Chicago-born author Christina Henry has long mastered the art of turning the familiar inside out, revealing the darkness that hides in plain sight.
Known for her unsettling takes on classic tales such as Lost Boy and The Girl in Red, and for the psychological chillers Near the Bone and Good Girls Don’t Die, Henry’s horror has always felt close enough to touch. Her latest novel, The Place Where They Buried Your Heart, brings that unease even closer – to a seemingly ordinary Chicago street where an abandoned house becomes the source of unspeakable tragedy.
The story follows Jessie Campanelli, who once dared her little brother Paul to go inside the neighbourhood’s notorious house that everyone was told to avoid – and watched her family shatter when he never came back. Years later, Jessie is still living on the same street, raising her own child in the shadow of that boarded-up home, which locals whisper is alive and hungry. Henry uses the ghost story as a vehicle to explore guilt, grief and the lasting damage caused when a community chooses not to see what’s right in front of it.
To mark the book’s release, CinemaChords spoke with Henry about our fascination with allegedly haunted places — the ones that beckon us when we know better — the ghosts that memory won’t bury, and how the pulse of small-town life helped shape a story that digs deep into a community that only looks up once the cracks have spread too far to mend.
Christina Henry’s The Place Where They Buried Your Heart is published on November 4th, 2025.
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