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Blue Bishop has a knack for finding lost things. No one is more surprised than Blue, however, when she comes across an abandoned newborn baby in the woods, just south of a very special buttonwood tree. Sarah Grace Landreneau Fulton has always tried to do the right thing, but her own mother would disown her if she ever learned half of Sarah Grace’s secrets. The unexpected discovery of the baby girl will alter Blue’s and Sarah Grace’s lives forever. Both women will uncover long-held secrets that reveal who they really are—and what they’re willing to sacrifice for family.
Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed. I am fresh off of devouring Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest and I have so many feelings! I want more POC-authored gothic fiction, because I didn’t know just how much I needed gothic horror set in Mexico until it was presented to me in such a pretty (and terrifying) package. A dark-skinned heroine, references to Pedro Infante, visits to a curandera… take my money! So today we’re talking gothic lit written by authors of color in the hopes that we’ll see more and more of it. It’s out there, trust. Publishing, listen up.
To the club!!
Nibbles and Sips
It’s getting hot in here, but I can’t take off all my clothes. My “desk” (dining room table) faces a giant window and I don’t want any problems. So! I’m still whipping up big batches of refreshing drinks to keep cool. I love this white wine sangria—which to be clear, I enjoy after work…mostly. Its star ingredients are elderflower liqueur and lychee, a delicious tropical fruit native to Southeast Asia that does in fact look kinda like an eyeball when peeled. Make a batch for social distance book club!
Ingredients:
- 1 bottle of white wine – I’ve been using Sauvignon Blanc so I can control the sweetness, but do you. (non-alcoholic alternative: ginger ale or sparkling water)
- 1/2 cup St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur (non-alcoholic alternative: elderflower syrup)
- 20 oz can of lychee fruit in heavy syrup – drain the fruit but reserve the syrup
- 2 white peaches, sliced into half moons or chopped
Instructions:
Dump it all in a pitcher and serve chilled! Well, sort of. Don’t pour all of the lychee syrup in at once; go bit by bit until the flavor concentration and sweetness is to your liking.
If You’re Gothic and You Know It, Haunt Your Friends
No, that heading doesn’t 100% make sense but I’m enjoying it. So ha! Now enjoy these three works of gothic fiction by authors of color that are out here reshaping gothic lit as we know it.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia – Sweet baby cheeses, I love this twisty, unsettling creeper of a book. Fashionable Mexico City socialite Noemi receives a cryptic letter from her newly-wed cousin Catalina begging to be rescued. Noemi heads to High Place, the creepy ol’ house set in the mountains of Hidalgo where Catalina lives to see what, if anything, she can do. Virgil, Catalina’s English husband, says it’s tuberculosis that lead his wife to write that nonsensical letter, but Noemi isn’t buying that mess. What begins as a slow, simmering uneasiness boils into full blown disturbia as Noemi discovers the secrets hidden in High Place. If you liked the movie Get Out, this has that same something-is-so-wrong-but-gawd-what-is-it vibe that builds up to some serious WTFery. (CW: references to sexual assault and I cannot stress this enough: body horror. I may never eat mushrooms again.)
Some resources to kick of your discussion: This PRH interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia, specifically the discussion of POC in gothic lit, as well as this Twitter thread on the importance of classifying the book as gothic horror and not magical realism.
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi – In this supernatural coming-of-age novel set in Dover, Miranda Silver starts hearing voices and develops an eating disorder after the unexpected death of her mother, She lives with her twin brother and widowed father in their family home turned bed-and-breakfast and this place is 1000% haunted AF. When Miranda brings a friend over to visit, the house physically manifests Dover’s hostility toward outsiders within its four walls. It sounds deliciously creepy, especially when paired with the stunning language I’ve come to expect from Helen Oyeyemi. It’s pretty clear that this books is rife with cultural commentary on race and family legacies, all of which should be excellent fodder for book club convos.
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas – Catherine House is an elite university with a super selective admissions process and a reputation for producing brilliance, tucked away in the woods of rural Pennsylvania because of course it is. The price of acceptance is steep though, and I’m not talking dinero: students are required to give the House three years—summers included—during which they’ll be completely cut off from the outside world. How completely? Completely. No friends, no family, no TV or music, even your clothes have to stay behind. It all seems so shiny and prestigious, but then a rebellious undergraduate uncovers a shocking secret about a group of students in the wake of a tragedy. Turns out there’s a dark truth beneath that glossy veneer.
Suggestion Section
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is such a book club fave! If your club hasn’t read it yet, get started with these questions and discussion guide.
Tor.com’s Terry Pratchett Book Club is now on its second book.
I love this, especially with so many kids stuck at home and also worrying about the state of the nation: the Bronx Book Project is giving South Bronx Early College Academy students free books by Black and brown authors and will be hosting Zoom book clubs to discuss them. Any other programs you know of doing something similar?
Thanks for hanging with me today! Shoot me an email at vanessa@riotnewmedia.com with your burning book club questions or find me on Twitter and the gram @buenosdiazsd. Sign up for the Audiobooks newsletter and catch me once a month on the All the Books podcast.
Stay bad & bookish, my friends.
Vanessa