Queer gothic fiction is dangerous in the best way: it whispers, it seduces, it drags you into dark hallways where desire hides in shadow and power shifts with every glance. The following novels are about women, outsiders and anyone daring enough to claim a voice in worlds built to silence them.
If you want stories that haunt, thrill and make your pulse race, here you go …
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Set in a decaying mansion in 1950s Mexico, Mexican Gothic is pure, intoxicating dread. No one escapes the rot beneath its polished surfaces. The heroine, Noemí, is bold, clever and unafraid of confronting a house that seems almost alive — and the men who think they own her. Moreno-Garcia threads colonialism, eugenics and patriarchal control into a tale that is as sensual as it is terrifying. By the time you close this book, you’ll still feel eyes watching you in the dark.
Pearl Bound by Natalie G. Bergman
Eve, a young servant, enters the grand Greythorne estate seeking opportunity, only to uncover a nightmare of wealth, obsession and cruelty. The Rennard family’s perfection masks generations of women silenced, punished and erased. Steeped in Celtic shapeshifting magic, feminist rage, as well as a dose of forbidden sapphic longing, Eve’s journey is about reclaiming truth at a terrifying cost.
Pearl Bound is intoxicating, darkly sensual, utterly unforgettable …
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
A sweeping, centuries-spanning gothic tale of love, hunger and the cost of immortality. Schwab delivers raw, unflinching emotion as queer desire collides with violence and survival. Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil doesn’t shy away from darkness; it leans into it. Every character is layered, every choice carries weight and the world is as beautiful as it is brutal. If you’re looking for a novel that scratches at your heart while you’re still catching your breath, where passion is perilous and love is both a weapon and a lifeline, then look no further.
A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson
Imagine being one of Dracula’s brides — but telling your own story. Gibson strips immortality of glamour and lays bare emotional abuse, manipulation and the corrosive cost of love. Told with confessional intensity, this queer gothic tale is intimate, brutal, not to mention immersive. A Dowry of Blood is romance, horror and reckoning all at once. A must-read!
The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling
A nightmare masquerading as a marriage. Jane Lawrence is trapped in a decaying house and a loveless union, and Starling’s prose makes every shadow pulse with threat. There’s terror in the domestic, magic in the mundane and horror lurking beneath polite smiles. The gothic atmosphere is dense and suffocating, the stakes deeply personal. Jane’s struggle against control, secrecy and expectation resonates powerfully, especially for readers drawn to queer narratives of rebellion and self-liberation. Each page coils tighter, daring you to look away.
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
Spanning eras and cursed schools, Danforth’s novel is gleefully decadent and wickedly clever. Queer love, doomed romance, haunted manuscripts … Say less! Plain Bad Heroines is a story that’s as meta as it is horrifying. If that’s not enough, Danforth blends satire, terror and passion, creating a world where women who love each other are punished — and fight back. It’s the perfect read for those looking for a gothic sapphic fix.
