Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo - remember "dark academia"? this is an occult mystery page-turner set at yale university. i plan to start the sequel very soon!
The Book of the Damned by Tanith Lee - a triptych of gothic novellas all set in an alternate paris. dreamy, flowery prose that is still easy to follow. if gothic fiction really is about the depths of depravity and the heights of holiness, middle story "Malice in Saffron" may be the most gothic story i've ever read.
The Weird edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer - 110 strange stories over 100 years. lovingly, impressively curated.
Howls From the Dark Ages: An Anthology of Medieval Horror edited by P.L. McMillan and Solomon Forse - what you see is what you get with this one. i enjoyed how this anthology is mostly yet-to-be-established authors. there's even an invitation to join their discord in the back of the book (i'm not doing that). i thought the most haunting story by far was "Palette" by J. L. Kiefer
Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite - unapologetic, problematic, self-indulgent, 90s as hell, over-the-top gay vampire smut. y'know, if you're in to that sort of thing.
non-fiction pick: The Book of Yokai by Michael Dylan Foster - a yokai-dex of creatures from japanese myth that opens with a primer for the folkloric context. super fun to flip through.
comics pick: Daphne Byrne by Laura Marks - six-issue horror miniseries involving 19th-century spiritualism. on the "hill house comics" dc imprint helmed by joe hill (who, as an aside, i think is so much better at writing comics than traditional prose novels it isn't even funny). art by Kelley Jones of the batman/dracula trilogy.
which reminds me, if you still haven't read The Haunting of Hill House or We Have Always Lived in the Castle, both by the inimitable Shirley Jackson, autumn is a great time of year to rectify that! both books are novella-length, good beach reads for us black parasol types.
