09-22-2008, 08:08 AM
Qew Wrote:so true .... honestly, where's the poetry? It's just all bloodlust. I haven't read many Gothic Horror stories but I thought gothic horror should be something a bit .... demented and disturbed, while still being beautifully written and showing strong emotion.
You might try Sarah Langan's The Keeper and The Missing. She is a contemporary horror writer with a literate style. Cherie Priest writes a Southern Gothic mystery series supernatural overtones with quite a bit of attention to stylistic prose starting with Four and Twenty Blackbirds. For modern classics, if you haven't read them, Thomas Tryon's The Other and Harvest Home, published in the early 70s, are beautifully written novels of quiet Gothic horror. Going back a bit further, Shirley Jackson's books, particularly We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House are highly literature modern gems of the Gothic horror tradition.
Sadly, American publishers don't seem to be concerned about quality prose in any genre writing these days.