2009-07-09

juushika: Photograph of a row of books on a library shelf (Books Once More)
2009-07-09 02:08 pm

Recommend me gothic and Halloween-ready novels, please!

What with this overcast cool weather, I feel like we've taken a step back in time to 1816: the year without a summer, and I am in the mood for books to fit such wonderfully dark days. And in that vein would you please to:

Recommend gothic novels. That delicious sort of horror, rich with atmosphere. I have most of the classics on my TBR list already, but do please mention your favorites—personal recommendations carry weight. I'd also love recommendations for modern gothic lit, novels one may not expect to fit the genre, southern gothic, subversive gothic—anything which I may not have yet discovered.

And/or recommend Halloween-ready books. No real definition here—but texts from Poe to Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, vampires or werewolves or ghosts or none of the above, be they horror or haunting or darkly festive, whether or not they're set at Halloween, I'm looking for the sort of fearful pleasures one would curl up with in late October. Books meant to be as frightening—yet enjoyable—as we want Halloween to be. Because this weather has me feeling we've already skipped ahead to autumn!

And thank you.

For what it's worth, my personal recommendations. )

Crossposted to [livejournal.com profile] bookish