Del Sandeen is the author of This Cursed House and her highly anticipated upcoming release, These Walls Remember. Sandeen is becoming a fan-favorite in the genre, praised for her expertly crafted, unputdownable gothic and historical horror stories. Her work has appeared in FIYAH: Speculative Literary Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Nightlight Podcast, and Gay Magazine. She can be found on Instagram @DelSandeen.
Sandeen sat down with Cemetery Dance to discuss her new gothic and historical horror novel, These Walls Remember, the haunted history of Savannah, Georgia, erasure efforts in U.S. history, and grief horror.
(Interview conducted by Haley Newlin)
CEMETERY DANCE: Savannah, Georgia’s haunted history plays a role in the overall atmosphere of These Walls Remember. How did you decide that this would be the physical location of the haunted 724 Hartford Street house that Delilah and Mickie inherit?
DEL SANDEEN: Savannah’s reputation as a haunted city is one of the main reasons I chose it as the setting. It’s the oldest city in Georgia, and as such, contains beautiful architecture and landscapes that made me wonder what happened in this building or that church, or on this land? It has a history of tragedy, including a yellow fever epidemic that wiped out between six and ten percent of the city’s residents (not the first yellow fever epidemic to devastate Savannah either), deadly fires, and Civil War battles. There’s also the number of enslaved people who either toiled there, or passed through Savannah’s port. So much suffering, death, and destruction can leave a stain on a place, and that provides a perfect backdrop for a horror story.
Also, I’ll never forget the first time I saw a painting of a famous landmark in Savannah—Wormsloe Plantation. In the picture is a tunnel of oak trees, draped in typical Spanish moss. The tunnel looks so claustrophobic and seems to go on for so long. I couldn’t help but imagine getting swallowed up in it.
Your previous release, This Cursed House, also combined elements of gothic and historical horror. Why do you think these subgenres create such an effective landscape to explore grief?
Grief can be very isolating, which is a common trope in gothic and Southern gothic. While death is the most obvious reason for grief, we might also grieve due to the loss of a relationship or the loss of identity. Human beings don’t always handle these emotions in healthy ways, and it’s this struggle to cope that works well for fiction. Thinking about how grief might manifest in the characters or even the house itself gave me ideas for certain scenes and character actions. Not only are the characters coping poorly with grief, but the history of the house also made it a great setting for eerie events.
What do you think historical trauma in horror teaches readers about the importance of questioning and independently studying U.S. history and its erasure efforts?
When we read books that shine a light on how historical horror shapes characters, especially when those books are written by authors from marginalized communities that suffered that trauma, we see from the perspective of the traumatized, which differs greatly from the viewpoint of the people committing the atrocities. With the current book bans and erasure efforts, it’s more important than ever that stories that fully explore and expose historical facts are told. One story, or even a brief mention of history, can spark curiosity and set a reader on a path to learn more. This is how I learned a lot of history that I was never taught in school. It’s sometimes ugly to face but necessary, and reading about people and cultures different from our own is a wonderful starting point toward understanding and empathy. Erasing this history does a great disservice to the people who lived it and to those of us who could learn from it.
I really appreciated the way you used classic gothic imagery and symbols, such as the always-lit candles in the attic. Without giving too much away, how do the candles represent our tendency to suppress grief? What do you hope readers gain from this analysis of grief?
Per the Kübler-Ross Model, denial is one of the five stages of grief. The candles represented one character’s refusal to accept the deaths of his loved ones, so essentially denial. It’s difficult to grieve if we don’t accept that there’s a reason to grieve in the first place. Since most of the story takes place in the house, there’s also the feeling of confinement. When we feel confined, or make ourselves small, our inner dialogue can become overwhelming and not allow any room for outside support or healing. It’s my hope that any readers who’ve ever felt they couldn’t move past a certain stage of grief to be able to relate to at least one of the characters, recognize the mistakes the character makes, and consider what they can do to move forward with their lives.
What are some of your favorite horror books and films to recommend? Any gothic titles in particular? Grief horror?
There are so many horror books that I’ve loved! Among my favorites, in no particular order, are The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones; The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey; The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle; and Beloved by Toni Morrison.
For grief horror, I think River Solomon’s Model Home and Tananarive Due’s The Good House are both incredible.
My favorite gothic novels (and this includes Southern gothic) are Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice; Dracula by Bram Stoker; and The Elementals by Michael McDowell.
Bring Her Back is an absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking film that explores grief. I watched it once, and it’s one of those movies I don’t think I can watch again, even though it’s excellent. Some of my favorite horror films include Eve’s Bayou; Ganja & Hess; Alien; Night of the Living Dead; Get Out; Psycho; Sinners; just about anything with Vincent Price in it (The Tingler is the first horror movie I saw as a kid, and it promptly gave me nightmares), and so many films from Hammer Film Productions—basically, anything starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
Excellent choices. I am a huge Vincent Price fan, too, and The Tingler is an all-time favorite of mine. It’s actually pretty rare for me to come across fellow fans of that film. I also love The City of the Dead (1960) starring Christopher Lee.
Those movies were all extremely gothic and probably helped to shape what I love to read and write.
THESE WALLS REMEMBER IS AVAILABLE 08.18.26.
