Gothic
Identical twins, a Gothic-esque house, mysteries from the past and a missing woman – oh, and a fantasy place created by said children in said house – that’s Mirrorland, Carole Johnstone’s psychological novel, in its most simplified form and what’s not to like? It takes its title from the escapist world sisters … Continue readings
Tags : Borough Books, Carole Johnstone, Gothic, Gothic-esque novels, Mirrorland, psychological thriller, Rebecca-esque novels, Stephen King recommendation
If there’s a time to read chilling literature (or catch up with Hammer/giallo classics on Netflix), it’s now. October is the month when the unnatural are really out and about, jumping up and down and waving their hands at us, shouting, ‘We’re here!’. So, it’s with pleasure we delved into CJ Cooke’s The Nesting, … Continue readings
Tags : CJ Cooke, Gothic, Gothic literature, modern Gothic literature, Norway-set fiction, Rebecca, The Nesting, The Nesting novel
There’s a great sense of nostalgia and loss pervading Tara Gould’s short story, The Haunting of Strawberry Water, published by Myriad Editions as a small format paperback. Paying more than a nod to the Gothic tradition, from the very first words, we are made aware of the narrator’s longing for the mother she … Continue readings
Tags : book reviews, bookstagram, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Gothic, Gothic writing, Henry James, modern Gothic, Myriad Editions, Short stories, Tara Gould, The Haunting of Strawberry Water, The Innocents, The Literary Lounge, The Yellow Wallpaper, Virginia Woolf
There’s an underlying claustrophobia to Francine Toon’s debut novel, Pine. Something I felt strongly even though I was reading it under blue, blue open skies, in tropical heat, in a landscape about as far removed as one could get from the book’s remote woody, Highland setting. Toon’s child protagonist, Lauren, lives with her … Continue readings
Tags : Doubleday, Francine Toon, ghost, Gothic, Highlands, Pine, Scottish fiction
First review of 2020 and we start with a bang and not a whimper with Rose Black’s highly readable The Unforgetting. Set in Victorian England, the book pays more than a nod to classic Gothic literature. At its centre is protagonist Lily Bell who dreams of a sparkling career on the London stage. When … Continue readings
Tags : ghosts, Gothic, historical fiction, Rose Black, The Unforgetting, Victorian London, women's literature