Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

If you are literate and goth, you'd probably read this one. I didn't know at the time of reading that there was a movie based on this, or that there was a prequel tv series. Now I know and I've seen all of the first and part of the latter. 

All of the gothic tropes are here. A spooky mansion, kids with a chilly aesthetic, an unloving mother, possible incest, attics, and horrific punishment on our poor, innocent Dollenganger children. They really go through it, and you get to be a fly on the wall for the whole show. Read it if you want some goth cred, or just like this kind of thing. 

Cybele by Joyce Carol Oates

This was a good book to finish my flight and first few nights in Seattle. It tells the story of a very successful man in the sixties, and his complete fall from grace. Let's face it, most people put in positions of absolute power are not equipped to manage it. In fact, I doubt many career men with famlies knew how to take care of themselves very well. Not in the sixties.

But still, you kind of root for the guy to get better. Do better by his wife and following string of lovers, each reflecting a new stage of horrid self-discovery. Oates gets to the juice good in this one. I found myself unable to read the pages fast it enough. It's such a fun, dark time. Cybele very much affirmed the stun of Oates's talent. It's always great to go back to.

With Shuddering Fall by Joyce Carol Oates

For those who don't know, Joyce Carol Oates is one of my favorite authors, easily one of the best to produce work in my lifetime. With Shuddering Fall is her first novel, taking place in the days before air conditioners were common place, in small towns surrounded by country.

It tells the story of a sheltered young girl, stupidly innocent, and hungry for a real experience. As it turns out, these real experiences in life can be pretty awful. And she finds herself a dangerous attachment to a racecar driving man whose talent leans heavily on detachment and dysfunction.

While this isn't my favorite of Oates's novels, it's overflowing with the darkness, juice, and drama her fans have come to expect. If you haven't read anything by her before, I think this is a fine place to start, seeing how it's easier to stomach than some of her other books.

The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates

Have you ever tried to make a meal out of everything in your kitchen? It would take a real chef to make something good out of it. I mean, some people have a lot of weird ignredients they don't know how to use, like that last drip of caesar dressing. The Accursed is that meal, told from the perspective of a historian grandson to an early 20th century philophy professor at Princeton University, as well as through diary entries of the invalid wife to a local big shot.

If you've read any of Oates's longer works, you probably know what to expect. The Accursed is vivid, gothic, and expansive. It's so expansive I think about it almost ever day, relating it to the context of my own stupid life.

Oates highlights the darkness of growing up wealthy and religious in early 20th Century Princeton, New Jersey. She notes the hidden but universally damning aspects of systematic inequality. She even throws in characters like Woodrow Wilson, Mark Twain, Upton Sinclair, Grover Cleveland, and Teddy Roosevelt to complete the milieu. This might be your thang if you have ever enjoyed using the term "goth".