Ethel Cain Reading Guide
What Ethel would have been reading if she wasn't busy staring into the eyes of the man who killed her.
I first heard Ethel Cain’s second EP, Inbred, after reading a tweet by a Twitter gay. I immediately texted a group chat and told them they all had to listen, and I haven’t shut up about Ethel Cain since.
I am not the first to write an Ethel Cain (Hayden Anhedönia) reading guide, but I wanted to approach things differently. Many existing lists focus on female-centric literary horror; I wanted a more comprehensive approach for this list. Kara Zosha, from Ramona Magazine, described her music as
With musical influences from her Southern Baptist background, Cain’s music revolves around American nostalgia, Southern Gothic and religious themes, trauma, solace, and other dark motifs.
Southern Gothic, a term coined in the 1930s by author Ellen Glasgow, is a subgenre of media set in the Southern States of America. These works showcase the climate as hot, decaying, and creepy. Southern Gothic media evokes a sense of alienation, through either the vastness of the settings or the collective rejection by the insular townsfolk. The sub-genre often explores class and race relations in the South, along with themes of spiritualism.
Ethel Cain’s music and persona are deeply rooted in Southern Gothic. The best example of this is the LP Preacher’s Daughter. In Preacher’s Daughter, we meet Ethel, a (surprise!) daughter of a preacher who is disillusioned with the church, eventually turning to alcoholism and escaping her small southern town. She then meets a man on the road hitchhiking who she falls in love with. Long story short the end of the record, Strangers is a song about how he puts her in a freezer and eats her. Southern Gothic enough for you?
So, if you’re already familiar with Ethel Cain’s work and want to find something to read that has a similar feeling to Preacher’s Daughter or Hayden’s earlier work - I am here to help.
The books on this list should possess some of the key elements of the Southern Gothic style, but I will focus on three main areas.
They have to be a bit gross. It doesn’t need to reach splatterpunk levels of body horror—more a book that comes across as grimy or creepy.
It needs a pastoral or Southern Gothic feel. I excluded books like My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Bunny because while they could read as Ethel-esque, their settings (New York and a college campus respectfully) are integral to the plot, just as The South is to Hayden’s work.
Religious tones/themes and they cannot be Catholic. A picture of a string of rosary beads cannot be “Ethel Cain-core”. We all know it’s giving The Virgin Suicides, and that’s so okay! (For this reason, as tempting as it is to include - The Virgin Suicides did not make the list.)
Deliver Me by Elle Nash
Deliver Me is gross. After miscarrying, Dee-dee decides not to correct anyone who assumes she is still pregnant. The story flashes between Dee-dee's relationship with her boyfriend (whom she calls Daddy) and her traumatic teenage years. In the present-day timeline, her teenage best friend Sloane reemerges, and Dee-dee becomes convinced that everyone is catching on to the fact that she is no longer pregnant.
Daddy and Dee-dee live in a run-down unit in the south while she works at an abattoir. She is desperate to keep him around (if only to have a baby) and he keeps her around because she doesn’t mind his fetish for bug bites. The fact that Dee-dee is maybe a bit gay and escaped a fanatic Pentecostal church? I don’t know how much more Ethel Cain you can get.
The Brutes by Dizz Date
Brutes takes place in Falls Landing, Florida. It lyrically tells the story of a group of girls attempting to control the narrative of Sammy’s disappearance. When I read the blurb for this book, I stopped what I was doing and started listening to the audio version. I finished it that day.
This is the least gross book on the list, but it’s also about a preacher’s daughter who goes missing, reminiscent of the storyline in Hayden’s concept album, Preacher’s Daughter. The setting plays a crucial role in the novel, as significant a character as the girls themselves. When discussing comparisons to other novels, Tate remarked
[Florida] is a wonderful landscape to use in fiction; there’s an oppressiveness to the climate, a spiky edge to its beauty, that lends itself to an atmosphere of mystery, of dreamy inexplicability. I love the small gap that exists between realism and surrealism in Southern Gothic novels and stories, where life is presented in a way that is recognisable but just tilted beyond possibility, toward the unknowable, the indescribable.
It offers an unusual perspective on girlhood in a sticky town. Critics have compared this book to The Virgin Suicides, primarily because it depicts the camaraderie inherent in girlhood. But unlike The Virgin Suicides, it takes a bizarre turn.
Pew by Cathrine Lacey
The main character of Pew is discovered asleep in a small Southern church. The reader (and the town) knows nothing about this person, including their race or gender. The main character isn’t sure of their name, so the family that takes them in names them Pew.
The town bustles in preparation for the Forgiveness Festival, and Pew finds themselves caught in predominantly one-sided conversations with the locals. In time, the generous Southern hospitality erodes, and those who take Pew in grow increasingly hostile toward them.
This book is steeped in mystery. The reader pieces together who Pew might be, along with the customs and history of the eccentric town. I’ve included Pew in the list due to its strong religious themes and its depiction of the finite nature of Southern hospitality. One aspect I appreciate about the Southern Gothic style is the role of class in these towns. It’s tough to know whom to trust—the trailer trash or the wealthy family in control. Perhaps you shouldn’t trust any of them.
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
I have seen this in every Ethel Cain Reading Guide I have ever read because it belongs there. This is probably my favourite Gyllian Flinn novel and the T.V. show has amazing performances by Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson. It has the Southern Gothic feel down to a tee (despite being set in the midwest) and the main character is awful and gross. The only thing that I think Hayden would disapprove of is the main character fucking a cop.
The religious tones only peak slightly in the funeral scenes, but the deep Americana imagery throughout makes up for that.
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper
This is my wild card, and based solely on the iconic video entitled ‘my favourite types of gay porn’.
The Sluts is written first as a series of reviews for a man named Brad, a mysterious full-service sex worker who disappears and reappears. Most details about him are ambiguous (including his sexuality). As the novel progresses it becomes increasingly unclear if Brad exists - and is replaced by Thad.
This is the most splatterpunk entry in this list, the body horror is truly disgusting. I read a passage to my fiancé, who asked me to stop reading.
It slightly misses the brief regarding the southern gothic element, however, because this takes place largely in an online chat room, it feels expansive. Early 2000s online culture and the internet have always played a part in the Ethel Cain character so it fits for me. Part of the mystery arises when Brad disappears and we learn that he is from a small town and has moved back and has a girlfriend. A man on Grindr told me that this book is an allegory for the AIDS crisis in the digital age and I was blown away so thank you to that man.
While creating this list, I contemplated any book that took me back to the early days of Tumblr and taking photos with my mates, drunk in front of the small church across the road from my house. This list isn’t conclusive, but it’s a good starting point if you enjoy reading and Ethel Cain’s music. As I continue reading, I intend to add the books that fit the criteria.
Let me know if you have any recommendations!
Time to read PEW!