Even though we love them, family can be complicated, though hopefully no one here has to deal with hauntings, huntings, and family curses that span generations. Here’s a list of books that include cursed families and all the trouble – and teamwork – that comes with them. Because really, in the end, who else would you rather have by your side?
5 Books With Mysterious Family Curses
1. Slayer by Kiersten White
I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse, but coming from a family of vampire slayers certainly makes for a more complicated family than most. While Nina likes to think of herself more of a healer than a fighter, the gifts given to her, her sister, and her classmates at the Watcher’s Academy make for a messy and interesting family dynamic. When Nina life changes forever, she must rely on her training, her friends, and her family to survive.
2. The Cold Is in Her Bones by Peternelle van Arsdale
This is less about family that is cursed than an entire village that may be cursed but I think it still counts. Milla lives near a village that lives in fear of a demon that possesses girls at random, which stirs paranoia and mistrust. Milla has lived her live away from this village, on the farm with her family, but soon will have to face the demon when it possesses her new friend Iris, and begins to infiltrate her own family.
3. Compulsion by Martina Boone
There no curse like a Southern-gothic-civil-war era curse. The Heirs of Watson Island series follow Barrie as she returns to her mother’s childhood home and finds much more than she bargained for, including a feud with a neighboring family and a curse that spans generations. Filled with the creepy, elegant atmosphere of a South Carolina plantation, forbidden romance, and a mysterious and compelling curse, Compulsion is the perfect story of the family you have now fixing the wrongs of the past.
4. The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
Nothing says cursed more than a sleepy coastal town called Sparrow where three sisters killed for being witches drown unsuspecting boys in the harbor. Newcomer Bo doesn’t know about the strange goings-on of the town, or the fate that awaits him, and it’s up to Penny to find an end the curse before it takes its next victim.
5. The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed, leaving them with more questions than answers.