Holly Kybett Smith

Fri Aug 25, 2023 10:00am 4 comments 5 Favorites [+]

Illustration from The Hound of the Baskervilles (Richard Gutschmidt, 1905)

Gothic horror is not like other horror. Most people tend to think of it as the quieter genre—the subtler horror that creeps in like mould in your walls—and they’re not wrong. Subtlety has long been a key hallmark of the genre, which wends its way through domestic settings and unsettles them, not by crashing through with a battering ram but by picking things up and putting them back in slightly the wrong place. The Gothic comforts us paradoxically with its creeping sense of unease, appealing to our desire to be reassured that, “yes, something is wrong here; no, you’re not imagining it.” On the surface, there’s something almost gentle about it—and yet, this genre can resonate powerfully from one age to the next. It speaks to us about the anxieties of our time, and connects us with the anxieties of the past, many of which are more familiar to us than we may realise at first glance.

Perhaps for this reason, Gothic horror has seen a dramatic resurgence of popularity in the last few years. Last summer, over 200,000 people signed up to the newsletter Dracula Daily, and this year the serialisation of Bram Stoker’s classic has been joined by a spectacular accompanying podcast, Re: Dracula. If you’re new to the genre, or looking to delve in a bit deeper, you may be uncertain where to start. To help, here are five memorable Gothic classics, ordered by date of publication, which pack a great deal into relatively few pages…

Historical Fantasy

Five Historical Fantasy Novels That Reimagine British History

Holly Kybett Smith

Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:00am 68 comments 15 Favorites [+]

Claude Monet, 1904

Historical fantasy is a peculiar genre. Situated at the crux of fantasy—the land of the made-up, unrealistic, imaginary—and history, where everything must be fact-checked and evaluated over and over again, it doesn’t seem like a concept that should work. Historical fiction, to many, is something serious, while fantasy is more whimsical. The historical can only be twisted so far before it ceases to be faithful to what really happened and can no longer be called historical at all. By this logic, it might be considered to be the antithesis of fantasy, whose existence hinges on the fanciful question, What if?

Yet when it’s done right, historical fantasy can be truly wondrous. The fantastical elements applied to the past don’t lessen the impact of the history, but instead enhance it by casting familiar stories in a new light. With magical allegory, a book can shift the way we think; can give us brand-new ideas to consider, and force us to think more creatively and to question conventional wisdom. It takes a skilled writer to accomplish this feat—here are five historical fantasy novels which do so masterfully.

Horror

Ten Stories Featuring Haunted Corridors and Sinister Spaces

Holly Kybett Smith

Wed Mar 1, 2023 12:00pm 4 comments 5 Favorites [+]

Screenshot: Warner Bros.

You are standing in a corridor. It is narrow, dark at either end. Beneath your feet, the floorboards creak; all around you, the foundations of the building moan. You’re cold. You turn one way, and then—tentatively—the other. No matter which direction you’re facing in, there’s a blind spot behind you.

Which genre are you in?

Dracula

Dracula Daily Reminds Us Why We Can Never Get Enough of the Count

Holly Kybett Smith

Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:00am 5 comments 6 Favorites [+]

From Dracula (1931, public domain)

If you’ve reared your head online since the 3^rd of May this year, you may have noticed a surprising new anxiety sweeping people’s feeds: How fares our friend Jonathan Harker?

No, we haven’t all suddenly become pen pals with the same random guy: we’re talking about the protagonist of Dracula, the epistolary Gothic horror novel, which is being emailed out as a Substack created by Matt Kirkland. To keep pace with the events of the novel, the newsletter will run from Harker’s first diary entry in May through to November 7th, and—contrary to its name—it does not update daily, only on the dates which correspond to a part of the book.

Poetry

13 Spooky Poems to Get You in the Mood for Halloween

Holly Kybett Smith

Mon Oct 25, 2021 2:00pm 4 comments 2 Favorites [+]

Art by Jan Davidsz. de Heem (c.1630)

It’s early evening, the sky is dusky and you’ve just gotten cosy on an old rocking chair, with a blanket on your knees and a mug of pumpkin spice at your elbow. Or, you’re lying awake blotchy-eyed at 2 am, fully intent on scaring yourself beyond sleep. Or, it’s nightfall and you’re huddled around a campfire in the whistling dark, knee-to-knee with your friends, speaking in wild gestures and stage-whispers… Whoever you are, wherever you are, you’re reading these words for a reason: you want to get your spook on.

But you’ve read Poe. In fact, you’ve probably perused dozens of works by dead white Victorian men. Time to change things up, so make yourself comfortable: Without further ado, here are thirteen haunting, fascinating poems by women to get you in the perfect mood for Halloween.

book recommendations

Five Dark Historical Gothics to Savor This Fall

Holly Kybett Smith

Thu Oct 14, 2021 12:00pm 2 comments 4 Favorites [+]

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes…

…and we’re midway through the month of October, bringing with it longer, colder nights and the scent of apple cider on the breeze. It’s the time of year for traipsing around muddy pumpkin patches, telling ghost stories with a flashlight (or a “torch,” here in the UK) balanced precariously underneath your chin—and, of course, tucking into a good Gothic novel. But let’s say you’ve read the classics. You’ve already torn through The Haunting of Hill House; you want something more modern, less familiar than Dracula. Let’s say you would like to read something fresh; something that encapsulates the Gothic sensibility while taking you somewhere entirely new.

gothic horror

Becoming the Thing That Haunts the House: Gothic Fiction and the Fear of Change

Holly Kybett Smith

Wed Aug 25, 2021 11:00am 6 comments 7 Favorites [+]

Screenshot: Universal Pictures

It starts with a tragedy.

A murder. A betrayal. A loss. Perhaps a secret is taken to the grave and begins to fester there; perhaps a heart is broken and never quite repaired. The archetypal madwoman in the attic outstays her welcome and continues to haunt the space long after her heart has stopped beating. “Some say you can hear her heartbeat in the house’s walls,” an errant maid might whisper to the house’s newest occupants; or, “You can see her sometimes, wandering the halls at night.”

This is the conceit of the Gothic house: a person, a presence, who becomes so attached to their place of residence that, for better or worse, they cannot bear to leave.