Posts tagged with gothic-novels

May 28 2019

We Have Always Lived In the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

2019-05-28-we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle-by-shirley-jackson

A recent film adaptation has renewed interest in Shirley Jackson's 1962 novella We Have Always Lived in the Castle. As a scary-movie weenie, I stuck to reading the synopsis... which ended up irritating me in its own right, because Jackson's story didn't actually need a bunch of tacked-on action/horror sequences to be creepy as hell...

More »

May 28 2019

Weekly Book Giveaway: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

2019-05-28-weekly-book-giveaway-we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle-by-shirley-jackson

Our current Book Giveaway is Shirley Jackson's 1962 gothic novel We Have Always Lived at the Castle, the inspiration for the recent film of the same name. A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 6/8/19...

More »

Oct 24 2017

Tell me more

2017-10-24-tell-me-more

Yesterday, someone on Jezebel posted a loving tribute to the 1946 film Dragonwyck, which I had never heard of but now need to watch immediately. The movie is based on a book by Anya Seton, and the plot sounds like it will be familiar to anyone who has ever read a gothic novel, but...

More »

Oct 23 2017

Weekly Book Giveaway: The House of Binding Thorns, by Aliette de Bodard

2017-10-23-weekly-book-giveaway-the-house-of-binding-thorns-by-aliette-de-bodard

This week's Book Giveaway is Aliette de Bodard's The House of Binding Thorns, the sequel to last year's The House of Shattered Wings. My review of the first book in this series was not unequivocally positive, but I am still intrigued by de Bodard's premise, and that cover art feels like an A+++ choice for the week before Halloween...

More »

Oct 2 2017

Haunted Love, Vol. 1: Tales of Gothic Romance, by assorted authors

2017-10-02-haunted-love-vol-1-tales-of-gothic-romance-by-assorted-authors

When I ran across a copy of Haunted Love #1 (first published in 1973) at a local antique store, I was hoping for something enjoyably terrible. In my head, I was picturing an illustrated vintage Harlequin novel, but with, like, vampires or whatever. Sadly, the contents were neither as trashy nor as entertaining as I expected, and never came close to living up to the cheeseball promise of that cover...

More »

Oct 2 2017

Weekly Book Giveaway: Haunted Love Vol. 1

2017-10-02-weekly-book-giveaway-haunted-love-vol-1

In honor of Halloween, our first Book Giveaway in October is Haunted Love Vol.1: Tales of Gothic Romance, first published in 1973. You can't judge this book by its cover, guys: sadly, it falls short on both the gothic and romantic fronts. A full review will follow shortly...

More »

Feb 14 2017

The Beguiled: 2.0

2017-02-14-the-beguiled-20

The first trailer is out for The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola’s remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood movie of the same name. The movies are based on a Southern Gothic novel by Thomas P. Cullinan (originally titled A Painted Devil)...

More »

Oct 13 2014

The Bodies We Wear, by Jeyn Roberts

2014-10-13-the-bodies-we-wear-by-jeyn-roberts

Jeyn Roberts's The Bodies We Wear is the kind of book I normally avoid. I'm not a big fan of gothic melodramas, so I was surprised to discover that this novel spoke to the same part of me that enjoys the Underworld films. The Bodies We Wear might lack vampires and shiny pleather catsuits, but, like Underworld, it takes its goofy gothic premise 100% seriously, and I find that endearing...

More »

May 19 2014

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Annotated Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

2014-05-19-weekly-book-giveaway-the-annotated-northanger-abbey-by-jane-austen

This week we're giving away a copy of The Annotated Northanger Abbey, written by Jane Austen and edited by David Shapard. According to his official bio, Mr. Shapard has a Ph.D. in European History from the University of California at Berkeley, and specialized in the eighteenth century. I've read his work before; like most annotated editions, his writing tends to...

More »

Mar 24 2014

The Mirk and Midnight Hour, by Jane Nickerson

2014-03-24-the-mirk-and-midnight-hour-by-jane-nickerson

When I saw the press notes for Jane Nickerson's The Mirk and Midnight Hour, which describe the book as a "haunting love story and suspenseful thriller" inspired by the Tam Lin fairytale, I applauded the author's ambition. She was taking a risk: Tam Lin doesn't have the universal appeal of, say, Cinderella, plus there are already two extremely well-regarded YA versions out there...

More »

Mar 24 2014

Weekly Book Giveaway: The Mirk and Midnight Hour, by Jane Nickerson

2014-03-24-weekly-book-giveaway-the-mirk-and-midnight-hour-by-jane-nickerson

This week's Book Giveaway title is The Mirk and Midnight Hour, the second YA novel from Jane Nickerson. Like her first book Strands of Bronze and Gold (which we reviewed here), The Mirk and Midnight Hour is inspired by a not-exactly-Disney-friendly fairytale: the Scottish ballad Tam Lin...

More »