Each week we have a book group on Fridays. There are two slots: 10 am and 7 pm (GMT) and you’re very welcome to either, wherever you are in the world and however much you’d like to participate. To sign up get in touch with @RomGothSam on twitter or send an email to sam@romancingthegothic.com
30th March
Having recently become acquainted with the devastating fact that most of the book group have never read a Point Horror, I felt it my duty to rectify this. A classic of the genre (and one of the easiest to get hold of with a kindle and an audible edition), we’ll be reading this tale of a house full of dark secrets.
6th April
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Amos Tutuola’s second novel, was first published in 1954. It tells the tale of a small boy who wanders into the heart of a fantastical African forest, the dwelling place of innumerable wild, grotesque and terrifying beings. He is captured by ghosts, buried alive and wrapped up in spider webs, but after several years he marries and accepts his new existence. With the appearance of the television-handed ghostess, however, comes a possible route of escape.
13th April
This week we’re reading Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi.
In 1750, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In this ambitious tale of a clan and of a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future.
20th April
This week we’re reading Black Widow Society.
Three well-respected businesswomen – Talullah Ntuli, Edna Whithead and Nkosazana Dlamini – formed the Black Widow Society, a secret organisation aimed at liberating women trapped in emotionally and physically abusive relationships by assisting in ‘eliminating’ their errant husbands.
For fifteen years the Black Widow Society operated undetected, impeccably run by The Triumvirate with the help of their suave and mysterious hired gun, Mzwakhe Khuzwayo, a slick ex-convict meticulous in his responsibilities.
But as the secret organisation recruits more members, the wheels of this well-oiled machine threaten to fall off. Will Talullah’s controlling streak or Nkosazana’s unfettered material aspirations jeopardise the future of the Black Widow Society? Or perhaps one of the new recruits, unsettled by the reality of the elimination of her former husband, will lose her nerve and expose the workings of the group after all this time?
27th April
This week, we’re reading this collection from Romancing the Gothic contributor Helen Nde!
Seers and leaders
Warriors and survivors
Mothers and monsters
Friends and fiends
A warrior princess defies her father and runs away to find love. A brave sister slays a dragon so her brothers can have dragon skin accessories for their initiation to manhood. A wily spirit charms a prince despite her strange disguise. A lonely young woman finds reason to love life despite ostracism by the people in her village. Another woman ignores her parents’ warnings and follows her lover who turns her into a flesh-eating monster. Two women of fabled beauty, determined to marry on their own terms, use subterfuge to test their suitors, one to tragic ends. Lovers defy death to stay with each other. Passion, romance, adventure, comedy, trickery, and tragedy abound in this thrilling collection of short stories recounting the deeds and misdeeds of memorable women from African history, legend and folklore.
4th May
This one has been on the Book Group’s ‘To Read’ list for a long time! From one of our favourite authors, a twisted treat!
When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange colony of beings in the woods.
When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother’s house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be?
Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more—Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants…until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.
Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale.
Romancing the Gothic 