Atmospheric literary fiction for autumn nights - recommendations

[IceIceBabyBump]

Hello MNers!

I'm summer I started a thread asking for recommendations for books to read in the blistering sunshine.

Well, it feels like autumn is nearly upon us. So, now I'm looking for recommendations for creepy, atmospheric books to read on dark, autumn nights.

I like literary fiction - dark, claustrophobic books.

Here are some I'd recommend for autumn nights
My Dark Vanessa by Elizabeth Russell
Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh
We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson
The Luminaries by Eleanor Caton
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

What would you recommend?

Eimear McBride's Strange Hotel, Laurie Colwin's A Big Storm Knocked It Over, Kate O'Brien's The Ante-Room, Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows trilogy, Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September, Susanna Moore's In the Cut.

Following!

Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Thank you!

I read "Once Upon A River" years ago but I can't for the life of me remember what it was about.

I tried "Burial Rites" last year but couldn't get past the first few pages. I might try again.

For dark and claustrophobic I love John Connolly’s Nocturnes. Short stories but extremely dark and claustrophobic!

Stick with Burial Rites - it's brilliant

Jamaica Inn is amazing, isn't it?

Anne Rice - The Mayfair Witches trilogy

My fave book series. I always find something new when I read it.

Following with interest! I have Jamaica Inn ready to go for when the nights start drawing in!

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler Olsen was definitely a claustrophobic read!

The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler Olsen was definitely a claustrophobic read!

Wasn’t it just? Not sure if it counts as literary but Michelle Paver’s Dark Matter is wintry.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco is such a good book. It’s clever, claustrophobic, and, despite being quite old, is very relevant to our current society.

Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray (plenty of foggy, gaslight creepiness)
Iris Murdoch: The Good Apprentice (Harold Bloom thought this was her best novel and it feels kind of right for darker nights – weird and creepy)

I don't know why, but I always think of Tolkien and C S Lewis when the nights pull in. I love the image of them and their friends (the Inklings) meeting in the Eagle and Child pub on winter evenings, getting drunk and reading Lord of the Rings and the Narnia books out loud to one another.

If you want to fight the darker nights with something bright, light and cheerful

P. G. Wodehouse Right Ho Jeeves
Patrick Fermor A Time of Gifts
Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway (well, the bits with Clarissa are bright)

Dracula, Bram Stoker
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters
Affinity by Sarah Waters as well.

I really enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible this summer.

If I really wanted to creep myself out though, I'd go for the ghost stories of M R James!

I absolutely loved By Firelight by Edith Pargeter - she's the Brother Cadfael author - though I read it 30 years ago and don't remember much other than it was nothing like the blurb

Just published the Winter Guest by Sarah Moss.
A short book, I wish I'd read it on a sofa rather than a plane ride

Hawthorn by Elaine Thompson - very atmospheric Scottish ghost story.