People's Picks No. 1

When time seems to slow down as the cooler weather starts seeping through the walls, avoid the urge to choose another cozy read and pick up a book that will traumatize you instead. These are the books that will keep you up at night. You’ll find yourself questioning your own mind, but that’s how you know it’s a good story! You can expect an atmospheric experience that provokes a strong emotional response. With romantic undertones, psychological horror, and supernatural elements, the gothic fiction rabbit hole is not one you’ll want to climb out of once you go down. Here are some recommendations to get you started:

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Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca is the classic tale that comes to mind when gothic fiction is the topic at hand. It was my introduction to the genre, and I will never move on. It’s an unskippable classic! The story revolves around a young woman who falls in love and quickly marries a widower while he’s on vacation.

When Mr. de Winter returns to his estate with an unexpected new wife in tow, the people of Manderley receive her with varying degrees of lukewarm. Now that our nameless protagonist has a new identity as the new Mrs. de Winter, she becomes more subdued by the constant comparisons to Rebecca thrown her way. Her infuriating journey to finding her voice is marred by many setbacks, some external, but mostly caused by her own hyper-fixation on Rebecca, the former Mrs. de Winter.

Most of the story happens in her own head and, up until the turning point, she has no real knowledge of either who Rebecca really was or how others perceived her. There’s a lot of interiority and conflicting feelings as our protagonist navigates her new life surrounded by people she perceives as disingenuous, ambivalent, or openly apathetic. The story is complete and finished in a way that feels earned. It starts from the end and is told through a series of flashbacks. Even with a slower pace, the story builds into a series of very satisfying conclusions that will keep you turning pages well into the night.

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The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

This is the story of three women as they encounter witches after mysterious disappearances. Told through their perspectives in their own time periods, the story is driven forward by the differing results of their encounters with witches.

In the present (1998), Minerva is a graduate student of horror literature working on her thesis focused on the life of obscure horror author Betty Tremblay. Minerva

begins to suspect that Betty’s most famous work, a short story called The Vanishing, may have been based on a true story. Betty’s timeline takes places in 1934, when she was a student at the same university as Minerva. Betty becomes obsessed with figuring out the details of her roommate’s disappearance. She suspects the involvement of witches, a topic that makes her lose credibility among her peers. When Betty disappears too, the crumbs she leaves behind help Minerva discover an uncanny connection between the disappearances back then and the current problems at her school. Back in 1908, Minerva’s great-grandmother Alba encounters a powerful witch. After her brother mysteriously disappears, Alba tries to find answers in questionable places. The closer she gets to the truth, the more precarious her position becomes. Alba passes on the lessons from this experience to Minerva through storytelling. These lessons coupled with Betty’s records, prepare Minerva for her own encounter with a witch.

There were some seriously scary moments, read it at night at your own risk.

Although the feeling of foreboding is heavy, waiting for the other shoe to drop made it impossible to put down! This was a new take on witches that I found very exciting and terrifying. The way familiar elements of gothic literature and horror are blended effortlessly made for a fantastic read.

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The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

Beyond the dark evocative mood expected, this is a horror novel with chilling depictions of demonic possessions. Read it at night if you don’t mind seeing ghosts and hearing voices, you’ve been warned!

Alba Diaz decides to accompany her fiancé to visit the silver mine that connects their families. She has an ulterior motive in wanting to visit this town. Although it is not a secret that she was adopted as a child, she wants to learn more about the circumstances of her birth there. After visiting the mine, she quickly finds herself having vivid hallucinations, sleepwalking, acting without control, and eventually experiencing possessions. Elias, her fiancé’s cousin, offers to help her deal with the possessions with his knowledge of alchemy and the occult. On their journey to rid Alba of the demon that controls her, Alba and Elias develop a deeper emotional connection.

There is a sensual quality to the possessions, connecting her identity as a woman with the lack of control over her life and body. Alba’s sense of self is intrinsically tied to both being physically possessed by the demon and having no agency over her choices. The possessions, aside from terrifying, have a function to help her recognize her individuality. Other themes of religion, bigotry, vengeance, and rebirth are also explored.

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Weyward by Emilia Hart

This is a debut novel about three women as they survive the terrible men around them. The interconnected stories are captivating and told through immersive beautiful prose.

Kate (2019) escapes from an abusive relationship and flees to Weyward cottage, a property she recently inherited from her great aunt Violet. Violet (1942) is a teenager living at the big house with her father and brother. She is very connected to animals and spends most of her time studying bugs. Everything changes when she has to deal with unwelcomed advances from a visiting man. Altha (1619) is on trial for witchcraft after she’s blamed for the mysterious death of her childhood friend’s husband.

All three women end up at Weyward cottage to recover from harrowing experiences with men. Their deep connection to nature and to each other is emphasized as they spend time in the cottage learning from the clues left behind by the women who came before them. Ultimately, it’s a story about resilience and strength. The three stories are engaging and stand on their own resulting in well-earned satisfying conclusions.

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Mayra by Nicky Gonzalez

This is a debut literary horror novel about toxic friendships and unhealthy obsessions. Childhood best friends Ingrid and Mayra have not spoken in years after Mayra left for college. Out of the blue one day, Ingrid gets a call from Mayra inviting her to spend the weekend with her at a secluded house in the everglades. Ingrid is apprehensive about the plan, but curiosity gets the best of her and eventually she accepts. Things feel ominous from the start, the drive to the cottage is difficult and when she finally arrives, Mayra’s boyfriend is there too. Ingrid sees this almost as a betrayal because she sees him as an inconvenience to her plans to reconnect with Mayra. It doesn’t take long for Mayra and Ingrid to find their rhythm again, but now that they’re older it is easier for Ingrid to see how Mayra’s allure was always a sore point for her. As the weekend stretches, Ingrid loses more of her grip on time and her life outside the house and the swamp. The last 50 pages are a wild ride! The writing here is so lush and the Florida swamp setting is the perfect backdrop to the sense of dread looming throughout. It’s a weird, immersive experience.

If you choose to give any of these books a chance, I highly recommend looking up trigger and content warnings before diving in. Happy times reading in the dark!

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