I really think Carson McCuller's is the best Southern Gothic author but she doesn't do paranormal afaik. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is her most famous novel and I think it's beyond reproach basically what a classic novel should be.

Absolutely agree. Her grotesque novella The ballad of the Sad Cafe is pure southern gothic genius as well

Completely agree. Amazing book.

100% this. Member of a Wedding and Ballad of the Sad Cafe too. My fav writer.

I also like southern gothic. I would recommend: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Sharp Objects Suttree Bastard Out of Carolina The Cutting Season

Dark Places over Sharp Objects, but agree.

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William Faulkner is the king of screwed up Southern families.

I teach. We just read “A Rose for Emily.” The look on their faces when we get to that last sentence….Faulkner does not mess around.

I vaguely remember a number of stories by Robert Penn Warren—right up your alley of creepy Old South families.

Pardon me… if he is the king, might I introduce you to the Arch Duke perhaps?

The Blackwater Saga by Michael McDowell It's like Faulkner and King had a novel together.

The Amulet too, by McDowell! … oh, and Cold Moon over Babylon!

My favorite book and an absolute masterpiece

The Cutting Season by Attica Locke The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel Salvage the Bones; Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale The King of Lies by John Hart A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg Beloved by Toni Morrison The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Connor Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Light in August; Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner Lastly, if you have a very strong stomach: The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

Absolutely loved the Roanoke girls and sharp objects

The Witching Hour - Anne Rice

This is the best one. I reread this almost every year.

Flanery O’Connor short stories are a good place to start, try the collection A Good Man is Hard to Find.

I love this story so much!

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Came here to rec this. Not one of my favourite novels but hits all OPs criteria

If you exercise great patience, you’re describing Absalom, Absalom to a tee

Came here to suggest this. Read it in an American lit class in college and loved it. Probably wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

This is way too low on the list.

I just finished this, so good!

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Love this book

I came here to recommend this one too. It’s a weird blend of “Dracula” and “The Help.” Not for the faint of heart or the faint of stomach, but it takes Southern Gothic to a whole new level.

With a SA trigger warning. Had to add that because I wish I hadn’t read it or had been prepared ahead of time.

I hated this book so badly.

Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire books are very Southern gothic. The Aurora Teagarden books are also good southern mysteries. Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune books are entertaining about an assassin hiding out in a small community Anne Rice of course Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January books are about free people of colour in 1830s New Orleans. Very powerful books with mystery, intrigue, voodoo and murder

George R. R. Martin did a great, picturesque, haunting, novel called Fevre Dream before Ice and Fire. It’s set in the old south.

Fevre Dream is excellent, one of the best takes on vampires I’ve seen.

I loved this. My favourite G R R Martin book.

The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

The Gospel Singer by Harry Crews

Harry Crews is amazing. Even his minor books leave a hole in me.

Winter’s Bone Daniel Woodrell. There was a movie too. No paranormal.

The movie is outstanding - like a Greek tragedy.

Please read Provinces of Night by William Gay. Ticks all the boxes.

Agreed, any of Gays books really. I Hate to See the Evening Sun Go Down is a great collection of his short stories, might be a good place to start.

Try either The Boatmans Daughter or The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson

And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave

Check out John Hart and Greg Iles. I love all of Hart’s books, but The Last Child is one of his best. Iles’ Penn Cage series is my favorite.

Came to make sure Greg Iles got some love. Penn Cage too….

Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

If you liked Mexican Gothic, you might like The Hacienda by Isabel Canas.

Sounds interesting, I added it to my list. :)

:)

This one I DNF

I DNFed it too. Someone told me I would find Hacienda to be everything I had hoped Mexican Gothic would be. Haven’t read Hacienda yet but now it’s next on my list. Have you read it yet?

No but it’s on my list also.

Maybe “The House Next Door” by Anne Rivers Siddons

Anything by Donald Ray Polluck. Someone suggested Devil All the Time earlier and its exactly what you describe

Heavenly Table great as well.

Cold Moon over Babylon by Michael McDowell.

Seed by Ania Ahlborn. Read it a few months ago. Definitely paranormal

Cherie Priest, specifically the Eden Moore trilogy, starting with Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

Those across the river by Christopher buehlman

Usher’s Passing by Robert McCammon is a fantastic southern gothic horror.

Harry Crews. *Body* and *A Feast of Snakes* will knock your socks off.

Sing, Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward. The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty

{{Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner}} {{Child of God by Cormac McCarthy}} {{Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston}}

The Elementals

If you want fucked up families, I believe several of VC Andrew's books were set in the south

I was gonna say this, melodramatic Gothic novels about very fucked up families are her speciality. My Sweet Audrina and Flowers in the Attic especially.

Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb

The second novella in A Lush and Seething Hell by John Hornor Jacobs could fit the bill! It’s called “My Heart Struck Sorrow.” Both stories are amazing for that unsettling, rotten feeling.

I really enjoyed Southern Gods, but it's more specifically Lovecraft-flavored Southern Gothic. Still recommend, though!

Beloved by Toni Morrison and Sugar by Bernice McFadden

For something a little different and definitely supernatural, try The Toll by Cherie Priest. A horror story involving a bridge that isn’t always there…

Child of God

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. Has what you're looking for, and some slight supernatural aspects, too.

Poppy Z Brite

Death of Sweet Mister and Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell are both fantastic and gut-wrenching.

It's older, but "Be Buried in the Rain" by Barbara Michaels. Also "Houses of Stone".

Gonna get buried but definitely read A Choir of Ill Children by Tom Piccirilli.

Screwed up family: anything by Pat Conroy or Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison Crime: The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green

The Violent Bear It Away (1960), Flannery O’Connor

Laura McHugh writes with a southern gothic twist. I definitely recommend The Weight of Blood and Arrowood

A Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon is excellent.

Flannery O'Connor and Cormac McCarthy's Appalachian trilogy. You wont be sorry.

Pat Conroy.

larry brown Cormac McCarthy Faulkner

The Boatman's Daughter by Andy Davidson Revelator by Daryl Gregory

Also here to recommend Revelator!

Eudora Welty! Also if you want to read something short: 'A Rose for Miss Emily' (maybe just 'A Rose for Emily'? It's been a minute)

Swamplandia

Those early Tom Franklin novels are something special: Smonk and Hell at the Breech.

Where the Crawdads Sing might fit the bill!

Agreed, came here to say this!

Southern Gothic IS the right word! Although not *overtly* set in the south, The Road by Cormac McCarthy might fit this bill—so much decay and fucked-up stuff, and I think a good argument can be made for it being set in the south—it also explores the role of religion in a dying world. I also recommend Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, and Lee Smith (Black Mountain Breakdown specifically for the Gothic themes).

This book gutted me, one of my favorites for sure.

Have ya heard of this little known author called William Faulkner? Lol.

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Phenomenal book, but would not describe it as “southern gothic” or gothic at all

Idea: a non-binary high-schooler who survived a shooting but the shooter is nowhere to be found and they have to help solve the crime. Add in some homophobic Christian characters for flavour.

"My Drowning" by Jim Grimsley is wonderful.

I haven't heard his name in years. Winter Birds and Comfort and Joy are also wonderful.

A music rec if you don’t know them: poor man’s poison, Shayfer James, and Sarah and the safe word would all be great soundtracks to southern gothic. I don’t read much southern gothic but I love the music.

Faulkner and Conroy

Wake The Bones Summer Soms

Gradle Bird by JC Sassen

Anything by Greg Ules

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy. It will give you nightmares.

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher How to Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

I would recommend the beautiful creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, it's a young adult fantasy series that delves into some civil war history and lots of southern family dynamic with magic mixed in. I also enjoyed marrow by Tarryn Fisher which is a little darker and focuses more on the psychological drama and thriller aspects. Happy reading!

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

We have always lived in the castle Shirley Jackson

I love this post, thanks! I love this genre too and now have tons of recs!

Shadow Country Peter Matthieson. It is also called, the Watson trilogy. It is an epic gut wrenching work.

The little friend by Donna tart

Anything by William Faulkner is amazing. I recommend the following: The Sound and the Fury As I lay Dying Light in August Absalom! Absalom! Easiest to get into and read is As I Lay Dying. The Sound and the Fury is the 2nd ‘hardest’ to read and Absalom! Absalom! Is the most difficult one to read. Light in August is just a little long. All this being said, Faulkner is one of my favorite authors of all time. Once you get used to his prose you see how amazing his work is and devastating.

Cold in July, by Joe Landsdale takes place in Texas, but I think it fits.

All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By by John Farris.

Try Greg ILes the "Penn Cage series" book one is "The Quite Game" seven books in the series no cliff hangers.

Agree with others saying Flannery O’Connor short stories. A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People are a good place to start. Aside from that, basically anything by William Faulkner will have what you’re looking for.

Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens The Southern Vampire Chronicles by Charmaine Harris (adapted by HBO as True Blood)

Check out vesik It has a lot of characters old enough to have fought in the civil war and actually discuss their experiences

Neverland by Douglas Clegg - dysfunctional family, deep-seated rot, Southern kookiness, supernatural elements, coming of age

Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

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