08-05-2008, 05:58 PM
To me the term Gothic has is very wide-reaching, which is why two classic books that seem to be in two different genres, Jane Eyre and Frankenstein, are both termed gothic. I understand that the focus of this group is for the Golden Era Gothics. I wouldn't quite call Barbara Michaels works "horror gothic" but if we define horror gothic as dealing with the supernatural, then books like Ammie, Come Home, Here I Stay, Be Buried in The Rain, Prince of Darkness, The Dark on the Other side, with their plots involving witchcraft, ghosts, reincarnation, and werewolves, would fall into this category. Anne Rice to me is horro gothic, because she uses a very baroque and ornate style. On the other end of the spectrum, there was a terrific author who died about ten years ago named Michael McDowell who wrote a number of Southern Gothic/Horror Novels. Blackwater was originally published as six short novels, The Elementals, and Cold Moon Over Babylon all feature ghosts and supernatural goings on, but they are also great family dramas in the tradition of Southern classics. I consider these books "horror light", similar to VC Andrews, in that the ideas are gruesome but the writing itself does not dwell on the gruesomeness.