The Curator: gothic tales of hauntings and lovers

novels, films & shows for dementor weather

MMMMMM GOTHIC TALES!

Arguably the best part of spooky season. I know everyone is like give me some comforting dreamy fall stories that are the book equivalent of a turtleneck but personally I find ghosts, hauntings, and creepy old houses romantic and comforting in their own uncanny ways.

For this, the second installment of the eight weeks of spooky season, I bring you the gothic of all gothic tales. In a radical turn of events, I am also including some gothic tales I didn’t love. Why? I have realized that a crucial part of reading other’s monthly book roundups is hearing about what didn’t work rather than just the rave titles. All books are linked in my bookshop.org shop if you want to read more about my revs as well.

Note that this edition doesn’t include titles that fall under another category (i.e., witches, etc.), since they have their own dedicated weeks, so if you see a favorite missing, it just might be coming later…

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what is gothic?

Crumbling castles and old mansions, ghosts, spirits, and hauntings, unfulfilled romance, the scary and the uncanny.

According to The History of the Gothic: American Gothic by Charles L. Crow¹:

• The Gothic exposes the repressed, what is hidden, unspoken, deliberately forgotten, in the lives of individuals and cultures.

• The Gothic patrols the line between waking and dreams, human and machine, the normal and the freakish, and living and dead.

• The Gothic evokes emotions variously described as dread, horror, terror, and the uncanny. Gothic works can be unsettling or intellectually stimulating.

While the gothic tradition is always evolving, the mainstay is that you leave feeling the psychological anguish of those who suffer living.

spooky!

is it romance or psychosis

let’s start out light with some top-tier goth romance titles that are less scary, more gentle, but still perfect for spooky season vibes.

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier - arguably the best gothic romance novel of all time. YES, even better than Jane Eyre because in Rebecca, our narrator doesn’t marry her stodgy, misogynistic employer. It’s about a young woman who moves into her new husband’s isolated mansion and gets more than she bargained for. I read this many moons ago but the language and wisdom are exquisite. It sticks with you long after you finish.

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - my theory is that every woman who loves Jane Eyre read it before their amygdala completely matured and so the story left its indelible mark on the formation of our brains. It’s a strange, desperate, powerful novel about the anxieties of proper Victorian society and the consequences of love. Thornfield Hall, like Manderley, will forever haunt our collective psyches.

I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say - Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

I also threw in two TBR titles that sound perfect to fill that Rebecca-sized hole in my heart: Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver and The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell (if you’ve read either of these, let me know in the comments what you think!).

is the house haunted or am I

genuinely, you cannot go wrong with any one of these titles. PEAK GOTH.

• Beloved by Toni Morrison - MY GOD. I know I’ve been on a tear with my rave reviews, but truly this book is a testament to craft and language. Maybe it’s just my tendency to find linear narratives less engaging, but this is what I wanted from The Underground Railroad. It’s sinister and biting and deep and complex and gorgeous and heartbreaking all at once. The image of a truly broken man smearing butter all over his face haunts me just like Beloved herself.

• The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - two of the greatest novels ever written. I wrote a full review of The Haunting of Hill House here (partially paid) and a medium-sized review of We Have Always Lived in the Castle here (free).

• Slade House by David Mitchell - Slade House is 238 short pages of Twilight Zone. It's like standing in the middle of a large room filled with flickering lights and each time the light slashes you glimpse of one vague horror after the next. Black spots ooze from mirrors, attics turn into coffins, and time is a clock with no face. And everyone you encounter (including yourself) is on acid. ⁣I am a Mitchell stan no doubt but I love this weird, time-loopy haunted house story.

• The Keep by Jennifer Egan - I raced through this early 2000s edgy, strange meta-novel about one man in prison writing a story to stay near his lovely writing teacher and another man who meets his cousin at a medieval castle renovation in Europe. The two stories couldn’t be more different, and yet here they are intertwined in the same novel. While the castle may be haunted by visions and strange old crones, the real horrors stem from what we do to survive. I never knew where this was going, but I enjoyed every part of the ride.

• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - a slow burn sinister story that is one of the best modern gothics I’ve read. When Dr. Faraday is summoned to crumbling Hundreds Hall to care for a sick servant, he quickly ingratiates himself with the family. As Dr. Faraday gets closer to daughter Caroline, odd incidents around the house leave everyone terrified and wondering if something more sinister is at play. The Victorian setting and the narrator Humbert Humbertness really ratchet up the creep levels in this gothic story.

