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| photo: Dana Patrick Photography | |
Jacquie Walters is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter who has produced more than 100 episodes of television. Her debut novel, Dearest, was a Book of The Month Club pick, a B&N Best of 2024, and an Octavia E. Butler Golden Poppy Award finalist. Walters graduated from the Novel Writing Program at Stanford University and is passionate about layered mysteries, psychological anomalies, and characters with everything to hide. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and beloved golden retriever. Her novel Turn Off the Light (Mulholland Books, March 3, 2026) is a twist on the haunted house story about two women living centuries apart, bound by the same dark secret.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
Turn Off the Light will forever change how you think about hauntings.
On your nightstand now:
I just finished Jordan Harper's A Violent Masterpiece, which comes out in April. WOW. Jordan's voice is so incredibly unique, and he captures the underbelly of Los Angeles in such a visceral way. I'd recommend this book with the caveat that it is very violent and disturbing. I'll be thinking about it for a long time.
Also on my "nightstand" (aka e-reader): The Names by Florence Knapp (I'm behind, I know!) and Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About by Isabel Klee. This memoir is beautiful and insightful and has lots of stories about dogs, so sign me up no question.
Also excited to dig into an ARC I recently received by Rhodi Hawk called This Town Won't Tell.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. I was totally engrossed by the fantasy world. I also devoured the Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene. Then as a teenager, I was addicted to Jodi Picoult's novels. I always loved mysteries first and foremost, and I was fascinated by Picoult's legal spin that centered the stories around trials. And I can't talk about my childhood reading experience without mentioning Harry Potter. I grew up alongside Harry. I'll never forget walking into a bookstore at age nine with my mom and the bookseller telling us about a brand-new novel fresh from the U.K. I started reading it right then and there in the store while my mom finished up her shopping. I can't deny the huge impact those characters and stories had on me as a reader.
Your top five authors:
This is a very hard question!!! I'd say: Lisa Jewell, Emily St. John Mandel, Gillian McAllister, Sarah Langan, Sally Rooney.
Book you've faked reading:
I'm not sure I've ever faked reading a book (besides school assignments), but one I tried more than once to get into was House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. It just seemed like one of those books that must have some hidden secrets of the universe or something. A book that really cool people love. But I never succeeded in finishing it. And then when I got older, I realized that it's a book that a lot of people have faked reading.
Book you're an evangelist for:
I'm gonna do a hard right turn here and recommend a nonfiction book. I think The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel should be required reading for everyone.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I was so drawn in by the beautiful cover of Julie Myerson's Nonfiction, and then I also fell in love with the story and prose. It's a haunting novel, especially for anyone who has dealt with addiction in their family.
Book you hid from your parents:
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. I don't remember much about it other than it being the first book I read with sex scenes. I was probably 10, and this was utterly thrilling to me.
Book that changed your life:
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones introduced me to horror literature and the power it holds. By the end of that book, I was sobbing, and I said to myself, "I didn't know horror could do that." It led me to writing Dearest and now Turn Off the Light. Before that book, I never would have predicted becoming a horror author!
Favorite line from a book:
This is another nearly impossible question to answer, but I often think of the quote "Leap, and the net will appear," from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way.
Five books you'll never part with:
I'm not someone who enjoys rereading or rewatching things--I just feel like I already have so little time to experience new things!--so books that I'd never part with are more likely to be ones that I'd return to for personal growth or work. Books like The Artist's Way, The Gene Keys by Richard Rudd, The Modern Library Writer's Workshop by Stephen Koch, Parenting the Child You Have by Aypril Porter, and Human Design: Discover the Person You Were Born to Be by Chetan Parkyn. Is this the most boring answer ever?!
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. That novel is more than a book. It's an entire experience.