03/27/2026 Women in Horror: Book of the Day - INK VINE by Elizabeth Broadbent
- Candace Nola
- Mar 27
- 2 min read
In honor of Women in Horror month, we will be spotlighting books written by women from all walks of life within our horror industry. Be sure to check back often for great book recommendations written by these incredible ladies!
Add all of them to your TBR list to read today and every day!
Ink Vine
by Elizabeth Broadbent
Sometimes, you just pick your poison and pray.
Stay the hell out of the swamp — the backwater town of Lower Congaree recites it like an eleventh commandment. But when exotic dancer Emmy Joiner sneaks under the dark tree-canopy behind her family trailer, she meets mysterious, tattooed Zara, the first girl she dares to kiss.
But the small-town South hates a woman who dares to dance instead of plucking chickens for minimum wage, and as Emmy’s life falls apart, her relationship with Zara grows more tangled and bizarre. Zara’s offering something beautiful. But while Emmy’s slowly strangling, its price may be more than she’s willing to pay.
Shifting between the green-bright cypress cathedral and the dreamland of a dance club, Broadbent’s unforgettably voiced debut confronts the brutal realities of poverty in the South, with a sapphic tale both sultry and sinister, gritty and gothic.
My Review:
Beautifully written and heartbreakingly sad, Ink Vine is a story of self-discovery, empowerment and the freedom that acceptance brings. Fresh, relatable characters, breathtaking imagery, and vivid in its emotions, Ink Vine will linger long after you read the last word.
More About Elizabeth Broadbent
Elizabeth Broadbent is a speculative fiction author from the American South. She’s the author of Ink Vine (Undertaker Books) Ninety-Eight Sabers (Undertaker Books) and Blood Cypress (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2025), as well as Naked & Famous (ELJ Editions, 2023). Her long career as a journalist included bylines in The Washington Post, Time, Insider, The Huffington Post, and many more.
Her fiction has published by Penumbric, Tales to Terrify, Haven Speculative, If There’s Anyone Left, The Black Beacon Book of Horror, and many others, including a three-story arc in Hyphenpunk. Her poetry has appeared in The Cafe Irreal and Antipodean SF.
Broadbent lives in the snarkiest city in America with her patient husband, three sons, two cats, German Shepherd, and Sumter County Dog Goblin.
GET IT HERE:
Ink Vine: A Gothic Sapphic Novella - Kindle edition by Broadbent, Elizabeth. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Other Works:
Check out these other Women in Horror events happening all month long! Thanks to Gwendolyn Kiste for the Round-up of events below and thanks to Eliza Broadbent for her partnership with us on the UD blog!
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