Gothic literature often contains the experience of something sinister just lying beneath the surface of a normal-seeming facade. You might have characters that walk into an old Victorian house, and everything seems normal at first, but then suspicious otherworldly incidents start happening. Often, we’re never really sure if what’s happening is supernatural or not.
Southern Gothic may contain nods to its antebellum history. This type of literature frequently features the grotesque, sinister vibes, or evil characters that disguise themselves as innocent or good people. Appalachian Gothic is deeply connected to place. There’s often a rural setting with deep connections to the natural world. Sometimes nature itself seems to seek vengeance for the intrusion of industry and its destruction of the land.
Southern, Appalachian, or both, this subgenre of Gothic literature isn’t static. It’s not limited by strict conventions or boxed in by tradition. Like all literature, Southern and Appalachian Gothic literature is ever evolving, changing over the course of time. An author may use just hints of gothic qualities in their novels or they may take a deep dive into the genre. Whatever the case, Southern and Appalachian Gothic literature is as alive as it ever was. Every year, more authors publish stories full of the dark and sinister vibes that honor these American Gothic traditions.
If you’re looking for a place to start, I’ve gathered a stellar collection of Appalachian and Southern Gothic titles that are perfect for your TBR.
Smothermoss by Alisa Alering
In a 1980s small town in Pennsylvania, sisters Sheila and Angie live with their mother, who works at the local asylum. When Angie discovers a bloody, ripped shirt, their whole world seems to change. A mysterious man shows up, and violence looms ever larger in their minds. The sisters realize that one of the only things they can count on is each other. Alering captures the Appalachian Gothic mood perfectly, adding in fabulism and those touches of the supernatural that have you questioning reality as you read along.
House of Cotton by Monica Brashears
After her grandmother dies, Magnolia is left to find her way on her own. When she meets a strange man named Cotton, he offers her a job impersonating his clients’ dead loved ones. She accepts, and soon finds herself learning how to pretend to be someone else. Living in Knoxville, Magnolia navigates urban Appalachia with conveniences of modern life — dating apps, taxi apps, and more. But Brasheares brings in the grotesque and sinister just beneath the surface of the narrative that draws you in. Readers are never quite sure if the supernatural elements of the story are just in Magnolia’s head or if there might really be more to it.
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
It’s June 1950, and in Florida, a young boy named Robbie Stephens Jr. is sentenced to six months at a reformatory “school” for defending his sister against a white boy’s advances. But the thing is, Robbie can see ghosts, and at the reformatory, he’s overwhelmed by them. Dead boys are everywhere. Meanwhile, his sister Grace searches for a way to free her brother and flee the South once and for all. Due’s novel is a masterwork in suspense. She blends the very real horrors with the supernatural, creating a powerful narrative about love and resilience in the face of the all too real evils of these schools and the systemic racism that allowed them to exist.
Revelator by Daryl Gregory
In the backwoods of Tennessee in the 1930s, Stella lives with her grandmother at their cabin in the woods. There they are ruled by an entity just known as Ghostdaddy. Years later, Stella has left her childhood home and is making her way in the world when she learns that her grandmother has died. Now she must go back home and settle her grandmother’s estate. Gregory has perfectly captured the creepy Appalachian atmosphere with this novel. It’s unsettling and dark, the woods seeming to come alive as Stella wanders through them. Not to mention, cryptid lovers may recognize something in this novel’s pages.
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo
After Andrew’s best friend Eddie dies by what seems to be suicide, Andrew heads to Vanderbilt to start the academic programs that they were supposed to do together. There, he learns more about Eddie’s life and the mysteries his friend seemed to be uncovering. Summer Sons evokes queer Appalachian Gothic vibes in spades. We’re never quite sure if the supernatural elements of the novel are real, or if they’re just part of Andrew and Eddie’s research. The story is so twisty, surprising readers until the very end.
When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen
When the Reckoning Comes embodies the gothic vibes of a dilapidated building holding dark secrets of the past. Mira originally fled her small Southern town after the worst day of her life. But when her best friend, Celine, asks her to return for her wedding, Mira finds herself agreeing. Now at the former plantation where her friend’s wedding is being held, she’s disgusted by the antebellum-themed cocktails and reenactments. What’s worse, she finds herself wondering if the rumors of the plantation being haunted are true.
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
Dorothy Allison’s Southern classic embodies the Southern Gothic qualities of the grotesque, much in the vein of Flannery O’Connor or Tennessee Williams. In Greenville, South Carolina, Ruth Anne “Bone” Boatright lives with her mom and increasingly violent stepdad. Critics have long lauded Allison for Bone’s perspective, which is so distinct and insightful as she shares her world with the reader.
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Jojo is thirteen and lives with his grandparents in Southern Mississippi. But when his mom arrives and tells him that they are going to go pick up his dad who’s just getting out of prison, he finds himself in the car headed north. When he arrives, he realizes that the prison isn’t just a place that holds the living. The dead can be found there too. In what many call Ward’s best novel, she tells such a magnificent story full of Southern Gothic atmosphere. No wonder it won the National Book Award the year it was released.
What a lineup! For even more gothic stories, check out 50+ Must-Read Gothic Novels and Stories and 8 Gothic Science Fiction Novels.
