I expected Dark Sisters by Kristi DeMeester to be feminist and witchy, which it was. I did not expect it to be legitimately scary and somewhat gruesome, nor did I expect it to be a virtual treatise for smashing the patriarchy, but here we are, and I am here for it. 

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins is a gothic murder mystery thriller and a perfect escapist read. Populated with strong and snarky female characters, the fictional St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama has stories to tell. 

The Curse of the Cole Women by Marielle Johnson follows generations of Cole Women on Juniper Island off the New Hampshire coast whose lineage has an unusual curse thanks to an ancestor who was branded as a witch.

If the Dead Belong Here by Carson Faust is at once a chilling supernatural tale and a story of generational trauma told beautifully through the eyes of several generations of a family of Native American women.

The first thing you'll see when googling this book is "Gothic feminist body horror" - and it is that, but it's also romantic and witchy and about love and loss and found family.

The Villa, Once Beloved by Victor Manibo is a compelling gothic horror complete with an atmospheric estate, a mysterious family legacy involving a curse, and an innocent young woman at the center.

As Many Souls as Stars by Natasha Siegel is a Gothic fantasy romance about witches and demons - in particular one demon who passes generations of time waiting for one witch to be reborn so the Faustian bargain they’ve struck can be fulfilled - or is this demon waiting for more personal reasons? Can a creature with no soul feel love?

I’ll Make a Spectacle of You by Beatrice Winifred Iker is a chilling Southern Gothic folk horror novel primarily set in and around the fictional Bricksbury University, a historically black college in Jonesborough, TN, in the heart of Appalachia.

The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer is a thrilling reimagining of the Bluebeard story with a tough, funny heroine and filled with magic, romance, and all the gothic-y goodness of the folktale that inspired it.

Psychopomp and Circumstance by Eden Royce is a quiet Southern Gothic tale of family secrets and the power of choice that takes place in an alternate magic-filled version of Reconstruction-era South Carolina.

The Haunting of Payne’s Hollow by Kelley Armstrong has a classic horror premise: to earn a family inheritance from her grandfather, Samantha Payne must stay at the family’s lakeside cottage for one month.

Happy People Don’t Live Here by Amber Sparks is a quiet, atmospheric cozy gothic horror that is darkly humorous with an undercurrent of melancholy.

Though it’s a modern gothic (unlike the A.G.Slatter Sourdough books I’ve read), The Cold House has the one thing that keeps me reading her works: a smart, snarky, relatable heroine.

Demon Song by Kelsea Yu is a chilling Gothic tale based on Chinese mythology, but it’s also a bittersweet coming of age story of a girl being raised by a single mother who moves her from place to place fleeing a string of abusive relationships.

The Witch of Willow Sound by Vanessa F. Penney is an unexpectedly sad, sweet, and at times funny, feminist gothic novel complete with witches, ghosts, and asylums.

The book opens with a dark, disturbing, almost grotesque prologue involving a nameless ole woman trying to cover up a death (murder?) by destroying a body by fire.

Cló‘s dreams and memories begin overlapping with the perspectives we read from the other timelines, and I couldn’t read fast enough to see how they and the people around her are connected.