The haunting of the fields women

Tonellato, Katie (2023) The haunting of the fields women. Masters thesis, Northern Arizona University.

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Abstract

The Haunting of the Fields Women is a 65,000-word horror fiction novel. Parker Fields and her newly pregnant wife Annie have finally rid themselves of the wreckage that was Parker’s mother, an institutionalized schizophrenic whose behavior led to the destruction of a once happy family. As far as Parker is aware, her real life is about to start. But then she starts seeing things, dreaming horrors that she only recognized through the visions that her mother spoke so terrifyingly of. As Parker tries to figure out what is happening to her, we delve into the previous generations of the Fields women: Parker’s mother, Mitchie, a free-spirited orphan desperate for love. Bernie, an alcoholic who struggles to connect in a world full of disappointing people, and Robbie, young and in love with a man that she does not truly know. This book intersects the reality of mental illness, abuse, and the resilience to take it all on in a world that doesn’t believe you. With four differing points of view on how recycled trauma can be interpreted and acted out, The Haunting of the Fields Women is a portrait of American psychosis. This book sits in a liminal landscape for American women and the ghost stories that rest underneath the soil they live on. It is a ghost story, but more than that, it's proof–- a resounding song of the horrors that follow women around, that bleed into our daughters. In the words of Natalie Erika James, “We have all sensed the pain our mothers carry. And all of us are suspicious to some degree that we are partly to blame for her pain.” America is the haunted house in this novel.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Publisher’s Statement:	© Copyright is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the Cline Library, Northern Arizona University. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.
Keywords:	ghost; Haunting; Trauma; Women; Novels; American fiction
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PS American literature
NAU Depositing Author Academic Status:	Student
Department/Unit:	Graduate College > Theses and Dissertations College of Arts and Letters > English
Date Deposited:	20 Oct 2025 17:56
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2025 17:56
URI:	https://openknowledge.nau.edu/id/eprint/6222

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