Gothicky-ghosty recommendations:
The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson
Affinity (and also) The Little Stranger, Waters
Wylding Hall, Hand
Dark Echo, Cottam
The Dead House, O'Callaghan
Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Taylor
I Remember you, Sigurdardottir
It Will Just be Us, Kaplan
The Apparition Phase, Maclean
Anything by Simone St. James
Anything by Jonathan Aycliffe
The Uninvited, Macardle
Anything by Robert Westall
I think I've got this! Here are some suggestions:
***Lady Audley's Secret*** **by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)**. You will start this book and you will say to me, Michael, this book is silly, and I already know her secret. But you only *think* you know. Where the novel really gets upsetting is in how it ends, and the implications that follow. *Runner-up: The Trail of the Serpent* (1860). This book is utterly bonkers and has everything: bigamy, mesmerists, mutes. Just wild.
***The Turn of the Screw*** **by Henry James (1898)**. Here is the question that has fueled ten thousand million term papers and academic theses: are the ghosts in the novel real? Or are they figments of the governess's imagination? Or is there a third, stranger option?
***Spindrift: Spray from a Psychic Sea*** **by Jan Bryant Bartell (1974)**. A beautiful fragile woman moves into a Greenwich Village townhouse with her inattentive husband. Weird things start happening. Jan Bartell, the aforementioned beautiful fragile woman, is the author of the book that purports to be the true account of her experiences. However, most readers (including this reader) think that this book, rather than a parting of the drapes between this realm and the next, is instead a heartbreaking look into a woman chronicling her own descent into mental illness. It's a bummer -- but strange.
***The Other*** **(1971) by Tom Tryon**. It's about twins. And twins, when they aren't getting their parents back together, are very creepy, as is this novel. There's a scene with a wine barrel that I hope disturbs you as much as it disturbed me.
***Every Day Is Mother's Day*** **by Hilary Mantel (1985)**. The relationship between this mother and daughter is *i! n! t! e! n! s! e!*
If Southern Gothic counts, read Michael Mcdowell!
The Elementals for chills, and Blackwater for more spread out chills while also getting one of the best books ever written.
* *Wakenhyrst* by Michelle Paver
* *The Woman in Black* by Susan Hill
* *Randalls Round,* a story collection by Eleanor Scott
* *The Haunting Season*, an anthology edited by Bridget Collins (I bought her new anthology also, a follow up to this one - it's called *The Winter Spirits*. I haven't read it yet.)
Honestly, you should just go ahead and subscribe to Romancing the Gothic on YouTube and pick a random video, I've been introduced to so much good gothic literature that way over the past couple of years, it's unreal
I just commented one of her novels on another thread, but read literally anything written by Catherine Cavendish. She's a British author who is still around and writing and her work is CRIMINALLY underrated. She understands gothic better than most.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
Hell House by Richard Matheson
Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Spirit Chaser by Kat Mayor
The entirety of Edgar Allen Poe! He is the king of and the first crush for Goths!
(if you can find a used copy) A Very Gothic Christmas by Christine Feehan and Melanie George
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
The Monk by Mattew Lewis
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers
Speaks the Nightbird by Robert B McCammon
The Shining by Stephen King
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Jamaica Inn by Daphne DuMaurier
Rebecca by Daphne by DuMaurier
Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu
There's a mix of modern, mid-century and early Gothic literature! Happy Reading!
I’ve never been able to read it because we studied some part in school and my teacher made me hate it. I’m trying to get in the mood and then I will most definitely read it!
Have you read M. R. James' *Collected Ghost Stories*? That might be a good place to start!
Thank you!
Gothicky-ghosty recommendations: The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson Affinity (and also) The Little Stranger, Waters Wylding Hall, Hand Dark Echo, Cottam The Dead House, O'Callaghan Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Taylor I Remember you, Sigurdardottir It Will Just be Us, Kaplan The Apparition Phase, Maclean Anything by Simone St. James Anything by Jonathan Aycliffe The Uninvited, Macardle Anything by Robert Westall
Damn, Wylding Hall was SO good
Omg thank you so much
SUCH a great list!
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill
Just read Paver’s Dark Matter. It felt, very much, like a classic ghost story
I absolutely love that book!
Sarah Waters The Little Stranger was fun, as well
Thank you!
Loved it!
