Gothic Fiction

One of the quintessential Gothic novels, Udolpho centers on Emily St. Aubert, who gets locked in Castle Udolpho by Signor Montoni to keep her isolated from her family and her love, Valancourt. Despite the number of terrible things that happen, this story does actually end happily.

Though not the earliest work of vampire fiction or myth, it's certainly been one of the most influential. In Dracula, the person trapped in the house is our protagonist, Jonathan Harker. We do also get the stories of Mina Harker, his wife, and her friend Lucy Westenra.

If ever there was a story about someone being trapped in a house, it's Jane Eyre. Jane herself is a simple young woman who becomes governess to the young children of Thornfield Hall, but things are not as simple as they seem. The story follows Jane through much of her life, and is one of the first novels to use the first person perspective.

If you watched Netflix's Haunting of Bly Manor, then you actually already know a good amount about Turn of the Screw. This is actually a novella, so you can easily read this in an afternoon (and not sleep that night). The story follows a young governess hired by a disinterested uncle to care for siblings Miles and Flora. As time passes in the isolated home, the governess becomes increasingly convinced the house is haunted.

Often considered the first Gothic novel, the original edition of Otranto claimed to be a translation of a manuscript from Naples, and the writing is done in a more archaic style to try and back that up. Otranto covers the tragic story of Manfred and his family, with some similarities to Hamlet's story.

Frankenstein has been quoted as the first sci-fi novel, among other things, but it also has in it many of the elements of Gothic fiction. If you can, I recommend reading the original 1818 version. Many of the changes in the 1831 edition were in response to critics, which is unfortunate.

New is a relative term here, since Rebecca was originally published in 1938, but it's been influential on the genre and has been republished many times. The protagonist meets a wealthy Englishman, George de Winter, and after a whirlwind romance, they marry and she goes to his estate in Cornwall. She discovers the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, has an unhealthy obsession with the first Mrs. de Winter, who died, and torments the protagonist by constantly comparing them. Of course, it's not as simple as all that.

Edgar Cantero specializes in the weird; even his take on the Gothic goes in some interesting directions, and definitely falls more onto the horror side of things. The protagonist, A., has recently inherited Axton House in the U.S. (he lives in the U.K.) he previously had no idea about. He brings along Niamh, a young punk who doesn't speak, as company and protection. The story unfolds through letters, audio recordings, security footage, and many puzzles and ciphers as A. and Niamh try to solve the riddle of Axton House.

This book falls into the subgenre of Southern Gothic, and clearly draws from others in this group like William Faulkner and Toni Morrison. We follow a family in Mississippi, with a mother dying of cancer, a father trying to keep everything together, and the ghost of a brother that may or may not be real. Sing, Unburied, Sing discusses race and power in the South, as well as what family can mean.

Like Jackson, Sarah Waters' writings almost all have at least a hint of the Gothic in them, but The Little Stranger is the most overt. This story centers around Faraday, a country doctor, who goes to Hundreds Hall to tend to Roderick, a former WWII pilot still recovering. Not only is the family not as well off as they at first seem, but things are also not as normal as everyone pretends.

Shirley Jackson writes what I like to call domestic Gothic; the creeping horror of how the expected domesticity of people, especially women, is truly awful and damaging. None of her books are terribly long, and this one gets less love than Hill House. In this story, we follow what remains of the Blackwood family: sisters Merricat and Constance, and uncle Julian. Constance hasn't left the grounds of their home in six years. Julian writes and re-writes his memoirs. Merricat practices sympathetic magic in an attempt to fix everything, and protect her family. Slowly, we learn what happened to the rest of the family while strong feelings reach a boiling point in the nearby town.

Moreno-Garcia has said many times she is a fan of the Gothic genre, and it really shows in this book. While I recommend this book in general, it's even better if you've read a few Gothic novels so you can see all the nods to the genre and its tropes, because she turns them on their heads. In Mexican Gothic, we follow Noemi, a young socialite in 1950s Mexico, sent by her father to investigate what's going on with her cousin Catalina in High Place, the ominous family home of Catalina's husband.