The best gothic novels for a cold winter’s night

Kim Taylor Blakemore Author Of The Companion
By Kim Taylor Blakemore

Who am I?

I’m addicted to Gothics. It started with reading Jane Eyre as a teenager. Gothics have it all – crime, mystery, secrets, lies, atmosphere, dread. I love history, particularly the stories of women’s lives. These are found not in textbooks but unearthed from more private and arcane places – diaries, mill worker records, letters, tintypes. I’m also drawn to writing dangerous women, those who live at the margins and need all their wits to survive. They don’t always stay within the law, and they aren’t always the heroine. I’m the author of The Companion, After Alice Fell, and The Deception (out in October 2022) - historical thrillers with a quite Gothicky edge. Naturally.

I wrote...

The Companion

By Kim Taylor Blakemore,

Book cover of The Companion

What is my book about?

They say she’s a murderess. She claims she’s innocent. But Lucy has been known to lie…1855, New Hampshire. Lucy Blunt is set to hang for a double murder. Murderess or victim? Only Lucy knows the truth. In the shadow of the gallows, Lucy reflects on the events that led to her bitter downfall—from the moment she arrived at the rambling Burton mansion looking for work and a better life to the grisly murders themselves. When Lucy’s rising status becomes a threat to the mistress’s current companion, the delicate balance of power and loyalty begins to shift, setting into motion a brewing storm of betrayal, suspicion, and rage.

Now, with her execution looming closer, the tale she’s spinning nears its conclusion. But how much of her story can we trust? 

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The books I picked & why

See What I Have Done

By Sarah Schmidt,

Book cover of See What I Have Done

Why did I love this book?

When a friend recommended this book to me, I asked what it was about. Lizzie Borden he said. Which made me sigh and shake my head because I’m not a fan of the Lizzie Borden story. And yet – there was this book. And this book is simply one of the best books I’ve read. Incredible language, tension that twists tighter and tighter, dread that takes away the breath, a complicated family that barely tolerates each other…this is a great gothic read. Dark and haunting and so deliciously good. If you think you know the Lizzie Borden story, you may need to think again.

See What I Have Done

By Sarah Schmidt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked See What I Have Done as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Haunting, gripping and gorgeously written, SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE by Sarah Schmidt is a re-imagining of the unsolved American true crime case of the Lizzie Borden murders, for fans of BURIAL RITES and MAKING A MURDERER.

'Eerie and compelling' Paula Hawkins
'Stunning' Sunday Times
'Gripping... outstanding' Observer
'Glittering' Irish Times

Just after 11am on 4th August 1892, the bodies of Andrew and Abby Borden are discovered. He's found on the sitting room sofa, she upstairs on the bedroom floor, both murdered with an axe.

It is younger daughter Lizzie who is first on the scene, so it is Lizzie…

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The Cicada Tree

By Robert Gwaltney,

Book cover of The Cicada Tree

Why did I love this book?

Southern Gothic at its most redolent, creepy fineness. The book follows eleven-year-old best friends Etta Mae, whose preternatural voice entrances those who listen and can change and curse the rhythms of nature, and Annaliese, who falls under the spell of the rich and dazzling Mayfields. All the characters in this small 1950’s town are bound together by secrets and long pasts, and every one of them is drawn in exquisitely weird detail. Every turn of events surprised me; every page sung. This book packs a wallop of gothic goodness.

The Cicada Tree

By Robert Gwaltney,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Cicada Tree as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WHEN AN ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD, WHISKY DRINKING, PIANO PRODIGY ENCOUNTERS A WEALTHY FAMILY POSSESSING SUPERNATURAL BEAUTY, HER ENSUING OBSESSION UNLEASHES FAMILY SECRETS AND A CATACLYSMIC PLAGUE OF CICADAS. The summer of 1956, a brood of cicadas descends upon Providence, Georgia, a natural event with supernatural repercussions, unhinging the life of Analeise Newell, an eleven-year-old piano prodigy. Amidst this emergence, dark obsessions are stirred, uncanny gifts provoked, and secrets unearthed.
During a visit to Mistletoe, a plantation owned by the wealthy Mayfield family, Analeise encounters Cordelia Mayfield and her daughter Marlissa, both of whom possess an otherworldly beauty, a lineal trait regarded as…

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  • Coming soon!

The Silent Companions

By Laura Purcell,

Book cover of The Silent Companions

Why did I love this book?

I may be recommending gothics for a cold winter’s night, but I highly suggest not reading this at night. Unless you want to jump out of your skin at every creak and scraping sound in your house. Laura Purcell is the master of classic Gothic, and this book, with its twisting storylines – an asylum-bound woman slowly remembering why she has been committed, the incredibly creepy run-down mansion she comes to call home, the even stranger stories of occupants of that house from hundreds of years past, and the silent companions themselves – painted wood cutouts of previous members of the household that move wherever they want whenever they want – is beautifully written. The ending is one of the best I’ve ever read.

The Silent Companions

By Laura Purcell,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Silent Companions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"[An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book." -Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Laura Purcell's THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS is now out from Penguin!

Some doors are locked for a reason.

When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But pregnant and widowed just weeks after their wedding, with her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her late husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure-a…

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Beloved Poison

By E. S. Thomson,

Book cover of Beloved Poison

Why did I love this book?

Jem Flockhart is an apprentice apothecary at St. Saviour’s Infirmary in London. The building is falling down around the patients. The doctors hate each other. Jem finds six tiny coffins in the crumbling dank chapel – and a murder mystery begins. This book pulled me right into the dark rancid squalor of gaslit London and doesn’t shy in its horrific details. It’s dark, it’s atmospheric, it’s an amazing read. So glad it’s the first in a series!

Beloved Poison

By E. S. Thomson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Beloved Poison as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ramshackle and crumbling, trapped in the past and resisting the future, St. Saviour's Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors, the doctors bicker and backstab. Ambition, jealousy, and loathing seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything but says nothing.

And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of mouldering rags. When Jem comes across these strange relics hidden inside the infirmary's old chapel, her quest to understand their meaning prises open…

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Rebecca

By Daphne du Maurier,

Book cover of Rebecca

Why did I love this book?

No list of gothic titles is complete without this book. DuMaurier is the writer who inspires my writing. She is a master at revealing secrets in small doses – offhand comments, small details, the uncomfortable pause in a conversation. This book oozes dread and atmosphere. Secrets are peeled away ever so slowly. Yes, there are multiple film versions. But none come close to the novel itself. From the first line, "Last night I dreamed of Manderley again," you are bewitched by the wonder of the Cornish coast - and trapped, like the new Mrs. deWinter, at the grand house with its rotting core. And Mrs. Danvers. Let us not forget Mrs. Danvers…Brilliant.

Rebecca

By Daphne du Maurier,

Why should I read it?

31 authors picked Rebecca as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

* 'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY
* 'One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century' SARAH WATERS
* 'It's the book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH

'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .'

Working as a lady's companion, our heroine's outlook is bleak until, on a trip to the south of France, she meets a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. She accepts but, whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory…

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