Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics
- September 7: Books Guaranteed to Put a Smile On Your Face
- September 14: Books With Numbers in the Title
- September 21: Books on my Autumn / Fall To-Be-Read List
- September 28: Freebie: Favourite Fictional Detectives
- October 5: Bookish Pet Peeves
- October 12: Online Resources for Book Lovers
Hallowe’en is one of my favourite holidays – which is perhaps why this half term my daughter and I have already carved pumpkins and have (perhaps ambitious) plans for Hallowe’en baking. And speaking of ambitious, my daughter rejected my traditional scary face idea had demanded an Elsa pumpkin this year… this is what I came up with!
Oh dear! Maybe they will look better when I wash off the guidelines! I doubt it though.
Anyway, onto this week’s topic.
I do love a great classic Gothic novel – I am genuinely re-reading Dracula at the moment – but they seem a little obvious: Carmilla, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights…I love them all! That visceral challenge to tame scientific rationalism. Fantastic!
I thought I would simply list the last ten reviews I’ve posted which I tagged as Gothic this week – I do so prefer that Gothic build up of tension and anxiety that the more in-your-face horror genre.
Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
What made this Gothic
Creepy isolated house.
Pervasive sense of threat and of violation.
What made this Stand out
Great writing
Strong female heroine.
The Deathless Girls, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
What made this Gothic
Dracula.
Wilds of Romania.
What made this Stand out
Another strong female heroine
White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi
What made this Gothic
Conscious and sentient possessive house.
Building sense of the uncanny.
What made this Stand out
Lesbian heroine
Caribbean representation.
A SENTIENT FREAKING HOUSE AS A NARRATOR!
Her Body and other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado
What made this Gothic
Series of short stories with visceral gothic elements
Pervasive sense of threat and of violation.
What made this Stand out
Oh my, the ribbon story!
Feminist perspectives
Very visceral!
Pine, Francine Toon
What made this Gothic
Isolated rural setting on the edge of a forest.
Opens on Hallowe’en!
Lonely vulnerable girl protagonist.
What made this Stand out
The powerful sense of the setting and the village community
Starve Acre, Andrew Michael Hurley
What made this Gothic
Creepy isolated house.
Growing sense of threat and of overpowering grief.
What made this Stand out
Oh my god that terrifying hare!
Wakenhyrst, Michelle Paver
What made this Gothic
Creepy isolated house.
Unreliable narrator.
What made this Stand out
The marches
Lost Acre, Andrew Caldecott
What made this Gothic
Creepy isolated village, limited access to the rest of England or its own history.
Darkly rich community of misfits and criminals and villains.
What made this Stand out
Ensemble cast and community
Alternate reality portals, magic gems
A compelling villain
Melmoth, Sarah Penny
What made this Gothic
Fractured narratives across time.
Pervasive sense of threat and of violation.
What made this Stand out
Prague was a great setting.
The birds – deeply disturbing.
Great re-imagining of Melmoth The Wanderer
A Skinful of Shadows, Frances Hardinge
What made this Gothic
Ghosts.
Pervasive sense of threat and of violation.
What made this Stand out
Set during British Civil War – an era I am not that familiar with
IT’S WRITTEN BY FRANCES HARDINGE and all her stuff is wonderful!
Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Themes
- November 2: Books I Would Hand to Someone Who Claims to Not Like Reading
- November 9: Memorable Things Characters Have Said (quotes from book characters that have stuck with you)
- November 16: Books to Read If You Love/Loved X (X can be a genre, specific book, author, movie/TV show, etc.)
- November 23: Characters I’d Love An Update On (Where are they now that the book is over?)
- November 30: Bookish Memories (Share stories of your reading life as a child, events you’ve gone to, books that made an impression on you, noteworthy experiences with books, authors you’ve met, etc. Reminisce with me!)
The Book Lovers' Sanctuary 
I think you did Elsa justice! I also love your book choices.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha you are being more than femerous about Elsa but thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My Elza says your pumpkins look just fine to her!
I have made a BIG note in my diary for your post now. I love a good gothic story, so I need to come and revisit you later tonight to add some books to my TBR. This is a great list!
Happy Halloween and here’s my Ten Pets you can get at Stephen King’s Pet Shop
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really need to read Her Body and Other Parties! It looks spooky and atmospheric!
I read Melmoth a few years ago and while I didn’t like it, fans of the gothic literature would enjoy it much more.
Have you read her other book, The Essex Serpent? I adored that one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have read The Essex Serpent and whilst I liked it, I didn’t love it … ended up feeling that it had needed a more brutal edit somehow!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your pumpkins are wonderful! Good job with them.
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-halloween-picture-books/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t read any of these, mainly because Gothic novels tend to intimidate me. That said, White for Witching sounds intriguing. The house is the narrator? That sounds like a great idea!
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/12-books-with-orange-covers-pick-a-color/
LikeLiked by 1 person
White Is For Witching was a bit of a challenging read for me – but powerful and disturbing once you found your way around the multiple narrators and time shifts….
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve recently read The Mercies by Kiran Millgrave Harwood so I will have to search out this other one, and I have Wakenhyrst in my TBR pile.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh The Mercies was wonderful! The Deathless Girls was aimed at a YA audience but I loved it – a cracking good adventure narrative about (two of) Dracula’s brides 👰♂ 👰♀
LikeLike
Cool pumpkins! And wow these look like great picks for the season. I think the Toon book sounds super interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really liked it! Creepy child, ghost mum, alcoholic dad, all part of an isolated community… really atmospheric
LikeLike
I have heard so many good things about Mexican Gothic!
My list— https://fiftytwo.blog/2021/10/26/ttt-book-covers-that-were-scarier-than-the-book/
Happy TTT!
Lori
LikeLike
Mexican Gothic is tentatively on my TBR.
Happy reading!
My TTT https://readwithstefani.com/top-ten-halloween-recommendations/
LikeLike
Great list – and I love your Elsa pumpkin! I keep meaning to try A Skinful of Shadows.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anything by Hardinge is great – though I prefer her historical to her high fantasy writings – Cuckoo Song, The Lie Tree and Skinful of Shadows are a wonderful group of books!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Her Body and Other Parties is my favorite short story collection. The Husband Stitch definitely stands out!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love your pumpkins! We’re going to carve ours today. I don’t have high hopes for them. Pretty much every book on your list is on my TBR. I recently read Mexican Gothic and really liked it.
LikeLike
Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights are all wonderful! Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great list! I loved Mexican Gothic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love the pumpkins!! Mexican Gothic is on my tbr, and I recently read Frankenstein for the first time. It was a perfect fall-read. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Frankenstein is fabulous! I’m re-reading – or listening to – Dracula as an audiobook at the moment which works really well!
LikeLike
[…] October 26: Hallowe’en Freebie […]
LikeLike
[…] October 26: Hallowe’en Freebie […]
LikeLike
[…] October 26: Hallowe’en Freebie […]
LikeLike
[…] October 26: Hallowe’en Freebie […]
LikeLike
[…] October 26: Hallowe’en Freebie […]
LikeLike
[…] October 26: Hallowe’en Freebie […]
LikeLike
[…] October 26: Hallowe’en Freebie […]
LikeLike
[…] 2021: Hallowe’wn pumpkins and gothic books. […]
LikeLike