Gothic

They say eyes are the windows to the soul—but when he looks at me through hues of slate-green and flaring blue embers, I’m terrified of what’s watching me from behind his clashing gaze, something primal and feverish that threatens to melt me like fire in ice. I fear falling into Kallum Locke’s pitch-black soul. But after I’m called to a crime scene to investigate the most gruesome act of violence to descend on the legendary town of Hollow’s Row, I have no choice but to turn to Kallum, to the man I had locked away in an asylum for the criminally insane.

"My murder will take place in a darkened séance room—shot twice in the chest.” The words are a premonition related to Arthur Conan Doyle when he answers a summons for help from a mysterious woman who identifies herself only as “a Spiritualist Medium of some renown.”

On a small island in a remote corner of northwest Scotland lies Maundrell castle, owned by its wealthy namesake family for centuries—until now. Edwina Nunn is shocked to learn a relative she never heard of has bequeathed the castle and its land to her. What awaits Edie and her teenage daughter, Neve, is even more startling, for the castle is home to a multitude of ghosts. Yet there's a strange beauty in the austere architecture and the eerie, bloody waters of Loch na Scáthanna, the Lake of Shadows.

An ancient family secret proclaims that everyone who spends the night in the room with the closed cabinet meets a tragic end. A witch sealed the cabinet shut centuries ago with a terrible curse. The family shuns the room, and all queries about the curse are spurned and avoided. But plucky 19-year-old Evie isn’t afraid. When circumstances warrant that she spend the night in the room, she declares she can handle it. Maybe she can.

He’s called a monster, a beast, a dragon, and he’s chosen me. I think I’m in trouble. Again. Yeah, alien abduction is for suckers. If I thought my life was bad before I woke up in the alien prison, it’s just about to get a whole load worse, because I’ve been rescued by an alien warrior who is much better at stripping flesh from bone than being a hero. Draxx has glowing green scales, endless muscles, huge claws and very often, a tail. He also prefers not to wear pants. He has cheekbones I could cut myself on and a set of lips which are very good at kissing.

Hannah Smith thinks she’s safe now that Reuben Tate is set to face trial. But when an unusual creature is let loose on the Freak House estate, everybody is in danger, including Jack. To hunt it down, the household must take risks, but the greatest risk is to Hannah’s heart. She’s in danger of falling deeply in love with Jack, a man whose very touch can kill her.

After breaking my heart and publicly humiliating me, I vow to forget his existence. He has other plans, though, and vows to make certain I don’t. The only one I can turn to for help is a man I thought to be my enemy. Drew’s best friend Sebastian who claims to be my brother. He promises me security and protection. But no one can protect me from Drew. The faster I run, the more he chases. The harder I struggle, the tighter his grip becomes.

One of the first noted American authors to be highly acclaimed in Europe during his life time, Washington Irving (April 3, 1783-November 28, 1859) wrote numerous short stories, biographies, histories, and tales of his travels. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," first published in 1820, is variously regarded as a Gothic tale and a modern folk story about the early history of the United States of America.

Roller-coastering from the mournful to the comical, Watson's work is both embedded in a literary heritage tied to place and at home in a universal literature of the absurd. His stories waltz with lovely and strange melancholy, infused with wit and astonishing beauty. There Is Happiness embodies the twisted hilarity and undeniable grace of an underrecognized literary genius.

They meet as children. They grow up together. It’s only after one fatefully misheard conversation that Heathcliff leaves, believing his love for Catherine isn’t reciprocated. When he returns, he is a wealthy and polished man but things have now changed–drastically–and Heathcliff starts to exact terrible revenge on those who wronged him…

According to the FBI, I was considered a serial murderer after three kills. What do they call me after fifty-two? They call me the Silencer. One final bullet would have been all it took to stop me from taking another soul, and I would have been doing Meridian City a service by pulling that trigger. An angel crying for help stopped me, and that night, I took three lives for her. Then three turned into eight. Then eight turned into twenty. Twenty turned into twenty-one. Twenty-one turned into twenty-three.

After the tragic death of Bridget’s parents, her grandmother took her in. Vera Bitter raised her from behind a closed door—cold and uncaring from the moment she arrived at Bitter House. After Bridget’s high school graduation, Vera kicked her out without so much as a goodbye, and Bridget never heard from her again. Which is why, when she receives word of Vera’s passing and discovers she’s inherited the family manor, she’s immediately filled with dread. Those worries are amplified when she arrives at Bitter House after years away to find an enigmatic piece of her past waiting for her.

"Vanished from Willowbrook Manor" is a captivating mystery novel set in Victorian-era England. The story follows Evelyn Ashworth, an 18-year-old young woman who suddenly disappears from her family's estate, Willowbrook Manor. Her disappearance sets off a chain of events that uncovers long-buried family secrets and a web of international intrigue.

For years Melchior, the youngest son of the Fate Atropos, has thought of nothing but vengeance against his mother - Death. A prisoner in his own castle, the Prince of Darkness is trapped in her wicked web, despite the fact that the Gods are on his side. He's been learning dark magic as a way to protect himself and his people from the cruelty of their Queen... with limited success, and the only way he's managed to leave the castle is by promising his mother that he'll find a bride and give her a grandchild.

Cassandra Khaw's dynamic and vibrant debut collection, Breakable Things, explores the fragile and nebulous bonds that weave love and grief into our existence. This exquisite and cutting collection of stories showcases a bloody fusion of horrors from cosmic to psychological to body traumas.