Leanna Renee Hieber on the Many Possibilities of Ghost Stories

Many of you know by now that Leanna Renee Hieber is my favorite author for spooky, specter-filled Victorian romances. But did you know that her interest in spirits isn’t limited to her fiction? As we gear up for the launch of A Summoning of Souls, the third book in her Spectral City series out next week, Leanna shares some thoughts on the roles that ghosts and ghost stories play in both her life and her writing. Keep an eye out for A Summoning of Souls in stores starting July 21, and feel free to share your own experiences with ghost stories in the comments!

Quote reading: "Just because one worked with the dead didn't mean they couldn't be frightening. Spirits were often creatures of startle and shock." - A Sanctuary of Spirits by Leanna Renee Hieber

*** Continue reading Leanna Renee Hieber on the Many Possibilities of Ghost Stories

Dark Wood Tarot Deck Review

I just bought myself the most delightfully gothic tarot deck! I’ve been dabbling in tarot for several years now, and you may remember my 2016 review of the Raven’s Prophecy Tarot by Maggie Stiefvater, the deck that first made things click for me. Since then, I’ve continued working with the Raven’s Prophecy deck, as well as with the Ghosts and Spirits Tarot by Lisa Hunt. But I’m always on the lookout for new decks that call to me and can help me connect deeper with tarot. Recently, in a moment of self-indulgent quarantine shopping, I found myself scrolling through the impressive selection of tarot decks available on Bookshop.org. I came across the Dark Wood Tarot, which had just come out in June. It takes the structure of a classic Rider-Waite-Tarot deck but places it in a fantasy woodland setting as a metaphor for shadow work. As soon as I saw the artwork on the cards, I knew that I needed the Dark Wood Tarot in my hands immediately. Continue reading Dark Wood Tarot Deck Review

Review of Widdershins—Gay Romance and Cosmic Horror

Widdershins coverDon’t you just hate it when all you want is to study dead languages alone in your office, but you’ve just discovered a dangerous cult that is trying to resurrect the dead and take over the world, and it’s up to you and a handsome detective to stop them? Percival Endicott Whyborne is a particularly reluctant hero in Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk, which came out back in 2012. This first book in Hawk’s lengthy Whyborne & Griffin series is a subversive take on Lovecraft’s cosmic horror mythos that centers a love story between two men. I adore it when writers take the world that H. P. Lovecraft created and use it to create stories that would leave the notoriously bigoted author turning in his grave. Continue reading Review of Widdershins—Gay Romance and Cosmic Horror

Review of The Quiet Gentleman—Regency Romance with a Gothic Flair

The Quiet Gentleman book coverWhen the black sheep of the family inherits the title and estate, you know some Gothic inheritance drama is about to go down. Gervase Frant has succeeded his father as Earl, only to find himself fending off attacks on his life while living amongst the family that always hated him in Georgette Heyer’s The Quiet Gentleman (1951). The Romancing the Gothic book club I’ve been participating in this summer recently introduced me to Heyer—the prolific twentieth-century British author who essentially established historical romance as a genre, specializing in the Regency romance. The Quiet Gentleman is a prime example of her work and also shows the clear influence that the Gothic often had on the budding romance genre. Continue reading Review of The Quiet Gentleman—Regency Romance with a Gothic Flair

Review of The Last Memoria

The Last Memoria coverIf you lose your memories, how do you know who you are? Can you be guilty of a crime you don’t remember? What if there are parts of yourself that are better off forgotten? Rachel Emma Shaw explores these themes of memory and identity in her debut fantasy novel The Last Memoria. The book came out just last month and is the first in a duology. The audiobook is currently available for free, for a limited time—read to the end for details. Continue reading Review of The Last Memoria

Contemporary Black Horror Writers

Let’s get one thing clear: The Gothic Library stands with Black Lives Matter and with the protests against police brutality and against the injustices done to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others. As we watch the horrors play out in the news and on our streets, it becomes clear why Black authors are some of the most poignant voices in horror fiction. To be Black in America is to live in a real-world horror story, an idea that Leila Taylor explored in depth in her book Darkly: Black History and America’s Gothic Soul. I have briefly touched before on the past contributions of African-American writers to the Gothic genre, but today I want to highlight a few living authors whom you can support: Continue reading Contemporary Black Horror Writers

Guest Appearance on Sublimely Gothic Podcast

There’s a new Gothic podcast in town! Sublimely Gothic is a Gothic literature-themed podcast hosted by Amy Sophiamehr and Jessica Znidarsic. In each episode, they discuss a single Gothic text along with its core tropes and themes. The podcast launched last month with a debut episode on Jane Eyre. And I had the pleasure of being a guest on Episode 2: The Castle of Otranto, which aired on Friday. You can find both episodes on the Pagan Poetess website!

Let me know what you think of the episode! I’m hoping to do more guest appearances with Sublimely Gothic in the future, so keep an eye out.

The Gothic Library is Five Years Old!

Happy bloggiversary! As of this Friday, June 5, I’ll have been posting weekly to The Gothic Library for exactly five years. When I started this blog the summer after graduating college, I never imagined I’d stick with it for so long or that it would become such a huge part of my life. For those of you who have been with me for all five years, thank you for believing in me! For readers who have found this blog more recently, thank you for joining! The last time I did any sort of reflecting on my blogging journey was back at my one-year anniversary, so I’d like to take this time to highlight some of the accomplishments I’m most proud of that have come out of this blog:

Gravestone that reads 5 Years!

Continue reading The Gothic Library is Five Years Old!

Review of Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology

Unspeakable coverThe Gothic has always been a place where marginalized gender expressions and sexualities could be explored—though in the past, this was often either done through deeply buried subtext or in a way that punished transgression and reasserted the prevailing societal norms. Today, however, queer Gothic is one of the most lively and prolific areas of the genre, and many authors are writing stories where queer identities are overt, accepted, and even celebrated. Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology, edited by Celine Frohn, collects a whole set of stories that do just that. The anthology came out back in February from Nyx Publishing after raising money through a successful Kickstarter campaign. Continue reading Review of Unspeakable: A Queer Gothic Anthology

Gothic Tropes: The Snake Lady

Monstrous women are found throughout Gothic literature. They represent fears and anxieties around female bodies and women’s role in society. But there is one type of monstrous woman we see over and over again, whose symbolism goes back centuries: the snake lady. Part woman and part snake, the snake lady might physically be half and half—like a land-bound mermaid—or she might transform between the two forms. Either way, she inspires both desire and fear—the paradox at the heart of the Gothic.

Painting of a humanoid serpant handing Eve an apple from the Tree of Knowledge
Michelangelo’s The Fall and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Continue reading Gothic Tropes: The Snake Lady