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Sarah Langan

Goodreads Author

Born

in Mineola, The United States

Website

https://sarahlangan.com/

Genre

Suspense, Thriller, Horror

Influences

Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, W. Somerset Maugham, Joyce Carol Oates, ...more

Member Since

October 2015

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Sarah grew up on Long Island, got her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University, her MS in environmental toxicology from NYU, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her family, two rabbits, and three chickens.

Her next novel TRAD WIFE is due out from S&S and Tor UK in Summer, 2026.

Her most recent works include A BETTER WORLD, GOOD NEIGHBORS, PAM KOWOLSKI IS A MONSTER, YOU HAVE THE PRETTIEST MASK, "Does Harlen Lattner Dream of Electric Sheep?," "Squid Teeth," "The Devil's Children," and "I Miss You Too Much."

*I acknowledge that I have massacred the punctuation surrounding the above quotations marks. I will now resume talking about myself in the third person.*

Her books have received favorite of the year distinctions from NPR, Newsweek ...more

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Popular Answered Questions

What are you currently working on?

Sarah Langan I’ve just finished a new novel called THE CLINIC and I’m really excited about it. It’s very much in the same vein as my previous books, but I’ve grown…moreI’ve just finished a new novel called THE CLINIC and I’m really excited about it. It’s very much in the same vein as my previous books, but I’ve grown a lot and I think gotten more sophisticated as a storyteller.

I started the book about three years ago, having no idea why I’d abandoned two other novels to work on it. I only knew that something felt uneasy in my life as a new mother for the second time, and in my marriage, too. I’d become obsessed with Mad Men, and in retrospect, for good reason. The show isn’t about the 60s; it’s about now. Just as our own parents grew up getting more rod than carrot, we grew up in a world where dads (and I’m talking about the subset, here, of middle and upper middle class families that stayed together) were the boss and moms did the laundry. In theory the laundry, caring for extended families, cooking, and helping with homework were just as important as taking the train into on office, but in reality, no way. I grew up thinking what my mom did was stupid. Frankly, I grew up thinking women were less important. I was less important.

And then our generation of women was supposed to grow up and be equal with our partners, which is easy when you don’t have kids, and pretty impossible once you do. Who does those stupid jobs, like running the house and the schedule? And hey, wait, they’re not actually stupid jobs, are they? They’re pretty vital, it turns out. They’re just not valued financially, though, in fact, they do have a real financial value. They’re also very lonely jobs.

I don’t think I’m alone in my utter bewilderment, trying to figure out my place in all that. I think it’s generational. We’re the talking generation. Which is what makes me think we’ll do a good job at resolving it.

All that aside, the story’s about a struggling family whose son is sick. He’s got cancer. But it turns out, what he has isn’t really cancer. And the hospital that’s treating him isn’t really out to help him. The corporation that owns the hospital is killing senators and presidents to acquire global water rights. They’re treating the water with anti-malarial chemicals. Except, the chemicals don’t just kill malaria.

It’s the first book in what I hope will be a three book series called INVISIBLE MONSTERS.
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The keeper series is in my opion one of the best written horror in years, and I was wondering how did you come up with the incredibly bleak and dark setting? I mean, is it something you based on personal experience or did it just come to you? :)

Sarah Langan Dear David,

Thanks for writing!

I wrote The Keeper when I was still in my twenties. In fact, I started it when I was 21 and finished it at 29. I bring t…moreDear David,

Thanks for writing!

I wrote The Keeper when I was still in my twenties. In fact, I started it when I was 21 and finished it at 29. I bring this up because those are intense years. It reminds me of this quote from Lawrence of Arabia:

“Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men. Courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace. And the vices of peace are the vices of old men. Mistrust and caution. It must be so.”

I was basically a hot head, waging war against an inherently unfair world. The town of Bedford loosely resembles Waterville, where I went to college, and also Old Town, just outside Bangor. Both are in Maine. Paper mills are the focal points of a town because of their giant smoke stacks. Even when they’re closed down, you can’t take your eye off them.

My characters were invented. One of my grad school teachers could never remember that Susan wasn’t based on someone real. She called me “Susan” instead of Sarah. Another teacher was sure I’d had an affair with a professor in high school. Nope. But I let him believe I had because he was so pleased that he’d had the insight.

On the other hand, my characters in many ways are very true, but they’re not based on other people. Like most writers, they’re aspects of me. Susan is an embodiment of all the rage I had back in those days, for reasons both phantom and tangible. Poor Liz was my low self-esteem. Paul was the narcissist every writer needs to be. Georgia had a head on her shoulders, mostly.

I think, ultimately, Keeper is as bleak as it is because I was so young. An older, wiser person might see the light at the end of the tunnel. An older, bitter person wouldn’t be able to tell the story at all. I could never write that story again, but I’m so glad that I did. It speaks to people. Maybe it calls to that hot-head kid we all used to be, and still are. It’s the hot-heads who act. Everybody else stays on schedule.

