Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales – Book Review
An Anthology Of Gothic Short Stories Suitable for Teens
Jul 1, 2009
A perfect companion to a dark and wintry night is a scary book. Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales is a collaboration of work from Joan Aiken, Vivian Vande Velde, M.T. Anderson, Neil Gaiman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Barry Yourgrau, Janni Lee Simner, Gregory Maguire, Celia Rees and Garth Nix. Stories include classic hauntings, shocking killers and mournful vampires.
Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales Overview
Tales of witches who feast on faces, a sorcerers' daughter fighting to free her lover and herself, haunted houses and disgruntled ghosts fill this collection written by some well known authors of young adult and teen fiction. Stories include:
- Lungewater
- Morgan Roehmar’s boys
- Watch and wake
- Forbidden brides of the faceless slaves in the nameless house of the night of dread desire
- The dead and the moonstruck
- Have no fear, crumpot is here!
- Stone tower
- The prank
- Writing on the wall
- Endings
The introduction by Deborah Noyes, who edited the anthology, sets the mood by quoting H.P.Lovecraft “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear”, and compares the coming of age to being gothic. The end of the book contains information about each contributing author.
About The Authors
- Joan Aiken: best known for her Wolves Chronicles
- Vivian Vande Velde: works include Heir Apparent and Never Trust A Dead Man
- M.T. Anderson: also written teen books Golden Donkey and Thirsty
- Neil Gaiman: works include Coraline and Neverwhere
- Caitlin R. Kiernan: written Silk and Threshold
- Barry Yourgrau: has also written Wearing Dad’s Head
- Janni Lee Simner: her stories have been in many anthologies
- Gregory Maguire: best known for Wicked and Mirror Mirror
- Celia Rees: works include Witch Child and Sorceress
- Garth Nix: also written Sabriel
Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales Review
Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales contains some truly eerie stories that will scare the reader and have them cowering under the bed sheets, and other tales that verge on the ridiculous. Readers will find Lungewater, while lacking any real scares, rather intriguing, Morgan Roehmar’s boys, by far the creepiest story of the anthology, and while Stone Tower is less gothic then it is fairy-tale, readers will enjoy this change of pace. Writing on the Wall is the more classic haunted house story and Endings is yet another sad vampire tale, and while it is short, it is well written.
Not all of the stories in Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales are worth reading, however, as an anthology, Gothic! is worth the read, with several stories worthy of being read a second time.
Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales was first published in 2004 by Candlewick Press (ISBN 0-7636-2737-2).
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