This year’s challenge is a bit different and as promised each month we’ll give you a list of suggested books for each category. For October I asked the Cwts Discussion Group to recommend their favourite Gothic Novel.
Here are a few of the suggestions:
We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn’t leaving the Blackwoods alone.
House of Seven Gables – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Greedy, piratical Colonel Pyncheon builds his mansion on ill-gotten ground, setting the stage for generations of suffering. Years later, a country cousin and an enigmatic young boarder attempts to reverse the tide of misfortunes surrounding the house in Hawthorne’s evocative blend of mystery and romance.
Carmilla – J. Sheridan Le Fanu
This Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, predating Bram Stoker’s Dracula by 26 years, first published as a serial in The Dark Blue, the story is narrated by a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla, later revealed to be Mircalla, Countess Karnstein.
The Woman in Black – Susan Hill
Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford–a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway–to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House.
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Hidden in the heart of the old city of Barcelona is the ‘Cemetery of Lost Books’, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles that have long gone out of print. To this library, a man brings his 10-year-old son Daniel one cold morning in 1945. Daniel is allowed to choose one book from the shelves and pulls out ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Julian Carax.
Jamaica Inn – Daphne Du Maurier
After the death of her mother, Mary Yellan crosses the windswept Cornish moors to Jamaica Inn, the home of her Aunt Patience. There she finds Patience a changed woman, downtrodden by her domineering, vicious husband Joss Merlyn. The inn is a front for a lawless gang of criminals, and Mary is unwillingly dragged into their dangerous world of smuggling and murder. Before long she will be forced to cross her own moral line to save herself.
The October Country – Ray Bradbury
It is many places: a picturesque Mexican village where death is a tourist attraction; a city beneath the city where drowned lovers are silently reunited; a carnival midway where a tiny man’s most cherished fantasy can be fulfilled night after night. The book’s inhabitants live, dream, work, die – and sometimes live again – discovering, often too late, the high price of citizenship…
The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe
‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is a slow-burning Gothic horror, describing the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past.
The Thirteenth Tale – Diane Setterfield
Angelfield House stands abandoned and forgotten. It was once home to the March family – fascinating, manipulative Isabelle, brutal, dangerous Charlie, and the wild, untamed twins, Emmeline and Adeline. But Angelfield House hides a chilling secret which strikes at the very heart of each of them, tearing their lives apart…
Daughters of the Lake – Wendy Webb
After the end of her marriage, Kate Granger has retreated to her parents’ home on Lake Superior to pull herself together—only to discover the body of a murdered woman washed into the shallows. Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is an infant, as cold and at peace as its mother. No one can identify the woman. Except for Kate. She’s seen her before. In her dreams…
See also this list
Top 5 Gothic Novels of all Time
and this blog for extra inspiration
What is Gothic Literature and Why are we still Obsessed with It?
Pick a book from our list, from the link above or pick something that’s already in your TBR pile. What ever you decide, don’t forget to let us know what you’re reading over on Cwts Club Discussion Group.
For Reading Addicts Reading Challenge 2024
For Reading Addicts Reading Challenge 2023 – Read a Rainbow – October