Gothic Thrillers for the Haunted at Heart
Haunted house stories and horror don’t have to be historical, but there’s something about the genre of gothic fiction in particular that just feels right in a historical setting. Maybe it’s because the genre is so strongly associated with books from the past, like Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and The Mysteries of Udolpho. Today’s authors have certainly shown that contemporary gothic novels can be just as compelling (see Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas, Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, and Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey), but even many modern-day authors of gothic fiction populate their worlds with historical settings. Think Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Isabel Cañas, and Sarah Waters.
These four gothic thrillers fall into that latter category of historical gothic novels written by contemporary writers. Their perspective lends something new to these stories of old, twining together past and present and drawing upon gothic stories we’re already familiar with, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Crack them open if you dare, but beware the haunting stories that await inside.
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Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
Timelines cross and merge in this inventive historical thriller about a haunted house in Japan. A college student fleeing the scene of a terrible crime in New York hopes to find refuge in his father’s new house in Japan. Instead, he is haunted by the figure of a sword-wielding woman outside his window. More than a century before, that very woman is visited by a terrible omen: a foreigner in her home. Only one of them is real.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
It doesn’t get much more Gothic than a pastor being haunted by an eerie presence in his church, especially when that presence is tied to a past he’d rather forget. Years ago, a massacre took place in the nearby Blackfeet Nation. Now, a being called “Good Stab” wanders the fields. When he makes his way to the church, he tells the preacher he’s come for absolution…but whose absolution, exactly, remains unclear.
TW: Please be aware that this story includes graphic depictions of violence, including toward children and infants.
The Eye of Goliath by Diego Muzzio, translated by Rahul Bery
A WWI veteran in 1920s Edinburgh treating mentally ill patients with an experimental new method takes on a patient with a mysterious case. The man, an engineer named David Bradley, was sent on a disastrous journey to inspect a lighthouse on a remote Argentinean island. He returned unable to speak and compelled to swim at all times, regardless of his environment. His disjointed diary entries only muddle the circumstances of his condition further. As Dr. Pierce strives desperately to uncover how a once meticulous man became so deranged, his own scientific efforts become increasingly disturbed.
Immaculate Deception by Isabela Livino
This debut gothic horror novel set in nineteenth-century Brazil follows a young pregnant woman who finds herself in the care of a strange doctor after a carriage accident leaves her injured. The man she hoped would soon be her husband is with her, but he’s no longer the charming man she remembers. He’s quiet and obsessed, slowly unraveling before her eyes. The men tending to her are hiding dark secrets, and if she can’t uncover them and escape this house, she might find herself stuck in their web of deceit forever.
Keep the thrills and chills going all season with these other great historical thrillers and gothic horror novels:
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