Looking for a spooky read with a dark and brooding aesthetic? Whether it’s about ghosts from the past, a doomed love affair, or tragic vampires, a goth book can be a balm for your shadowy soul. This list of books with gothic themes will slake your thirst for bloody good literature.
Classic Gothic Books
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
The original vampire book series is steeped in gothic atmosphere as lush and inviting as a New Orleans night. Anne Rice’s hauntingly human monsters are beautiful and deadly, but for all the dark sensuality of their characters, these gothic horror books are not short on terror. Populated by tragic outsiders with a thirst for blood, the Vampire Chronicles have been beloved by goths for decades.
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
This classic gothic novel offers up a tale of vampiric seduction with a sapphic twist. As the charming yet mysterious Carmilla grows close to a young woman who has taken her into her isolated castle in the countryside, strange happenings soon follow in her wake. Nightmares are indistinguishable from reality, and horror merges with attraction in this spellbinding lesbian vampire novel.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
This is the ultimate dark romance, the one that set the template for a whole genre. Heathcliff and Catherine’s love affair is a dark vortex that destroys multiple lives and has the power to transcend death itself. Ghosts are hardly the most frightening part of this story of obsession, forbidden love, and madness on the windswept Yorkshire moors.
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
This collection of short stories offers a feminist take on classic fairytales that doesn’t shy away from how bleak and brutal these stories really are. Known for the classic stories “Wolf-Alice,” “The Bloody Chamber,” and “The Company of Wolves,” the whole volume is alive with wonder, dark comedy, and horror. A must-read for lovers of dark fairytales.
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Master of horror Clive Barker wrote this novella about a man so driven to experience the limits of pleasure and pain he awakens the Cenobites, a group of demons determined to drag him back to hell. Evocatively written with sparse, elegant prose, this tale of gore, sensuality, and terror shows that desire is the root of all evil.
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
This series of visionary, groundbreaking graphic novels tells the story of Morpheus, the King of Dreams, as he attends to his duties watching over the realm of imagination where all mortals go when they sleep. Along with his undying siblings the Endless, Morpheus often becomes involved in humanity’s affairs, and the resulting dark fantasy series is filled with whimsy, grief, and humor. The Dreaming is a world you’ll never want to leave.
Contemporary Gothic Books
Ghost Summer by Tananarive Due
This short story collection showcases Due’s storytelling power and empathetic character building as she explores Gracetown, a Florida community that is haunted by more than just ghosts. With an evocative setting and plenty of Southern Gothic atmosphere, it’s a place you’ll want to revisit again and again.
Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
Part haunted house story, part social commentary, this gripping novel follows two women who once spent the night at a notoriously haunted house when they were friends in their university days. One is trans; the other has become a prominent transphobe, but neither can escape the horrors that bind them together.
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson
This blood-drenched tale is based on the novel Dracula. It uses the perspective of the vampire’s three brides to explore what might have happened in the years before Jonathan Harker stumbled into the Count’s castle. Spanning continents and centuries, this dark romantic novel is one you won’t want to put down.
Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins
This engrossing novel tells the story of the Melancons, an old and powerful Harlem family who are known to possess magical powers. When one woman is wronged by their matriarch, it sets off a chain of events that won’t let the past stay buried. Awash in gothic themes of grief, toxic family dynamics, and magic, this haunting book is one that will linger with you like a cursed family heirloom.