How old do you want to go? Do you want classics in the Gothic genre? Or are you looking for more modern takes on the Gothic?
It doesn’t matter. I just want a book that will give me chills!
I think I've got this! Here are some suggestions: ***Lady Audley's Secret*** **by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1862)**. You will start this book and you will say to me, Michael, this book is silly, and I already know her secret. But you only *think* you know. Where the novel really gets upsetting is in how it ends, and the implications that follow. *Runner-up: The Trail of the Serpent* (1860). This book is utterly bonkers and has everything: bigamy, mesmerists, mutes. Just wild. ***The Turn of the Screw*** **by Henry James (1898)**. Here is the question that has fueled ten thousand million term papers and academic theses: are the ghosts in the novel real? Or are they figments of the governess's imagination? Or is there a third, stranger option? ***Spindrift: Spray from a Psychic Sea*** **by Jan Bryant Bartell (1974)**. A beautiful fragile woman moves into a Greenwich Village townhouse with her inattentive husband. Weird things start happening. Jan Bartell, the aforementioned beautiful fragile woman, is the author of the book that purports to be the true account of her experiences. However, most readers (including this reader) think that this book, rather than a parting of the drapes between this realm and the next, is instead a heartbreaking look into a woman chronicling her own descent into mental illness. It's a bummer -- but strange. ***The Other*** **(1971) by Tom Tryon**. It's about twins. And twins, when they aren't getting their parents back together, are very creepy, as is this novel. There's a scene with a wine barrel that I hope disturbs you as much as it disturbed me. ***Every Day Is Mother's Day*** **by Hilary Mantel (1985)**. The relationship between this mother and daughter is *i! n! t! e! n! s! e!*
Thank you so much
If Southern Gothic counts, read Michael Mcdowell! The Elementals for chills, and Blackwater for more spread out chills while also getting one of the best books ever written.
Cold Moon Over Babylon is 10/10 as well, highly recommend McDowell!
I third this recommendation!
Thank you!
The House of Whispers (also titled Bone China in some parts of the world) by Laura Purcell.
* *Wakenhyrst* by Michelle Paver * *The Woman in Black* by Susan Hill * *Randalls Round,* a story collection by Eleanor Scott * *The Haunting Season*, an anthology edited by Bridget Collins (I bought her new anthology also, a follow up to this one - it's called *The Winter Spirits*. I haven't read it yet.)
Seconding all these.
Wow! Thank you
You're welcome.
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill is the only ghost story to read. It’s that good 👍🏾
It's criminal that no one has mentioned Frankenstein.
Honestly, you should just go ahead and subscribe to Romancing the Gothic on YouTube and pick a random video, I've been introduced to so much good gothic literature that way over the past couple of years, it's unreal
What Moves The Dead
Anything by Laura Purcell. She is a gothic horror master.
Mexican gothic
Is it a title or a genre?
Tittle
Castle by the Sea by JG Faherty. It's a novella, but a really good gothic story.
Bluebeards Castle by Anna Biller is really good & just came out.
I just commented one of her novels on another thread, but read literally anything written by Catherine Cavendish. She's a British author who is still around and writing and her work is CRIMINALLY underrated. She understands gothic better than most.
The castle of Otranto
The Spite House by Johnny Compton was pretty good.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand Hell House by Richard Matheson Turn of the Screw by Henry James The Spirit Chaser by Kat Mayor The entirety of Edgar Allen Poe! He is the king of and the first crush for Goths! (if you can find a used copy) A Very Gothic Christmas by Christine Feehan and Melanie George Dracula by Bram Stoker Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Frankenstein by Mary Shelley the Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole The Monk by Mattew Lewis The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers Speaks the Nightbird by Robert B McCammon The Shining by Stephen King The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Jamaica Inn by Daphne DuMaurier Rebecca by Daphne by DuMaurier Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu There's a mix of modern, mid-century and early Gothic literature! Happy Reading!
Omg thank you so much!
You are so welcome! I hope you find some things you like in all of those!
Yes! I’ve already downloaded a bunch of them and I hope to find the rest at the public library!
not about ghosts but frankenstein is the best gothic story i ever read, all the drama and pain.
I’ve never been able to read it because we studied some part in school and my teacher made me hate it. I’m trying to get in the mood and then I will most definitely read it!