"I've bought over a dozen copies of Leila Taylor's Darkly for friends and acquaintances since it first came out, and it remains to me one of the best and most essential books of the last ten years. Her latest, Sick Houses , is just as deft, insightful, and timely--and it's also destined to be a modern classic. Anyone who wants to know more about what makes a house haunted, and why we're drawn to such places in film and literature, should absolutely start here." - Colin Dickey "The homes of the normal, the eccentric, the magical, the violent, and the insane: Sick Houses reaches far beyond and far deeper into the lore and lure of the domestic space than any book before it. Leila Taylor has crafted a fascinating and comprehensive study into homes of all shapes and sizes, ages, and uses, homes from recent history and from popular culture. Examining issues of class, race, and gender, she asks us to reconsider why we consider a space a home, and why it becomes a place of haunting." - Shelagh Rowan-Legg "A thoughtful, personal, incisive and well-considered premise that will appeal to horror enthusiasts and storytellers alike, Sick Houses asks us to examine the universally relatable concept of home and how horror can intimately overturn the places in which we most seek and hope for safety." - Leanna Renee Hieber, award-winning co-author of A Haunted History of Invisible Women and America's Most Gothic "Taylor's mix of knowledge and humor is a treat.

Anyone curious about houses with a history, and historically creepy houses, should check this one out." - New York Times.