Welcome to In The Club, a newsletter of resources to keep your book group well-met, well-read, and well-fed.
I noticed a few really good gothic novels coming out soon and wanted to highlight a few of them (as well as one that came out just a few months ago). While I was assembling this list, I noticed a lot of them were written by women. This could very well be some unknown bias on my part (I may have succumbed to targeted marketing!), but it might also be something else. There has actually been a lot of discourse on how women have used gothic literature as a way to voice their anxieties concerning expectations of women when it comes to domesticity, and how they’ve been doing so since at least the 18th century. Ellen Moers coined the term “Female Gothic” to describe just that.
Maybe they were comfortable questioning the status quo concerning female duties within the medium of a horror novel? Science fiction, for instance, often does a great job of detailing social ills while packaging them in a fantastical wrapping, which allows people to suspend biases that might normally show if those same issues were presented overtly. Some female authors writing gothic fiction may have been trying to do something similar by dressing their concerns in a haunted setting. In a lot of gothic novels I’ve come across, I notice that the female protagonist is usually in an undesirable location and possibly even with unsavory people. And, when they try to voice their discontent, they are gaslighted. Then we find out (a lot of times) that their fears were valid. It seems like the gothic subgenre can still say a lot about women’s lives, and the books I’ll mention below do just that, with the added bonus of a deliciously creepy setting.
Now, on to the club!
Nibbles and Sips
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No shade to canned fish lovers, but the only time I’ve probably ever used it is when my mother was teaching me to make salmon croquettes (we called them salmon patties, but I want y’all to think I’m bougie). I come to crave them every now and then. Follow this recipe from Jocelyn, aka Grandbabycakes for your own. I haven’t tried this with an air fryer just yet, but I think that’s the next move. Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it!
With these basic/minimum ingredients, they seem to be something you can kind of whip together whenever:
- Canned Salmon
- Onions
- Peppers
- Egg
- Flour
Now for the books!
The Female Gothic
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
This is being described as Rebecca meets Mexican Gothic, and is about Beatriz trying to get right after the Mexican War of Independence. Her father, General Hernandez, is executed as a result of the war and Beatriz is desperately trying to reestablish her security when widower Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes to her. He’s handsome and monied, so she says yes. Let’s call this “when securing the bag goes wrong part 157” because when she gets to his estate, she starts having terrible dreams, the housekeeper is putting magical symbols on the kitchen door, and maybe worst of all is the Don’s sister is gaslighting her (the nerve!). She starts to suspect that the former lady of the house was murdered and it’s her ghost that haunts the halls, and the only person she can trust to help her unearth the truth is a priest that practices witchcraft.
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
Olivia grew up in an all-girls school as an outcast because of her muteness. The only person who could communicate with her was the matron who taught her to use sign language, and who is now gone. She can barely even seek solace in her mother’s journals as they eventually descend into madness as she reads them. Well, one day she seems to catch a break when she gets a letter from her uncle inviting her to his estate called Gallant. Naturally, she goes, but finds out that no one actually sent for her. On top of that, there are ghouls and her cousin Matthew is super shady. The Gallant house does hold answers to secrets about what happened to her parents, though, even if it’s not what she expected.
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (July 19, 2022)
Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic also really belongs on this list, but I won’t list it separately so as to not be redundant. This is a remix of The Island of Doctor Moreau and takes place in Mexico in the 19th century. Carlota, the daughter of Dr. Moreau, dreams of a life outside of her father’s invention. She also wonders about Eduardo, while Montgomery, Dr. Moreau’s assistant who suffers from alcoholism, wonders about her. While all of this pining transpires, Dr. Moreau’s half-human, half-animal creations lurk in the shadows, struggling to attain independence even though they were meant to obey. Yeah, there’s a lot going on here. In the best way.
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson
This is described as The Haunting of Hill House + Get Out. It’s about Marigold, who moves from California to a Midwestern city with her new stepfather and his obnoxious daughter. Their picturesque house on Maple Street in Cedarville seems perfect, but things keep disappearing, one of her stepsister’s new friends wants her gone, and the ghosts Mari keeps trying to outrun (including that of her past addiction) may not be imaginary.
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
Suggestion Section
Read about this lawyer fighting for trans rights
What does the image of the cat signify in Japanese lit?
Some great new YA dark academia books out in 2022
Here are some more books that cover social horror, a couple ones I’ve mentioned here
I hope this newsletter found you well, and as always, thanks for hanging out! If you have any comments or just want to connect, send an email to erica@riotnewmedia.com or holla at me on Twitter @erica_eze_ . You can also catch me talking more mess in the new In Reading Color newsletter as well as chattin’ with my new cohost Tirzah Price on the Hey YA podcast.
Until next week,
E