Lastly, we couldn't let the horror experts go without asking about the most unsettling true story or fact they know.
"I did a tour of Eastern State Penitentiary when I was 18 years old during the day. There’s a hallway blocked off to traffic due to structural issues, but the guide told us a story of a riot that took place in that cell block and about the guards and prisoners who lost their lives," Higgins recalls.
"As we looked past the waist-high blockage, an overwhelming feeling of unease swept over me that I could not shake. It felt like I was being watched no matter where I went within those walls. To this day, 16 years later, it’s the scariest experience I’ve ever faced."
The most unsettling fact Dobbs knows is about the effect of toxoplasmosis (which one can get from undercooked meat or contact with cat excrement) on rats.
"It's caused by a parasite that is thought to somewhat disarm the instinctual fear that rats have of cats and even make them attracted to the smell of cat wee so that they're more likely to be driven towards them, so the cats can eat them," she explains
"The parasite can't reproduce in rats, but it can in cats, and it wants to live! I found this scary because...what if that parasite evolves to have a similar effect on humans, which will then somehow kick off the zombie apocalypse?! I spend quite a lot of time - too much, some might say - imagining things that could kick off the zombie apocalypse."
Dobbs signed off by saying that horror is worth everyone's time, especially in books. "A lot of people have this idea that horror is nothing but blood, guts, and gore, and that simply isn't true. There are so many subgenres (I'm not particularly a fan of the bloodier type of horror fiction). I think horror as a whole is the most honest about how people behave, and it serves to strengthen a person's sense of empathy because of that. Especially these days, we could all do with a little more empathy!" she concludes.