• The Portable Edgar Allan Poe - literally ANY story by Poe would be a wonderful addition to your gothic reading list. My favorite is the endless melancholy of The Tell-Tale Heart.

I also still hope to finish Woodworm by Layla Martinez and White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi this season as well; I just ran out of time thanks to things like a day job and having to eat.

not for me

these fit into the gothic genre but were missing a few key bits that make them non-recs from me

• Madam by Phoebe Wynn - The one and only time I was invited on a podcast, and this was the book we discussed. It’s pitched as a “darkly feminist tale,” but there is absolutely nothing feminist about this story. Frankly, the plot holes were massive, and the character motivations unrealistic. The Greek interludes were meant to be deep but felt obvious. It had the vibes but almost nothing else.

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - I was so close to loving this book, except for one major factor that took me out of the story repeatedly - the anachronistic dialogue and characterization. It was supposed to be about a Mexican debutante in the 1950s, but I did not get the feeling I was in Mexico nor in the 1950s. I love it when a character keeps me guessing, but Noemi oscillated between forthright and timid in a way that felt inexplicable rather than complicated or deep.

• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware - a modern retelling of The Turn of the Screw that felt way too slow for a thriller/mystery novel. I had a hard time connecting with the narrator’s voice as well. While its reference may be a slow-burn gothic story, the writing in Ware’s story doesn’t hold up to that kind of storytelling. Ware has massive amounts of fans, though, so if you are looking for an easy mystery read, it might still be worth picking up for you.

bonus: films and shows

four very excellent gothic specimens for your viewing pleasure

• Sleepy Hollow | directed by Tim Burton (1999) - an oddly comforting romantic adaptation of Washington Irving’s story about a headless horseman taking revenge on a small 1700s town. Tim Burton can do no wrong.

• The Skeleton Key | directed by Iain Softley (2005) - we’ve got old mansions, we’ve got swamps, New Orleans, hoodoo, ghosts, visions, and blacked-out mirrors, plus baby Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, and Gena Rowlands (!). One of my all-time favorite movie endings, this early aughts movie still holds up today.

• The Woman in Black | directed by James Watkins (2012) - creepy, scary, haunting, delicious. Based on the novel by Susan Hill, The Woman in Black is gothic horror-lite that even the most timid of movie-goers can handle. Do not watch if you have small children.

• The Haunting of Hill House | Netflix series (2018) - a very loose adaptation of Jackson’s novel, I was highly impressed by the cinematography, sets, and acting in this limited series show. A bit depressing, so make sure to take with a side of chocolate.

I know this was a lot, but I have so many things to share with you!! These are pieces of my soul laid bare. Do you feel sufficiently gothic yet??

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reading 📖→

• Whew! I read like a maniac to finish three of the four gothic novels from my spooky TBR - The Haunting of Hill House, The Keep, and Beloved (I ran out of time for Woodworm, so be it). All were very, very excellent. I know how to pick ‘em.

• However, I do need a lil break from the devastating haunts of gothic novels, so I am going with Stoner by John Williams for next week’s spooky theme. Someone recently wrote that this might be the most beloved book on bookstagram, and I think it’s quite possible - I have not seen a bad word written about it yet.

consuming📽️🎧→

Rewatching old favorites for this newsletter (see above) plus Beetlejuice, Scream, and Gilmore Girls (yes, still). I also rewatched The Love Witch over several days, and damn I am oddly addicted to that movie. The technicolor just bewitches me.

book news and restacks📰→

• I loved reading about how

  Sarah Hartley
  organizes her books (Substack)

• Oprah’s marketing team shares her 29 favorite gothic novels (Oprah Daily)

• The Booker Prize announced the 2024 fiction shortlist and if James sweeps all three major prizes this awards season, will they name a new award after him (a book Triple Crown or hat trick - a Triple Spine or page trick perhaps? I’m really bad at this you tell me)?

and cats 🐈‍⬛→

double trouble

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let’s chat 👻→

• Do you like ghost stories? or haunted romances?

• Have you ever had a real-life ghost encounter?

• What are you reading currently, and is it any good?

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in case you missed it 🖤

the [in]sanity of The Haunting of Hill House

The Curator: welcome to the 8 Weeks of Spooky Season

The Curator: when you don't enjoy a popular novel

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See you around the bookshelf!

1. Crow, Charles L. History of the Gothic: American Gothic. University of Wales Press, 2009.