If you’re partial to both love stories and horror stories, Head in the Herbs by Giovanni Boccaccio combines both. It also has three nasty villains.
Lovers Lisabetta and Lorenzno are happy with their secret meetings until her three brothers discover them. Back then, a young unmarried woman having sex would destroy her reputation as well as her family’s. What else can her protective siblings do but murder the man she loves?
In this sad and gruesome tale, the brothers don’t see themselves as villains. No, they’re the good guys saving their sister and their family from the consequences of her bad behavior.
A short, sad but entertaining horror/love story, Head in the Herbs leaves me with an uneasy feeling every time I read it.