The Missing had a different impetus. I was having fun. How cool to start a vampire-zombie origin story. I loved writing that—it was hard, of course, but most of it just flowed. Fenstad and Meg were such a fun couple, and their daughter Maddie was so funny. I fact, I found the whole thing funny. It was a comment on current events, particularly the war in Iraq, but it was also pretty gleeful. Or at least, I thought it was gleeful. Then again, Kafka thought Metamorphosis was so funny he couldn’t read it without bursting in laughter. So, to each his own!
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Sarah Langan’s books

Average rating: 3.66 · 50,132 ratings · 6,944 reviews · 54 distinct works • Similar authors

	Good Neighbors 3.53 avg rating — 23,781 ratings — published 2021 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Better World 3.60 avg rating — 3,021 ratings — published 2024 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Keeper (Keeper, #1) 3.32 avg rating — 2,396 ratings — published 2006 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Missing (Keeper, #2) 3.60 avg rating — 1,806 ratings — published 2007 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Audrey's Door 3.38 avg rating — 1,588 ratings — published 2009 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pam Kowolski Is a Monster! 4.16 avg rating — 212 ratings — published 2025 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Changeling by Sarah Langan (Goodreads Author), Natalie Naudus (Goodreads Author) (Narrator) 3.57 avg rating — 90 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Squid Teeth: A Tor Original 3.85 avg rating — 52 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Lost 4.06 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ninth Witch really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Sarah Langan's Blog

Behind the Door #12

Hope this finds you well. Hope you’re enjoying the fall.

The ambient noise is at a frenzy lately. Consider this your friendly reminder that there’s always the option to turn it off.

Stuff I like lately:

Tony Tulathimutte’s story collection REJECTION. Reddit is calling it the first incel novel, which sounds about right. It’s insightful and clever and upped my zoomer vocabulary.

FLESH, by David Szalay

Series by Sarah Langan

Keeper (2 books)
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Sarah Langan (Goodreads Author)

3.44 avg rating — 4,202 ratings

We'll admit it: Of all the types of novelists, it's horror writers we have the most questions for. Like: WHY? And WHAT IS WRONG WITH...

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Build Your House Around My Body

by Violet Kupersmith (Goodreads Author)

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Mar 08, 2022 07:49AM

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The Good Lord Bird

by James McBride (Goodreads Author)

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The Power

by Naomi Alderman (Goodreads Author)

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Jun 20, 2019 05:20PM

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Sarah Langan is now friends with MattReadstheRoom
Dec 08, 2025 10:21PM · 1 like · like
Sarah Langan rated a book it was amazing Sky Daddy by Kate Folk (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 21, 2025 08:35AM · 3 likes · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Sky Daddy by Kate Folk. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Sky Daddy by Kate Folk <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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A fresh and necessary voice in the genre. Tight prose, great ambitions. Genuine art.
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Clever and fast-paced, it's not just an homage to 80s horror, it's an intelligent and very necessary update. ...more
May 10, 2025 10:06AM · 4 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Clever and fast-paced, it's not just an homage to 80s horror, it's an intelligent and very necessary update. ...more
May 10, 2025 10:04AM · 4 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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All five stars, all the time!
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Sarah Langan and 4 other people liked Alan's review of Pam Kowolski Is a Monster!: "This review is for an ARC copy received from the publisher through NetGalley. Over 20 years ago, Pam Kowolski did something to embarrass Janet Chow in high school, a dark incident that eventually derailed the future Janet had envisioned for herself. N" Read more of this review »
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Quotes by Sarah Langan (?)

“Modern culture is an inverse panopticon. Not a drunk father, but a vigilant mother. The masses elect a single person to the hot seat for their five minutes of fame. We, the periphery, are the judges and jury. Because we’re separated (like prisoners, we can’t connect to each other through these impossible walls), we’ve no option but to connect via the sacrificial lamb we’ve placed dead center. Even when we privately dispute the censure or praise we heap upon them, publicly, we echo popular sentiment. To avoid loneliness, we become a single, unthinking mass. And yet, the mother and father both reveal their very limited ability to connect. The proverbial child cannot attach. We participate in this mass identity, but it does not serve us. Our language is reduced to a series of agreed-upon signs reflecting not nuance, but binaries: like/dislike; good/bad; yes/no. We are even more lonely for the failure of it…”
― Sarah Langan, Good Neighbors

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“The sight of her made him understand why he'd lost his faith in God.”
― Sarah Langan, The Keeper

tags: atheism, fiction, god, horror, human-cruelty, humor, novel, religion

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“The song finished playing, and Arlo remembered why it had resonated with so many people. It’s nostalgic for something that isn’t real, and it’s sad about that. Everybody’s nostalgic for glory days that never happened.”
― Sarah Langan, Good Neighbors

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Which halloween themed book do you want to read in October?

The Woman in Black A Ghost Story by Susan Hill

10 votes, 55.6%

The Keeper by Sarah Langan

4 votes, 22.2%

The Shining by Stephen King

4 votes, 22.2%

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