Trad Wife is One of the Most Brutal Horror Stories of 2026

Trad Wife is the second horror story written by Saratoga Schaefer, and it's another masterpiece. Saratoga had written Serial Killer Support Group, and it was one of the best horror books I had read in 2025. I think Trad Wife is easily in the top 5 for 2026 so far, and I was blown away by how violent and tragic this story was. 

We follow the story of a young woman named Camille, who is living her life as a housewife. She is married to a man named Graham, who is the dream guy. She dreams of starting a family, and is excited to become popular on social media, sharing her life as a mother. Unfortunately, Camille is having trouble with getting pregnant. She wants to try having a baby with Graham, but something is wrong with her husband. 

He doesn't want to even spend time with her anymore, and she is left unhappy for the first time. She gains a friend named Renee, a random neighbor that appears a bit too nosy with her life, but she accepts this stranger, due to her loneliness. She is also determined to become popular on social media, even though she is unhappy with people finding out that she had given up her dream in college, wanting to become a housewife instead, due to her childhood trauma with her father. 

Then Camille gets her wish when she meets a demon from a well, after making a wish with a single penny. 

Camille has intercourse with a demon, and she carries his child. 

Camille believes that she was told by an angel to have this child, and she doesn't hesitate to agree, but she has no idea she had slept with a demon instead. Camille appears to be happy for the first time, even though there are a lot of odd things happening with the pregnancy. Her husband doesn't seem to care, and she is able to hide her pregnancy from him for a good while. 

She gives birth in only two months, and she loves her child, despite her demon baby needing to drink blood to survive. Camille herself starts to transform slowly into a demon, and she finds herself drawn to the demon, realizing that the creature is the first person who actually sees her. 

Camille's life starts to get more insane when her baby, whom she names Sweetheart, bites off two of her toes. She realizes that Sweetheart needs to now consume human flesh, and she decides to help her child, in any way that she can. Renee arrives to the house again, and Sweetheart attacks Renee, leading to her death. Camille lets Sweetheart eat her whole, and she later learns that Renee was a bit of a psychopath. 

It turned out that Renee had gotten a divorce from her husband, and the kids were given to him for full custody, due to her drunken spouts. Camille is then confronted by Graham, who turns out to be cheating on her with a random woman named Rose. Camille is then forced to kill a detective to keep her baby safe, and then her own husband, as an act of revenge for treating her badly throughout their marriage. 

The story ends with Camille leaving with her demon lover, and they go into the woods to raise Sweetheart together, as Camille transforms into a demon. 

This story was both so sad and cutthroat. You will feel so bad for Camille, as she slowly realizes that she had been used her whole life. Once her mother passed away, her father treated her like a new wife, telling her that women were only meant for the traditional housewife role, destroying her dreams of going to college, once she was kicked out from the program.

She married someone like her father, Graham, who continued the cycle of abuse. It made sense why Camille fell in love with the demon, because she was vulnerable, and the demon knew that. I was surprised that the demon loved her too, and it was oddly sweet that she was now going to be accepted and love, and raising her own family, where she can finally be happy. 

Trad Wife is a great horror story for any horror fan!

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn