“What genre is this?” It’s a question many modern readers ask when they encounter Gothic fiction for the first time. With elements of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural, Gothic fiction holds a hallowed place beneath the horror umbrella. While the Gothic tradition stretches back centuries, contemporary authors often find new ways to subvert classic Gothic tropes, breathing fresh life into a genre that lends itself well to sociopolitical commentary and explorations of the uncanny and speculative. As an author of Gothic suspense, the fluidity of the genre allows me to delve into the mystical and paranormal while immersing readers in a different time and place.
My latest novel, The Artist of Blackberry Grange, is inspired by some of the classic mainstays of the genre but plays with light sci-fi and time travel along the way. Sadie Halloran, my protagonist, is a broken-hearted young woman grappling with grief, who finds new purpose as a caregiver to her great-aunt Marguerite, an acclaimed artist suffering from dementia. When Sadie finds a series of haunting portraits painted by Marguerite, each depicting one of Marguerite’s lost loves, she also discovers that the portraits function as time-slip portals to the past. Through the portraits, Sadie encounters her great-aunt as a young woman during the Gilded Age, discovers shocking family secrets, and indulges in a seductively dangerous affair. As Sadie’s growing disconnect from the present threatens her future existence, she must uncover the perilous secret that holds Marguerite captive, before reality―and Marguerite’s life―slips away entirely. To give Sadie the space she needs to right the wrongs of the past, I used soft magic, and a gentle bending of the laws of physics to wrestle with the constraints of time.
Like The Artist of Blackberry Grange, the seven novels listed below combine aspects of sci-fi, romance, magic, and fantasy with the traditional conventions of the Gothic genre to create something new and fresh.
Vanishing Daughters by Cynthia Pelayo
Hypnotic and poetic, Vanishing Daughters is the story of a haunted woman stalked by a serial killer—but it’s so much more than a propulsive Gothic thriller. It’s also a poignant exploration of grief and loss, woven together with the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. When Briar Rose Thorne, an award-winning journalist, starts researching the unsolved murders of 51 women in the Chicago area, she notices eerie parallels to her own family history. Who is the strange man who drives by her house and seems to turn up in the oddest of places? And why is her recently deceased mother’s spirit—and the house Briar inherited—so restless? As Briar draws nearer to the truth, and the killer closes in, disturbing visions of Chicago’s most famous ghost trouble Briar’s sleepless nights. Pelayo has crafted a genre-bending masterpiece that pulls you into a waking dream—or nightmare—and doesn’t let go.
When The Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen
In this novel of Southern Gothic horror, LaTanya McQueen tackles the problematic nature of plantation weddings, whitewashed history, and the balance between honoring the lessons of the past without erasing the violent nature of its sins. When childhood friends Mira, Jesse, and Celine reunite for Celine’s wedding at the Woodsman Plantation, old scars and grievances reemerge as the injustices and prejudices of their small, southern town coalesce. The plantation, newly renovated as an event venue, stands as a monument to its oppressive, racist history. The service staff is mostly Black, and disturbing antebellum reenactments provide guests with “entertainment.” But when Mira begins to witness horrific visions from the past on the plantation grounds, she and her friends are forced to reckon with the blood-soaked history of the Woodsman Plantation and the righteous fury of its ghosts. Important, powerful, and unforgettable, with shades of Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Octavia Butler’s Kindred, McQueen’s debut should be required reading.
Motheater by Linda H. Codega
In this eerie, atmospheric debut set in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Linda H. Codega combines the complicated history of the region’s coal mining industry with the earthy, magnetic folklore that infuses the land—and Motheater, the last witch of the Ridge—with power. When Benethea Mattox discovers a half-drowned white woman in a mine slough, she takes her in, even though the woman can’t remember her real name and has more than a few unsettling quirks. Still reeling from the death of her best friend, Bennie is on a quest to uncover the reason miners keep turning up dead on Kiron’s mountain. Together, Bennie and Motheather embark on a mission to break the curse holding the people of Kiron captive to the mountain’s rage for more than a century. Infused with magic, sapphic romance, and a touch of eco-horror and science fiction, Motheater is a deft exploration of the ways in which humanity’s dominion over nature threatens the very resources we depend on.
In The Garden of Monsters by Crystal King
Lush, sensual, and steeped in mythology, In The Garden of Monsters is a darkly entrancing Gothic fairy tale that reimagines the story of Hades and Persephone through the eyes of an artist’s model suffering from amnesia. When Julia Lombardi receives an invitation to pose for famed artist Salvador Dali in the Sacro Bosco, Italy’s famed Garden of Monsters, she’d be foolish to refuse. But when she arrives at the Palazzo Orsini, Julia has the odd sensation that she’s been there before. Their enigmatic and charming host, Ignazio, is strangely familiar, and plies Julia with decadent meals garnished with pomegranate seeds. Convinced that she is the goddess Persephone, Dali pleads with Julia to consume the seeds so she can rejoin her king in the Underworld. As Julia explores the palazzo and the Sacro Bosco, strange visions and memories disturb her waking and sleeping hours, leading her to wonder whether there might be some truth to Dali’s fanatical obsessions.
The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney
Redolent with all the heady atmosphere of a Georgia summer, Gwaltney’s debut novel is both a touching coming-of-age story and a fantastical Southern Gothic fairy tale…framed by the mystical emergence of a brood of cicadas. It’s 1956 and eleven-year-old whiskey-swilling piano prodigy Analeise Newell becomes enchanted by the wealthy Mayfield family and their spoiled, charismatic daughter, Marlissa. With her otherworldly beauty and grace, Marlissa stirs Analeise’s envy—and kindles an unshakable fascination. As Analeise’s obsession with the Mayfield family grows, tensions rise in the small, segregated community they call home, culminating in a cataclysmic event that reveals family secrets long hidden and the true origins of the Mayfield “shine.” Reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, and Truman Capote, Gwaltney’s voice is evocative and richly transportive.
When the Night Bells Ring by Jo Kaplan
In this dual timeline novel set 150 years apart in the American west, two climate refugees desperate for water stumble upon an abandoned mine and the eldritch horror it contains. After becoming trapped and injured, the two friends find shelter in an underground cavern, and discover the diary of a pioneer woman—Lavinia Cain—who settled in the desolate Nevada frontier during the 1860s and documented her frightening encounters with monstrous creatures who live underground. Terror ensues. At once a brilliant, dystopian exploration of a future ravaged by climate change, and a truly unique take on the vampire trope, When the Night Bells Ring is a dark, cautionary tale that transcends categorization.
A Sweet Sting of Salt by Rose Sutherland
Midwife Jean learned long ago to mind her own business. But when a heart-wrenching cry beckons her out into a storm, she discovers a strange woman languishing in the throes of labor, in desperate pain and unable to speak. Compelled to help, Jean brings the woman inside and safely delivers her baby. When Jean’s neighbor, Tobias, comes in search of his missing wife, Jean reluctantly allows him to take Muirin and the baby home, though an uneasy sense of dread follows their departure. In the days and weeks to come, Jean’s burgeoning concern—and desire—for Muirin grows, even as the secretive Tobias strives to keep the two women apart. In this queer retelling of the selkie wife folktale, Sutherland creates a tender, poignant, and heart-racing story of resilience, survival, and forbidden longing, all set on the windswept coast of Nova Scotia.
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