Christmas Ghost Stories, Part 2

A couple years ago, I wrote about the tradition of the Christmas ghost story—which became an indispensable part of the festive season after Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843. The heyday of the Christmas ghost story overlapped with the Golden Age of the ghost story more generally, and many celebrated spooky authors began incorporating Christmas into their haunting tales. Last time, I highlighted several stories by male authors, but women were equally if not more involved in the festive ghost story game. Check out the stories by women below for a seasonally appropriate scare!

Close-up of golden ornament on a Christmas tree
Photo by Joran Quinten on Unsplash

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Review of The Only Good Indians—Indigenous Horror

The Only Good Indians coverWhat happens when the hunters become the hunted? The Only Good Indians by renowned indigenous author Stephen Graham Jones was one of the most-talked about horror novels this year and came out back in July. I finally decided to check out for myself whether it lives up to the hype. Continue reading Review of The Only Good Indians—Indigenous Horror

Gideon the Ninth Review—Haunted Necromancers

Gideon the Ninth coverA skull-faced girl in black slicing her way through an explosion of skeletons—I only needed to see the cover of this book to know that it would be exactly up my alley. Despite the fact that this debut novel was one of the most talked-about fantasy releases of 2019, it took me over a year to finally get my hands on a copy. I am, of course, talking about Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. But if you’re late to the bandwagon like I was, now is the perfect time to hop on—especially since the second book in the series, Harrow the Ninth, just came out this summer. Continue reading Gideon the Ninth Review—Haunted Necromancers

The Monster of Elendhaven Review

The Monster of Elendhaven coverEven a monster can have a heart. Two monstrous men make an exquisite pair in Jennifer Giesbrecht’s dark fantasy debut The Monster of Elendhaven, which came out last year from Tor.com. Though I devoured this bite-sized novella in a single day, I have a feeling its lyrical prose and intricately constructed world will linger with me for some time to come. Continue reading The Monster of Elendhaven Review

The Year of the Witching Review

The Year of the Witching coverWitches lurk in the Darkwood … and they seem to be calling out to Immanuelle. A young woman struggling to be accepted by the Puritanical society she lives in discovers her true power in The Year of the Witching, a stunning debut fantasy novel by Alexis Henderson, which came out back in July. I know Halloween is well over, but it’s never too late in the year to pick up a good witchy book! Continue reading The Year of the Witching Review

Weird Fiction and the Gothic

One reason why the Gothic can be difficult to pin down as a genre is that over the years, it has spawned and overlapped with many different genres. I have touched briefly on the role that the Gothic played in the development of modern horror and explored in some depth how we can credit it as the foundation of the detective novel. Today, I want to explore one of the Gothic’s more nebulous offspring: weird fiction.

Photo of Octopus tentacles in dark water
Photo by Julia Kadel on Unsplash

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Review of Cursed Once More

Cursed Once More coverHow many curses can one woman handle? Clara Blackwood finds her happily-ever-after interrupted by yet another family curse in Cursed Once More by Amanda DeWees. I had reviewed the initial book in this duology, With This Curse, quite a few years ago and was very impressed with DeWees’s grasp of classic Gothic tropes. After hearing how much I loved the first book, the author was kind enough to send along the sequel. It had gotten buried in my TBR pile until now, but I was delighted to finally dive back into DeWees’s luscious Victorian Gothic world with Cursed Once More. Continue reading Review of Cursed Once More

Gothic Vocab: The Sublime

The “sublime” is a word you’ll hear tossed around a lot as you study Gothic literature, and even sometimes within the texts themselves. But what exactly does it mean? I’ll do my best to give a simple introduction to this rather complex term in this post, which will be the first in a series on important vocabulary words that will enhance your understanding of the Gothic.

Photo of mountain landscape
Photo of the Swiss Alps by Oliver Schweizer on Unsplash

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Review of Women’s Weird, Volume 2

Women's Weird 2 coverLast Halloween season, I reviewed a delightful collection called Women’s Weird, which sought to highlight female authors of Weird fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This year, the same folks have brought out a second volume, giving us more stories from this under-appreciated area of literature. Women’s Weird 2: More Strange Stories by Women, 1891–1937, edited by Melissa Edmundson, comes out tomorrow, October 27. Continue reading Review of Women’s Weird, Volume 2

Review of The Midnight Bargain—Fantasy and Feminism

The Midnight Bargain coverWould you risk everything for magic? Beatrice Clayborn faces this choice in C. L. Polk’s latest fantasy novel, The Midnight Bargain. Polk expertly explores themes of women’s rights and bodily autonomy by taking the tropes and atmosphere of a Regency romance and transporting them into an original fantasy world where the practice of magic is segregated by gender. The Midnight Bargain was released just last week, and you can find it in stores now. Continue reading Review of The Midnight Bargain—Fantasy and Feminism