ali LandRead about the other entries on the list.
Milly’s Mom is not like other Moms… She’s a serial killer. After finding the courage to turn in her mother to the police, Milly escapes to live with the perfect foster family. But dark details from her old life back still haunt her. Dark urgesplague her, too. Despite her best intentions, Milly’s horrifying past slowly creeps into the present. Preparing to act as a witness at her mother’s criminal trial not only triggers Milly’s PTSD, but also raises uncomfortable questions about Milly’s role in her mother’s killing spree. Was Milly really just a passive victim in her mother’s house of horrors? Or did she participate in the game? Is it possible to be a victim, and a perpetrator? Ali Land’s masterful debut raises these and other groundbreaking questions about the fine line between nature and nurture. With a monster for a mother, can Milly ever truly outgrow the evil she experienced as a child? Or does that same evil live inside of her, too? Good Me Bad Me is an addictive, voice-driven psychological thriller, and a must-read. But not for the faint of heart.
--Marshal Zeringue