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The Gothic Undercurrents It's the perfect time of year to read some spooky, dark, gothic tales. Here are six stories with gothic undercurrents that I really liked. What are some of your favorite spooky or gothic reads? 01 Fingersmith by Sarah Waters In this gothic Victorian tale, Waters offers a slow build to heartbreak There's also a Gothic undercurrent in this book, which I love.

You might also want to check out these gothic-feeling stories.

Starling House is another wonderful, dark, twisty story from Alix E. Harrow, with imperfect characters, a noble, messy quest, layers of history, and a captivating end. I can see them all now, truths and lies, all lying one atop the other...the Gravely brothers...Eden, which was a good little town and a terrible little town, filled with good and terrible people...Eleanor. Opal is desperate for cash, and her petty theft at her minimum-wage jobs isn't going to cut it. She's got to raise the money to send her bright younger brother Jacob to a private school where he can thrive--and have better prospects than Opal herself has had since the loss and disappearance of their single mother. She's been cobbling together enough to get by, but when a mysterious draw to the spooky Starling House ends up in an overpaying job offer, she feels she can hardly say no. Arthur, the young, haunted-seeming caretaker of the estate, seems resigned to her presence even as he advises her to stay far away from Starling House. He's caught up in solving some sort of puzzle related to the past. Which Opal promptly attempts to file under Not Her Problem. Opal takes his envelopes of cash for her overpriced housekeeping, but she doesn't tell Arthur that she's been dreaming of the decrepit, rambling house for years, and that she has some eerie sense that she's finally home. Harrow has crafted a rich, fully realized set of interconnected elements; families riddled with greed and betrayal, duty and disappointment, well-meaning and ineffectual passersby; and dreams of darkness, belonging, and taking up the mantle of an eerie, wonderful, terrible home and the predecessors who fought for it. Starling House includes social commentary and judgments about privilege, corruption, and abuse at the hands of terrible, powerful men. The supporting characters are fantastically odd, fiercely loyal, and a heartwarming support for a girl who often feels without an anchor. I adore Harrow's writing; her imperfect, faulted characters; the noble, messy quest; the hard-fought realizations and revenge. This was wonderful. I received a prepublication edition of the audiobook of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Macmillan Audio. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Alix E. Harrow is also the author of the wonderful The Once and Future Witches and The Ten Thousand Doors of January, as well as A Spindle Splintered, A Mirror Mended, The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage, and Fractured Fables.

The gothic story King Nyx offers haunting imagery, sinister mysteries, unreliable memories, resurfacing the various aspects of the story had held together a little more cohesively, but I enjoyed the dark, gothic

There's even a Gothic undercurrent in this book, which I love.

This is a spooky, atmospheric, gothic Victorian ghost story perfect for the season. Purcell has also written other gothic novels I'd like to read: The Poison Thread, Bone China, and her

#historicalfiction, #mysterysuspense, #gothic, #dualstoryline, #silentcompanions What are you reading

this installment of Veronica and Stoker's Victorian England mystery-solving, they enter a sinister, gothic an elusive butterfly and an invitation from Lord Templeton-Vane, her partner Stoker's brother, to a gothic It wasn't my favorite of the series mysteries thus far, but I enjoyed the dark, gothic feel of twisting

The book builds to be an often-sinister, Gothic-feeling story with various interconnected repercussions The feeling here is Gothic, as those who are wronged come back to haunt certain later inhabitants and

Julia Fine's Maddalena and the Dark is a gothic story set in 1700s Venice in which two young women's Maddalena and the Dark has a distinct gothic tone, and the story treads ever deeper into seedy, suspect

Rash offers a fascinating, Appalachian-set mystery told from various points of view with a Southern gothic One Foot in Eden is a quiet, haunting story with a Southern gothic feel and understated revelations from

You might also like the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Spooky, Gothic Tales.

Jackson's gothic horror tale is made all the more frightening by its reliance on terror, shadows, and Jackson's gothic horror tale is made all the more frightening by its reliance on terror, shadows, and

In this gothic Victorian tale, Waters offers a slow build to heartbreak, twists and double twists, hesitant Fingersmith is a delightfully dark, often menacing Victorian-era gothic tale.

