Four Gothic Novels You Need To Read Right Now
I love gothic novels. I love them so much. The good ones are weird, wacky, and make you go “Oh my God what the heck???” The best ones include things so messed up that you have to put the book down for a few minutes and stare at the wall so you can digest what you just read.
Here are some of my favorite gothic novels. (At least my favorites as of the time I wrote this!)
MASSIVE spoilers ahead for books over 50 years old.
Black Magic: The Rise and Fall of the Antichrist by Marjorie Bowen
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The Plot: Dirk and Theirry study black magic together. However, Dirk is much more ambitious about it than Theirry is. This causes conflict in their (extremely homoerotic) friendship. Dirk will also stop at nothing to get what he wants and will get rid of anyone in his way…
The Plot Explained Badly: A trans man falls in love with a wimp and tries to impress him with black magic. The wimp falls victim to compulsive heterosexuality. Then the trans man decides to become pope to get revenge on everyone who wronged him. It goes really well until it doesn’t.
Includes: Black magic, monks, queer love, witchcraft, vengeful protagonists, gender bending, medieval setting, a monk named some variation of Ambrose
The Messed Up Stuff: The majority of the deaths. (I intended to list the ones I found particularly messed up but it was a lot of them.)
Stuff I Liked: Dirk, book’s aesthetic, homoeroticism, magic, good pacing, revenge plots, Theirry being pathetic (sometimes)
Other Comments: This is probably one of my favorite books. I love it so much.
The Monk and The Hangman’s Daughter by Ambrose Bierce
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The Plot: 1680. After transfering to a rural monastery, Ambrosius, a young monk, falls in love with Benedicta, the hangman’s daughter. She’s shunned by the local community due to her father’s job. Ambrosius is determined to save her soul with devastating consequences.
The Plot Explained Badly: Incel monk becomes obsessed with innocent local girl after she’s nice to him. After incel monk thinks local girl had sex he kills her. Incel monk is hanged. That’s it. That’s the book.
Includes: Monks, girl too stupidly innocent to live, horny youths of all genders, religious fanaticism, vengeful protagonist, weird incest plot (but not really), misunderstandings, everyone is horny for the preacher, homoeroticism, a monk named some variation of Ambrose
The Messed Up Stuff: Ambrosius’ obsession with Benedicta and general incelness, the tragic ending that could have been completely avoided had Ambrosius not been a complete self righteous jerk
Stuff I Liked: Ambrosius (at first), the humor, the occasional sass
Other Comments: Another great book. Well, The Monk and The Hangman’s Daughter is a novella really. It was a fun read until Ambrosius went completely off the rails. That being said, it was interesting (if frustrating at times) to watch him self destruct.
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The Plot: Ambrosio, a charismatic monk, becomes corrupted and lusts after an innocent girl named Antonia. Raymond and a nun named Agnes fall in love and struggle to be together after Anges becomes pregnant. There are devastating consequences for everyone.
The A-Plot Explained Badly: A holier than thou monk lusts after a novice who turns out to be a woman. He lusts after her more. They have sex. Because the monk is a misogynist, he thinks she’s now a slut. He does not see the irony in respecting virgins and then hating them for being promiscuous because they slept with him. The woman does not appreciate this, but sleeps with him anyway until he’s sick of her. The woman is actually magic and helps the monk do a bunch of horrible stuff that the monk totally feels bad about until he doesn’t. The monk then lusts over a fifteen year old who is too stupidly innocent to live. It gets worse from there.
The B-Plot Explained Badly: After a lot of backstory which involves ghosts and anti-semetism, local man and nun fall in love. Nun gets pregnant. Hypocrite monk from A-plot tells her abbess. Nun is locked in crypt until local man can save her and the baby. He does not save the baby but saves the nun. They get married.
Includes: Monks, demons, black magic, weird incest plot (but this time for real), long stories within a story that did not need to be there, body horror, ghosts, riots, murder, everyone is horny for preacher, a monk named some variation of Ambrose
The Messed Up Stuff: Everything. All of it. All the trigger warnings for this book. Every time you think “Surely the author isn’t going to go there!” he does. And every time you think “This can’t get worse!” it does.
Stuff I Liked: The messed up stuff, Matilda, the ending
Other Comments: The Monk has everything. Every time you think it can’t get more messed up it does. Also this book is THE gothic horror novel. Practically every trope in The Monk is a staple of the gothic horror genre. I’m also pretty sure The Monk is the reason why so many other gothic novel written after it has a monk named some variation of “Ambrose” in it.
The Grey Woman by Elisabeth Gaskell
My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
The Plot: After Anna is forced to marry a man she doesn’t want to, she finds herself abused, isolated, pregnant, and running out of time before her husband kills her. With the help of her servant, Amante, they flee knowing very well that if her husband finds them, they will be killed.
The Plot Explained Badly: A story within a story about how much it sucks to be a woman.
Includes: Bluebeard trope, suspense, gender bending, social commentary, cautionary tales, a race against time
The Messed Up Stuff: The fact that Anna couldn’t say no to a marriage she did not want because the man was rich and powerful, Amante’s death, the fact Anna’s husband was still looking for her years and years later
Stuff I Liked: The suspense, Anna and Amante’s relationship
Other Comments: The ending is a bit confusing. The whole story is supposed to be a letter to Anna’s daughter explaining why she can’t marry her fiancé. We don’t know who the guy is until the very end. And even then they drop the name like we’re supposed to know who this guy is. You have to flip back in the book to find out why this name drop is supposedly a gut punch. (The fiancé is the son of a man that Anna’s husband murdered. The character is barely in the book.)
