Looking for new spooky books to read this Halloween? Look no futher! These three new books contain different, delightful takes on the gothic and the macabre.
Things We Say in the Dark by Kirsty Logan (2019)
This horror story anthology has that truly unsettling, uncanny feeling one wants in a gothic book. Filled with different manifestations of fear from the eery to the creepy, this anthology is unsettling, thought-provoking and altogether brilliantly written. It will leave you pondering about your own fears, but totally in a good way.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (2020)
An all-female vampire-slaying book club??? I say YES to that! This story is scary, terrifying, upsetting and altogether unputdownable. Read this for the fantastic, strong southern women. As the author himself put it, he “wanted to pit Dracula against my mom”, and that’s exactly what you get with this one. Read this if you want a horror book about slaying vapires and the patriachy.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)
Set it the 50s Mexico, this story follows a young socialite Noami on her gothic journey to an English family mansion. This poignant book plays with the classic Gothic tropes: the haunted house, the maiden in distress, the double, the ‘other’ – and turns them on their head in a delightful way that is feminist, anti-racist and altogther fantastic. This story, too, contains potentially upsetting themes.