Things in Jars, a mystery I gave four Bossy stars--and listed in two Greedy Reading Lists, Six Spooky, Gothic

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading Anatomy: A Love Story, a gothic young adult historical fiction 01 Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz In Anatomy: A Love Story, Dana Schwartz's young adult gothic

in Elle Cosimano's playful Finlay Donovan mystery series; I'm reading Quantum Girl Theory, a recent gothic of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. 02 Quantum Girl Theory by Erin Kate Ryan In Erin Kate Ryan's recent gothic

collision of faeries and humans, the first in a series; I'm also listening to Sarah Waters's spooky, gothic Fingersmith is a delightfully dark, often sinister Victorian-era gothic tale.

Things in Jars, a mystery I gave four Bossy stars--and listed in two Greedy Reading Lists, Six Spooky, Gothic

The Villa is gothic suspense told in two timelines, both at the same Italian villa, where dark mysteries

imagined origins of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, All Our Yesterdays; and I'm listening to Kirsten Bakis's gothic

which is based upon witch hunts during the seventeenth-century English Civil War--is smart, shadowy and gothic The Manningtree Witches is smart and thoughtful, and the tone of Blakemore's novel is shadowy and gothic

which is based upon witch hunts during the seventeenth-century English Civil War--is smart, shadowy and gothic The Manningtree Witches is smart and thoughtful, and the tone of Blakemore's novel is shadowy and gothic

The Villa is gothic suspense set at an Italian villa, where dark mystery and wicked turns abound.

listening to Lone Women, Victor LaValle's Western, which so far features strong female characters and a gothic

The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading The Heiress, Rachel Hawkins's upcoming (January 9) gothic suspense

this past month: a wonderful story about a grumpy female pirate; fascinating futuristic speculation; a Gothic-feeling The book builds to be an often-sinister, Gothic-feeling story with various interconnected repercussions

A compelling Gothic suspense story with supernatural elements that keeps you guessing. Eeeee! Sager has crafted a compelling Gothic suspense story in which we're along for the ride as Maggie, a young #mysterysuspense, #gothicnoir, #booksaboutbooks, #unreliablenarrator, #ghosts, #spooky, #hauntedhouse

check out Hell Bent. 06 Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine Julia Fine's Maddalena and the Dark is a gothic Maddalena and the Dark has a distinct gothic tone, and the story treads ever deeper into seedy, suspect

Voices from a Medieval Village as well as Splendors and Glooms, a Gothic mystery about puppeteers that

01 Two White Queens and the One-Eyed Jack by Heidi von Palleske In von Palleske's modern gothic novel

which is based upon witch hunts during the seventeenth-century English Civil War--is smart, shadowy and gothic The Manningtree Witches is smart and thoughtful, and the tone of Blakemore's novel is shadowy and gothic

The Jackaby story is dark, mysterious, and feels Gothic, yet there's humor too.

Here are the six books I most loved reading this past month: two historical fiction stories, gothic magical

The story is dark, mysterious, and feels Gothic, yet there's humor too.

The book builds to be an often-sinister, Gothic-feeling story with various interconnected repercussions

Things in Jars, a mystery I gave four Bossy stars--and listed in two Greedy Reading Lists, Six Spooky, Gothic

Things in Jars, a mystery I gave four Bossy stars--and listed in two Greedy Reading Lists, Six Spooky, Gothic

For my full review of this book, see One of Us Is Lying. 06 Fingersmith by Sarah Waters In this gothic

The Jackaby story is dark, mysterious, and feels Gothic, yet there's humor too.

communicative cats; a historical fiction novel featuring female doctors, set in 15th century China; a gothic

Things in Jars, a mystery I gave four Bossy stars--and listed in two Greedy Reading Lists, Six Spooky, Gothic

Sager has crafted a compelling Gothic suspense story in which we're along for the ride as Maggie, a young

