The Infamous Gilberts
I love a haunted house story, and though this isn’t a novel about actual ghosts (for the most part), it is a story about how human lives haunt the places they played out in.
Gothic
Whether they are books from the original 18th century Gothic literature cannon or part of a more modern Gothic aesthetic, these books have earned the ‘Gothic’ classification.
Compulsory Games
It’s not the usual gothic fare, but instead is a bit more subtle in its spookiness. However, there is a spooky graveyard and a few scary desolate locations.
Ghostroots
More powerful than gore, I find an eerie atmosphere is what really makes a collection like Ghostroots tick.
A Sunny Place for Shady People
Enríquez loves a twist ending, and ghosts and horrors found in unlikely places.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
I read it for the first time when I was far too young for it, all of the way back in 1994. I loved it then, but I didn’t appreciate the nuances of what Berendt was trying to say.
Poems Bewitched and Haunted, Killer Verse, Poems Dead and Undead
The volumes are compact and beautiful, and look great on the shelf — plus the collections are both thorough and accessible for someone who doesn’t read as much poetry as literature.
Dark Tales
The thing I love most about Jackson’s short stories is the way that she twists seemingly ordinary events into strange and unsettling directions. You won’t find ghouls and goblins here, but you will find human monsters and ominous atmospheres that leave the reader wondering how things went so wrong and why.
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Dark academia has become a much-talked-about off-shoot of the spookier genres, and I would say that label fits Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Zastrozzi & St Irvyne
There’s a moment in Sunset Boulevard where William Holden’s character Joe Gillis takes Norma Desmond’s (played by Gloria Swanson) script in his hand. That’s what I was reminded of reading these two novellas.
The Phantom of the Opera
The real shining piece of this book is the ghost and the setting. The whole world of the opera house comes alive as the ghost wrecks havoc and extracts vengeance. This is a review of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera (Le Fantôme de l’Opéra).