August ScaredyKIT: Gothic

Welcome to August ScaredyKIT. This month we're reading Gothic Horror, which tends to mix romance with horror. Also the setting is generally creepy, with castles and haunted houses quite common.

Here's a fairly comprehensive list of books tagged gothic horror: https://www.librarything.com/tag/gothic+horror

Please remember to update the wiki with your reading: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2019_ScaredyKIT#August:_-_Gothic:

I'm planning on Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, especially since it fits the August AlphaKIT too.

I'm choosing Fireside Gothic by Andrew Taylor. The cover describes it as "Three tales of fear, retribution and death". Spooky.

One of my favorite genres! I'm going to look for the oldest book on my shelf.

Out of the top 100, I have 2 in my TBR pile, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

I am going to be reading The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.

I'm hoping for one of these (based on a tagmash):
- The Night Sister / Jennifer McMahon
- The Haunting of Ashburn House / Darcy Coates

I'm not sure I can get "The Haunting of Ashburn House" at my library, though, so hopefully I can get my hands on the McMahon book.

After looking through my shelves, I have decided on The North Wing by Susan Butler. People have tagged it as gothic, I guess I will find out!

>6 DeltaQueen50: I hope you like it. It's been years but I remember it as action-packed.
>7 LibraryCin: The Night Sister was given to me (by my sister) and I haven't read it yet, so that's a second option for me. Thanks for the reminder!

One from the 1001 list that would fit the bill here is The Monk by Matthew Lewis. I read it last year.

I'm actually thinking to read nonfiction for this month; I've had Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters on my shelf for ages and ages, and I think it's finally time I jump into it.

Oh, shoot! "The Night Sister" came in at the library for me already! It's audio, and I don't currently have another audio book to listen to, so I'll be starting early. It was also meant to fulfill my N AlphaKIT in August.

listen sllllooooooooowwwwwwlllllllyyyy.

The North Wing by Susan Butler was billed as a gothic thriller. It was an average/good story; but certainly not a thriller nor gothic in my opinion. It did have the requisite old edifice, in this case Rochester Manor. There was "something" in the North Wing and it did take place during the right time period. At the end of the day, meh. I read this book to fulfill the August Scaredy Cat: Gothic. This was a free ebook. 239 pages 3 (just barely) stars.

>13 majkia: LOL! To be honest, most of my listening is on my way to/from work. I'm on holidays right now until Monday, so that will probably help with listening a little "slower". :-)

I picked up the short - 145 pages - The Castle of Otranto last night and finished it this morning. An oddly entertaining read!

I've read Fireside Gothic and highly recommend it. Three stories, all with isolation, rain or snow, a cathedral or rain swept ruins. Really well-done Gothic.

The Night Sister / Jennifer McMahon
3.5 stars

Amy, Piper, and Margot were friends in the 1980s when they were young (Piper and Margot are also sisters); Jason was an outsider who was in love with Amy. Amy lived in a motel that had been in her family for a while. At that same motel in the 1950s, Amy’s mother, Rose, and Rose’s sister Sylvie grew up. Rose and Sylvie’s grandmother told them stories of “mares”, humans who changed into monsters, but their mother told them it was just her grandmother telling stories. At the same time, weird things happened at the motel… As adults, Amy is married and calls Jason (who is now married to Margot) in a panic to come talk to her; a week later, tragedy…

I listened to the audio, so that often has some influence. To be honest, I found the first half of the book a bit slow, and lost interest at times, but I did pick up most of what was going on. Half way through, the pace picked up for me, and for the last third, it was much more riveting, I thought. When I heard the twist at the end, I didn’t believe that could work from what had already been told in the story, so I thought re-listening (or reading) would be helpful to figuring it out, but ultimately, I think things did all get explained. Overall, I’m rating it “good”, averaging out the slowness of the start, with the fast-pace of the end.

The Other by Thomas Tryon came up in the gothic horror tag mash, and it's a book I picked up with great excitement (in 2009!!!) and so also fits the TBRCAT.

>19 LisaMorr: I really liked The Other, Lisa—hope you do, too!

I read Kill Creek by Scott Thomas, which has a gothic haunted house and is set in rural Kansas. I would not recommend, unfortunately. I thought this started out strong but kind of devolved into a gore fest and what felt like essentially fan fiction.

>19 LisaMorr: I really loved Thomas Tryon when I was younger. I've got a few of his books in the TBR pile to re-read. We'll see how he holds up.

I'm more than halfway through Nine Coaches Waiting and enjoying it very much. I'm pretty sure I read this years ago, as I've liked Mary Stewart's books for a long time, but don't remember enough of it to predict the rest of the story.

Reading Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau. It was on the tag mash list and in my current collection.

I finished Nine Coaches Waiting and it definitely was well worth the read.

>21 sturlington: Thanks for that. Kill Creek keeps coming up in recommendations for me and now I know I can ignore it.

I am currently reading The Elementals by Michael McDowell. This is southern Gothic with "creepy house".

Started The Other yesterday, really good so far! Amazing that it was his debut novel (and yay - another Bingo square to check off!).

The Other was excellent - I appreciate the push from this month's scaredyKIT!

Finished The Elementals by Michael McDowell. Horror from the 80s. Author of screenplays; Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas!

I had some trouble settling on a book this month--first I tried The Whispering Cup, but that turned out to be a murder mystery without Gothic. Then I read the first tale in Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales. While I enjoyed it, and I'll keep reading the tales, it didn't seem Gothic either. So I went back to the source and read the one that started it all, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto.

I've gone ahead and posted September here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/310524

>31 LibraryCin: Thanks!

>32 majkia: No problem! Was easy for me, since I'd done the same theme not long ago!