#goth book

What Is Goth?

This is what I will remember most from 2024😂😂

I periodically wonder whether these books are still known and read by young goths and horror fans as they were all extremely important to me in my teenage years, so I thought I'd share them.

Though I'm cishet, during the mid 90s two of my favourite authors wrote primarily queer fiction: they were Anne Rice and another author from New Orleans who is now known as Billy Martin.

He came out as a trans man in 2011, however these books were published prior to that so unfortunately you have to search for them under his deadname. This is why I've used that name in the tags on this post. I don't believe the books were ever reprinted with his current name.

Though I loved Rice, I always felt a more immediate connection with Martin due to his vivid portrayal of subcultures like goth and punk, and how it felt to be a teenager who was part of them. I could see myself in many of his characters as I had the same interests, listened to the same music, and shared the same sense of social alienation. Remember in the 90s the Internet was still a reasonably new thing, and many of us didn't have a home Internet connection at all. There was certainly no social media, no YouTube, and no real way to meet and interact with like-minded teens unless you were lucky enough to have another "weird kid" at your school. If you were a weird kid, you likely had very few friends and were bullied.

That as much as anything else led me to seek solace in books written by an author who I felt understood me, and characters who became my friends.

Lost Souls is about vampires in a kind of Lost Boys/Near Dark way. Fans of the YouTuber OfHerbsAndAltars might be interested to know that this book is where the name of his channel comes from - it's a description of the taste of Chartreuse liqueur.

Drawing Blood is about ghosts, a "murder house", computer hacking, comic art and a very beautiful (if rather messed up) romance. This one is probably my favourite of the three.

Exquisite Corpse is about serial killers, set against the AIDS crisis of the 90s. If you like the Hannibal TV series you'll probably enjoy this one - imagine if Dennis Nilsen and Jeffrey Dahmer had somehow met.

Martin doesn't pull any punches when it comes to descriptions of blood and gore, violence, abusive parents or his portrayal of toxic romantic relationships (of which there are many in his books), but if you can deal with those things there is also a great deal of beauty, phenomenally good writing, and a somewhat unique perspective on the supernatural.

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔦𝔯𝔰𝔱 𝔙𝔞𝔪𝔭𝔦𝔯𝔢.

𝕿he classic that inspired 𝕯𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖚𝖑𝖆, dives us into ℭ𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞’s deep love for 𝔏𝔞𝔲𝔯𝔞.

𝕮𝖆𝖗𝖒𝖎𝖑𝖑𝖆 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖕𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖍𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 1872 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖜𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖇𝖞 𝕾𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖆𝖓 𝕷𝖊 𝕱𝖆𝖓𝖚.

«ℑ𝔣 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔦𝔰 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔡, 𝔪𝔶 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔡 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔟𝔩𝔢𝔢𝔡𝔰 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯𝔰»

My character LILITH will finally be getting a comic series with Vault Comics! And we have something a little special for you guys B)

If you sign up with our reader campaign (🔗 above 👆), you’ll get the first issue free when the campaign kicks off! No need to pay for anything! You’ll get updates on the project and even have a chance to get some exclusives that we have planned. :3

But, honestly, thank you guys! I hope you all enjoy my little goil and her demon cat! ❤️

The munstrologist

2009, Rick Yancey