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.