Books

Top 5 books if you're into Gothic tales, chosen by Lauren Owen

The author and academic selects five darkly mysterious stories designed to send shivers down spines

Image: freeimages.com

Small Angels author Lauren Owen selects her top five books if you’re looking for a Gothic story.

1. The Squaw (short story) by Bram Stoker

A honeymooning couple and their friend visit Nuremberg – and its infamous torture device, the Iron Virgin – with horrible consequences. A bloody gem which offers a fascinating (if uncomfortable) insight into Victorian attitudes to race and gender.

2. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

I adore stories about doomed, declining families and forbidding old mansions – and this novel gives these classic gothic tropes a fresh and thrilling take. Noemí Taboada is a delightful and thoroughly modern gothic heroine – strong-willed, brave and loyal.

3. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver 

This tale of an ill-fated exploration to the Arctic plays brilliantly on our human dread of the dark. The presence-threatening Jack, the protagonist, is both pitiable and horrifying. This book also uses one of my favourite gothic devices, the diary narrative.

Small Angels by Lauren Owen is out on August 2 (Tinder Press, £18.99)

4. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

Hearing a story can be a risky business in the gothic (just look at Interview with the Vampire). In Coleridge’s poem, the Mariner’s listener is marked forever by what he hears. And given the tale the Mariner tells – which features a ship crewed by corpses – it’s small wonder.

5. The Italian by Ann Radcliffe

Radcliffe is an early master of gothic fiction, and this novel is packed with sinister moments to revel in – including a brush with the Inquisition, and a tense sequence where the hero and heroine escape a convent where the heroine has been held prisoner.  

You can buy Small Angels from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine. If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member.You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play.

Support the Big Issue

For over 30 years, the Big Issue has been committed to ending poverty in the UK. In 2024, our work is needed more than ever. Find out how you can support the Big Issue today.
Vendor martin Hawes

Recommended for you

View all
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts
Books

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel review – a depth of feeling like a punch to the guts

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island
Books

Clear by Carys Davies review – a wonderful, poetic reminder that no man is an island

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff
Books

Top 5 books about early modern witchcraft, chosen by author Ramie Targoff

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world
Books

Why walking is such a great way to see, sense and stake a claim in the world

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Here's when UK households to start receiving last cost of living payments

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know