I was surprised when my astute editor at Bloomsbury Publishing suggested that my debut novel, Wither, could be called “gothic.” The book contains no ghosts, no castles, not even a graveyard—at least not in the traditional sense. Not one dang ghoul. I threw my chair and began to shriek in protest, but then considered a more modern sense of the gothic label, one that emphasizes atmosphere over story elements: lingering dread, inescapable past, bleak landscape, the possibility of the supernatural, and the existential crisis sparked by this unnatural encounter.
I abruptly stopped sobbing, righted my chair and gave a thumbs-up.
Everything that I treasure about horror is reflected in gothic literature. The awe and terror of the unknown, the thrill of impending doom, grazing the veil between the known and unknowable—this I find far more compelling than blood and guts. And the patience displayed in great gothic stories recognizes the pleasure of mystery, rather than its resolution.
Some of the books below might not typically come up in a discussion of Gothic literature, but all contain some elements or atmosphere that seat them in the good company of great Gothic stories.
Continue reading “7 Gothic Books That Go Beyond Ghosts and Graveyards”