You know Jeneva Rose for her psychological thriller The Perfect Marriage. She followed up on that with The Perfect Divorce, but you’ll also know Home Is Where the Bodies Are and One of Us Is Dead.
Rose is stepping away from the thriller side of things for her next release. On Sept. 22, 2026, she’ll release her first foray into horror with Sometimes I Scare Myself. Rose chatted with Parade about this journey, getting into the inspiration for the collection of three stories, her early introduction to horror, and more.
“It was really great to take off the thriller guardrails, where, for the reader, you have to lay out the clues, and you have to be one step ahead of them,” Rose explained, as we got into her decision to write her first horror book. “Everything has to make sense and be grounded in reality. Where horror just lets me be whatever. What’s the worst thing that could happen, and then I could take it a step further than that.”
She did explain that horror was a natural progression from thriller. She was able to stop censoring herself with the collection of horror stories — there are three short stories in Sometimes I Scare Myself — especially when it came to the gore.
Photo by Katharine Hannah“Readers are looking for darker stories, so it was really fun to jump headfirst and see what happened.”
The love for horror stems from a young age, and it was something I could relate to. While Rose watched A Nightmare on Elm Street when she was four, I watched Pet Sematary and It at that age. Sure, that cemented my fear of clowns, but it also made me appreciate the horror genre and understand more of what goes bump in the night. It certainly set up my love for horror as an adult.
Rose has spent years offering her horror recommendations to her readers, so the move into this space with her writing seemed perfect. It’s already helped set the tone for what to expect from her in the future, and she’s built a community because of being a human and offering an insight into her life.
“I remember when I used to attend in-person events,” Rose delved into why the community aspect is so important to her by looking back on her time as a fan of authors. “I didn’t know much about the author other than their bio. Their Q&A was a lot about their craft and how they come up with the idea, but I didn’t really know the author. I loved getting into the mind of people who are creatives.”
That perfectly opened the next avenue of questioning, as I’d been curious about where the ideas for the stories in Sometimes I Scare Myself came from and even where it all started with The Perfect Marriage.
“[The Perfect Marriage] is not an interesting story,” Rose admitted, but then went on to explain how the story formed from one simple fascination: revenge. “I think it’s because the scariest thing is waking up one day and realizing the person you thought you knew, you didn’t. I think that’s a breeding ground for thrillers. What would happen when you do find out that the person you love and you thought you knew, you didn’t know at all? I think it’s fascinating, and it terrifies me.”
It’s certainly a common theme in many psychological thrillers. Whenever there is a story of cheating, there is a story of betrayal and revenge. It all breaks something in your psyche, as you can’t look at the world the same way ever again. Even in the world of true crime, these themes come up.
Courtesy of Blackstone PublishingAs for the horror stories, they each came from different experiences that kick-started an idea.
“Never Kill the Medium, like many of my stories do, started as a what-if. I was at my friend’s bachelorette party, and I was meant to go to a male strip show, but it got canceled due to low ticket sales. So, instead, she decided to hire a medium.”
That led to a lot of questions about how genuine this medium was. Why would someone with this special ability to communicate with the dead be available at short notice? In the end, the event went well, and she was certainly convinced by the things this person knew, but it also sparked an idea. In fact, it created two ideas.
In Never Kill the Medium, it created the story asks what if the medium died in the middle of a séance with the door wide open? Of course, I immediately started to think of Penny Dreadful, but that’s not the journey Rose takes us on with her horror short story. It’s well worth the read!
The second short story, The Nightmare House, also came from this medium experience.
“He said something that would end up coming true later,” she went on, talking about how the medium had mentioned a water feature. More specifically, it was about a moving water feature, which Rose would experience in a “house that’s going to save you.”
She’d moved house while 12 weeks postpartum, and it was a traumatic experience, but sure enough, the moving water feature was there, and it was a blessing. But what if it wasn’t?
“I came up with The Nightmare House, which was: What if the monsters aren’t inside the house? What if they live next door?”
The third short story is titled All Curses Are Final, and that was something that came up while watching Oddity. There is a sign in that movie that says, “All curses are final. Curse lifted at point of sale.”
“What if that was the whole plot?” Rose shared the initial inspiration: “So that formed All Curses Are Final, so it was all very different things. What if, what if, what if, and boom. Then what happens? And that’s the spiral.”
Something that makes Sometimes I Scare Myself stand out from the thrillers — except for it being a horror book — is that it is a collection of short stories instead of one book.
“I wanted it to be substantial enough, so I didn’t short the reader,” Rose explained as we got into the decision to add three novellas together and whether there would be more. “I wanted it to be about the length of a novel, and I wanted three stories. These three stories are actually about grief: the loss of an identity with The Nightmare House, the loss of a relationship with All Curses Are Final, and the loss of a sister in Never Kill the Medium.”
It was one of the reasons we connected over Pet Sematary, as that story has grief at its root of the story. People do strange and dangerous things when they’re grieving, and many of us can relate to the characters in their actions. We know bringing back the people we love is wrong, but wouldn’t we try?
Photo by Katharine HannahAdding a human layer like this also creates a grounding element in the story. It’s not the supernatural essence of the story, but the emotions of the characters.
“I think a reader will trust you if the emotions of the characters feel real, and then you can take them on the journey,” Rose agreed. “You can recognize yourself within those characters and let the horror unfold from there.”
There’s also a beauty in creating seemingly normal and fun situations and turning them into horrifying events. It adds a layer of the ordinary to the horror.
“If I take you to an abandoned house, you already know something bad is going to happen. If I take you to a dinner party and a medium shows up, you’ll think, ‘Oh, this is a fun activity.’”
We finished up chatting about Dead Girl Summer, an upcoming thriller. Now, we have to wait until April 2027 for this, but it’s back in the world of laughter, fun, and death.
“It’s set in a town I love so much,” Rose dished out a few teasers, “I love this laketown of Tomahawk, Wisconsin. I exaggerated a little bit in the story, but it’s just fun to have somewhere that lives and dies on tourism.”
It’s become another “what if” story in the sense of “What if really bad things happen here, but they couldn’t afford for that reputation to get out because it would destroy the local economy. What would people do to protect that?”
On the other side of that is a true crime podcaster who is looking to get back into the game. She wants redemption, but she also wants to reveal the secrets of a town desperate to protect it all.
“You have this Sheriff Dana, and then you have Taryn Voss, the true crime podcaster. One of them wants to tell the story, and the other one thinks the story’s over and there’s nothing here. These two women clash, with one fighting for the reputation of her town and herself, and the other just fighting for her career. I had a lot of fun with that, and I think it’s my twistiest thriller yet.
And if you’re interested in seeing Sarah Morgan’s story continue, there is some hope. Sarah’s story isn’t quite over, but Rose couldn’t go into detail about that or much about the movie adaptation of The Perfect Marriage.
Sometimes I Scare Myself is hitting shelves on Sept. 22, 2026.
Hence then, the article about the perfect marriage author jeneva rose is taking her first step into the world of horror it was really great to take off the thriller guardrails exclusive was published today ( ) and is available on Parade ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( ‘The Perfect Marriage’ Author Jeneva Rose Is Taking Her First Step Into the World of Horror: ‘It Was Really Great To Take off the Thriller Guardrails’ [Exclusive] )
Also on site :