LaValle mixes a Western setting with strong feminist messages, magical realism, haunting elements, and the terrifying, freeing truth in facing one's darker side. There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it. Victor LaValle's Lone Women begins in 1915 with a determined young woman, Adelaide Henry, covering her tracks by burning down her home--with her deceased parents inside. She's packed an incredibly heavy trunk and is setting out from California on a journey to try and leave her past behind. She's set on becoming a homesteader in Montana, one of the "lone women" taking the government up on its offer of free land. In LaValle's magical, dark Western, people tend to disappear whenever Adelaide's mysterious trunk opens. But the nature of the danger only becomes clear to the reader in fits and starts. History is simple, but the past is complicated. I love a Western, and Lone Women is largely set in rural Montana and involves the hardships of getting by in an unforgiving climate and sparsely populated area. But the story's conflict centers around the magical and horrifying danger Adelaide has never acknowledged outside the family yet has carried with her; the reasoning for maintaining her secrecy; her desperate fear of facing the truth; and the devastating idea that a greater understanding and different decisions might have dramatically changed the course of each of her family members' lives. There's a ton to unpack here, including the exploration of the good and evil warring within each of us; what we do when faced with our own monsters; the terrifying power of perception and manipulated presentation; the potential destruction of lies and glossed-over realities; instances of well-deserved, sometimes brutal justice and the grace of redemption; and the depth of love in a chosen family. I've seen Lone Women listed as a horror book, and there are horrifying elements, but the novel is far more than that; the story is complex and strange and interesting, with a pace that keeps moving and a satisfying ending. I listened to the fascinating Lone Women as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like Westerns, you might want to check out the books on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West and  Six More Great Historical Fiction Stories Set in the American West.

#gothicnoir, #southern, #fourstarbookreview 06 This Is All He Asks of You ​ I just loved this book.

#mysterysuspense, #booksaboutbooks, #gothicnoir

#gothicnoir, #southern, #fourstarbookreview

#mysterysuspense, #gothicnoir, #ghosts, #femaledetective, #historicalfiction, #mermaids, #fourstarbookreview

#mysterysuspense, #southern, #gothicnoir, #threestarbookreview

The dark, seemingly bottomless water is the standout, creepy element here: a source of relentless, hungry power that straddles the worlds of the living and the dead. When Jax, a social worker, receives a series of frantic missed calls from her sister Lexie, she assumes that Lexie is having another manic episode. She has a lot on her own plate, and she'll have plenty of time to deal with her estranged sister's mess later. But disaster strikes, and Jax finds herself trying to unravel the twisted, complicated history of her family and its land--a history Lexie had been researching and had become obsessed by. McMahon's modern-day ghost story leads the reader into the family's pivotal 1929 decisions, when Jax and Lexie's ancestor Ethel Monroe, desperate to have a baby, made a dark bargain that would have terrible repercussions echoing for generations to come. There's a dark, spring-fed pool at the heart of this book, and its seemingly bottomless depth and impermeable black water (which characters regularly swam in--I died inside!) were horrifying to contemplate. Spooky tales are passed down through doubting generations, and characters persistently suffer losses and tragedies related to this pool. Yet the water provides enough twisted miracles and temporary healing to keep characters greedily coming back. It's both a salvation and a destructive force. I took issue with Gram's unapologetic and outrageous favoritism toward Lexie, which could have possibly been attributed to Gram's understanding of her mental health (and inability to hold a job or provide for herself), but was never said to be. Lexie's sabotage of Jax's friendships at a young, vulnerable age seemed too easy for Jax to move past--although I suppose the later wishes and granted wishes that occur were a revenge of sorts. Lexie is the captivating character here, although she exists largely off page and in the main protagonist's mixed-feelings memories. Lexie was the excellent swimmer and student and musician and had lots of friends and was their parents’ favorite, Grandma’s favorite, and family friend Ryan’s favorite (all despite her mental illness/schizophrenia and its challenges). Most of what Jax does is in reaction to Lexie, while Jax herself feels somewhat nondescript. The lead-up to the ending feels odd, as characters are ignoring alarming occurrences. I'm not sure I believe that the characters would have behaved the way they’re said to at end of book in order for the denouement to work cleanly. (Would those characters be at the house?) The pool is the standout element here: a source of relentless, hungry power that seems to straddle the worlds of the living and the dead, persistently pursuing victims within the wholly haunting atmosphere McMahon has created. It's wonderfully creepy. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of Gallery Books and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? The Drowning Kind is the newest story by McMahon, the author of The Winter People (and many others). There are many instances within the book in which a character begins to share key information and is interrupted or stops abruptly, and I find myself becoming increasingly frustrated by this method of prolonging a mystery. I mentioned this book in the Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 3/29/21 Edition.