English Gothic

A Southern family saga emerges as Nettie begins a quest to discover who she is. 21 years old, Annette Roberta Randall is searching, looking for herself. The perception and sensitivity she relied on to bolster her through an isolated childhood have disappeared, and with them, her sense of self. Nettie also seeks the truth, information about her dysfunctional family and the mysteries that whisper to her in their eccentric family home.

In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery, enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed.

The Bentheims of Berlin take in Till Anschütz, an orphan on the run, who quickly befriends 12-year-old Max. The boys are intrigued by the office where Max’s cold, distant father, Xavier Bentheim, writes his horror novels. And when they get up the nerve to explore, Max and Till are truly horrified by what they discover behind a hidden door.… Till awakens strapped to a gurney. His belly is burning, and a young woman with dead eyes flicks her forked tongue against his face. "We’ve modified you - you’ll like it," a familiar voice purrs.…

A body found hanging from the ceiling fan in the tower room of the old manor house on Storm Island: For 19 years, Kate Pomeroy has suppressed that memory. A second-year resident in surgery, she thinks she has her life under control. But a curious conversation overheard while taking a catnap launches her on a descent into a world filled with nightmarish visions that cause her to doubt her own sanity. Sent to Storm Island to rest and recuperate from an apparent breakdown, Kate is forced to come to grips with memories of the summer her mother died as well as new terrors.

A dark collection of tales from the American South full of twists and turns that you will never see coming. Did you ever have your name on the board for misbehaving in class? If you only got in trouble with the teacher, you should count yourself lucky. Ever find something old in the water? Was it an old box? Did it divide your whole town in ways you couldn’t imagine? What is beauty, and how do you stay forever young? The answer might not be what you want, especially if Joe passes by your house. Where does art come from? An old man’s backyard? Who’s to say?

Kate agrees to an arranged marriage with the mysterious Thomas Westwood to save her family's estate, but not everyone welcomes her at Wishwood, her husband's crumbling manor. The family members talk about a curse, lights move through the ruins at night, and Kate's maid won't spend the night in the house. Thomas is hiding something from Kate as well, but as she grows closer to him, a series of accidents makes her suspect that someone is willing to kill to keep Wishwood's secrets buried in the past.

For five generations, Evelyn's family has lived in the same small brick house, shadowed by the mansion across the street. Her Nana filled her childhood with stories about Byrne House: tales of missing children, of lovers gone mad. The mansion loomed every night in her dreams. Even now, at 17, Evelyn watches the sprawling Victorian from her second-floor bedroom, unable to explain her obsession with a house she's never been inside.

Left penniless and alone by the death of her father, Sarah Lowell works as a day nurse at King’s College Hospital. Her daily walk to and from work crosses the Rookery of St. Giles, a dangerous place made all the more frightening by the fact someone lurks in the shadows, watching Sarah, stalking her. Enigmatic surgeon Killian Thayne offers Sarah his protection, but his sensual, commanding presence presents another kind of danger. Then a patient is found dead, drained of blood. Another soon follows, and another, and rumors paint Killian as the monster who killed them.

From white trash mill village girl to Senior Cinderella. In Alabama Blue, Toni K. Pacini shares her tumultuous journey. A girl raised up like an invasive weed in an Alabama cotton mill village where illiteracy, bigotry, religious fanaticism, and abuse were as commonplace as fried chicken on Sunday. From pillar to post, and coast to coast, she sought a dauntingly illusive refuge.

In the mysterious bayou country of Louisiana, Jennifer Hale, orphaned and destitute in the wake of the Civil War, arrives at Darkwater full of hope, but the cold reception she receives alarms her. So do the screams of Alicia, the dying mistress of the plantation, who appears to be suffering from a psychosomatic illness that causes her to choke uncontrollably. Perhaps even more frightening is Jennifer's dangerous attraction to Walter Dere, her handsome employer. But her fear is forgotten when Alicia's death frees Walter to propose to Jennifer.

Fleeing a cruel stepfather, Harriet Russell escapes into a stormy night, relying only on the mercy of servants to help her. Her coach overturns, leaving her and her driver injured. Seeking help from whoever lives nearby, she stumbles between a set of gates guarded by fierce demonic gargoyle statues. As she enters the shadowy, haunted lands belonging to the duke of Frostmore, she’s afraid of meeting with him, but she must in order to help her driver.

In the dark heart of our imagination, and the haunted corners our past there are places we fear to tread. As much as we might try to outrun them, as much as we might try to deny their truths, we are owned by their shape, molded by their claws. The story of our being, they form a Sacrum Umbra, a sacred shadow of improbable origin - our own dark heart.

Catherine Tilney had settled in for a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic English life in the countryside with her husband, the Reverend Henry Tilney. Unfortunately, a quiet, respectable, distinctly non-Gothic life had not settled itself for her. An original sequel to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Nachtstürm Castle whisks the reader and its heroine away to the border countries in the Austrian Alps, where adventure, mistaken identities, lost heirs, and terrifying butlers lurk.

The Bane brothers, banished Watchmen of the Empyrean realm, are sentenced to Earth to prove their worth before they can return home. But none of them are feeling the effects of their punishment more than Iain. A half-breed, Iain has two choices if he wants to survive his new home: feed on the essence of shades (the underlings responsible for slaughtering his people) or find his pure. He's almost lost his appetite for both when a human crosses his path. She's smart, powerful, and from their soul shattering first touch - destined to be his.

In the decaying grandeur of the schloss, Laura drowns in loneliness. But fate arrives with a carriage crash, delivering the enigmatic Carmilla to her doorstep. Their connection is instant, a wildfire scorching through the desolate halls. Stolen touches blossom into forbidden nights, and a hunger awakens within Laura – a hunger mirrored in Carmilla's gaze. As desire consumes them, a dark truth seeps through the cracks in their stolen paradise. A string of unexplained illnesses plagues the village's young women.

Mary hoping to leave the hardships and loneliness of her past behind embarks on a new life running a bar in a remote Australian town. The occupants are all driven by fear, striving to survive both mentally and physically in the harsh environment. She dreams of returning to England but that would require a small fortune. After a period of success, the news of a gold strike leaves the town and farms deserted except for old women and teetotallers. Mary’s business is in danger of collapse and what’s worse her son William has disappeared also overcome with gold fever.

Haunted Voices – a bold and ambitious anthology – showcases some of Scotland’s best oral storytellers, from archived stories of past masters to the work of contemporary performers, and their most disturbing tales of terror.

In 1924, Paris is a bastion of sexual freedom, even for shell-shocked Leon Laflamme, the most dramatic blond this side of the Seine. After years of loneliness and secrecy, he's married the clever and sumptuous burlesque dancer Claire. However, Leon truly finds liberation when he meets the stoic, intriguing, and silver-haired Count Matthias, who offers true freedom in his dark gift: immortality.

The Farmhouse, having stood against time and history for nearly 160 years in the Virginia countryside, was forgotten and abandoned until Kyle and Jenny Dowling moved in during the summer of 1972. The Dowlings, married just a year, are struggling to repair their broken marriage. It was to be the perfect place, away from it all, to heal their relationship. Jenny would write, and Kyle would tend to minor renovations. The rent was cheap.

Part memoir and part cultural critique, Darkly: Blackness and America's Gothic Soul explores American culture's inevitable gothicity in the traces left from chattel slavery. The persistence of white supremacy and the ubiquity of Black deaths feed a national culture of terror and a perpetual undercurrent of mourning.