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Original poster

Need a gothic horror book

35 replies

Rayn · 06/12/2021 09:18

Need to find a good horror gothic book. My friend used to be a big reader in her teens and hasn't read a book since for twenty years!
She wants to get back into reading so want to buy a her a novel for Xmas. She loves horror and gothic in general but don't want to get anything too heavy as it may put her off!

Any recommnedations? I thought about The corset by Laura Purcell as I love that!

OP posts:
Mybalconyiscracking · 06/12/2021 13:00

EF Benson’s ghost stories are surprisingly weird and very good.

Maireas · 06/12/2021 13:00

Wuthering Heights.
I don't know why people think it's romantic, it's very Gothic. Brilliant book.

PumpkinCrumble · 06/12/2021 13:00

Just though of another: Pine by Francine Toon is in my TBR pile.

PumpkinCrumble · 06/12/2021 12:59

Or Stephen King?

PumpkinCrumble · 06/12/2021 12:58

Laurel K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series starts off well. I used to enjoy them…but stopped after about book 10. Similarly Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. Although I guess these are more supernatural crime…than Gothic.

Maybe you could get her some old point Horror books on EBay? I’ve enjoyed re-reading the ones I was obsessed with as a kid?

Sickoffamilydrama · 06/12/2021 12:53

Another one for you OP that isn't Bram Stoker kind of gothic but I really like how she writes her characters the women are very well rounded is Charlaine Harris, she does the True Blood series that was adapted for TV but also Aurora Teagarden series.

kennelmaid · 06/12/2021 12:07

M R James, classic gothic ghost stories. 'Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You' gives me the shivers just thinking about it.

wolfstarling · 06/12/2021 12:00

Edgar Allen Poe
Angela Carter - Bloody Chamber

tripfiction · 06/12/2021 11:57

You could try titles like:

The Whistling
Mexican Gothic
and the Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski

Sickoffamilydrama · 06/12/2021 09:22

What about the classics like Dracula, Frankenstein or The hound of the Baskerville's I've been reading classics lately and funnily enough there's a reason they are classic as they are really good.

Except Lady Chatterley's lover which just goes on to much for my liking.

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