Gothic books offer some of the best stories you will ever read because they are not just creepy and scary but equally addictive. Add in a historical element, and we get gothic historical fiction books, which take things to an altogether new level!
Gothic historical fiction transports you to shadowy worlds of the past, blending eerie atmospheres with compelling historical settings. It offers a unique reading experience that combines elements of mystery, romance, and the supernatural with rich period details.
The best gothic historical fiction books create an immersive atmosphere that sends chills down your spine while offering insights into bygone eras.
You’ll be captivated by haunting tales set in crumbling castles, misty moors, and gas-lit Victorian streets. These stories often feature complex characters grappling with dark secrets, family curses, and the societal constraints of their time.
In this article, I’ve listed down some of the best books in the gothic historical fiction genre that you should definitely read!
Best Gothic Historical Fiction Books of 2025
1. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside.
Noemí’s glamorous and chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past, for there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place.
The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper, she unearths stories of violence and madness.
2. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Arthur Kipps is an up-and-coming London solicitor who is sent to Crythin Gifford—a faraway town in the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway—to attend the funeral and settle the affairs of a client, Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House.
Mrs. Drablow’s house stands at the end of the causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but Kipps is unaware of the tragic secrets hidden behind its sheltered windows.
The routine business trip he anticipated quickly takes a horrifying turn when he finds himself haunted by a series of mysterious sounds and images—a rocking chair in a deserted nursery, the eerie sound of a pony and trap, a child’s scream in the fog, and, most terrifying of all, a ghostly woman dressed all in black.
3. Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
The coachman tried to warn her away from the ruined, forbidding place on the rainswept Cornish coast. But young Mary Yellan chose instead to honor her mother’s dying request that she join her frightened Aunt Patience and huge, hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn.
She could sense the inn’s dark power from her first glimpse on that raw November eve. But never did Mary dream that she would become hopelessly ensnared in the vile, villainous schemes being hatched within its crumbling walls—or that a handsome, mysterious stranger would so incite her passions and tempt her to love a man whom she dares not trust.
4. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
In 1945, the city of Barcelona slowly heals from its war wounds. Daniel, the son of an antiquarian book dealer who mourns his mother’s death, finds solace in Julian Carax’s mysterious book The Shadow of the Wind.
But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence.
Soon, Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
5. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall.
Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive and handsome, is now in decline. Its masonry is crumbling, its gardens are choked with weeds, and the clock in its stable yard is permanently fixed at twenty-to-nine. Its owners—mother, son, and daughter—are struggling to keep pace with a changing society and their own conflicts.
But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become intimately entwined with his.
6. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
By the comforts of a blazing fireplace on a cold Christmas Eve night, guests at a holiday party share stories of phantoms and ghosts of Christmases past. Yet one guest delivers a tale of sheer fright for which no one listening was prepared.
As the story goes, after losing both parents, a young boy and girl move into a large wooded estate to be cared for by their uncle. The uncle wants nothing to do with raising the children, so he hires a young governess to attend to their care. Yet the governess never could have anticipated the horrors that await her discovery.
When it becomes evident that the children have some supernatural connection with a deceased former governess and her lover, the young governess finds herself scrambling to regain control of two children slipping away from her grasp.
7. The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Carlota Moreau is a young woman who grew up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. She is the only daughter of either a genius or a madman.
Montgomery Laughton is a melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. He is an outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his scientific experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.
The hybrids are the fruits of the Doctor’s labor, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. They are a motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.
They all live in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Doctor Moreau’s patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.
8. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate.
When seven bizarre deaths suddenly overshadow his delicate mission, Brother William turns to the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, and the empirical insights of Roger Bacon to find the killer.
He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey (“where the most interesting things happen at night”) armed with a wry sense of humor and a ferocious curiosity.
9. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
In a shabby house on a shabby street in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers her talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position.
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s King.
Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor.
Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men, and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain.
But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.
Also Read: Leigh Bardugo’s Books in Order
10. The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks.
Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure—a silent companion—that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of The Bridge are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition until she notices the figure’s eyes following her.
11. The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden
It’s 1852, and Margaret Lennox, a young widow, attempts to escape the shadows of her past by taking a position as governess to an only child, Louis, at an isolated country house in the west of England.
But Margaret soon starts to feel that something isn’t quite right. There are strange figures in the dark, tensions between servants, and an abandoned east wing. Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs. Eversham, Louis’s widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted in the village.
Lonely and unsure whom to trust, Margaret finds distraction in a forbidden relationship with the gardener, Paul. But as Margaret’s history threatens to catch up with her, it isn’t long before she learns the truth behind the secrets of Hartwood Hall.
12. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cozy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence.
There, he falls in love and marries – and there, he dies suddenly. Jealous of his marriage, racked by suspicion at the hints in Ambrose’s letters, and grief-stricken by his death, Philip prepares to meet his cousin’s widow with hatred in his heart.
Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious Rachel like a moth to the flame. And yet… might she have had a hand in Ambrose’s death?
13. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was unhappy, and she never suited the role of a society wife. She leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend.
Once there, they hear rumors that the mythical Essex Serpent, a fearsome creature that once roamed the marshes, has returned after nearly three hundred years. When a young man is mysteriously killed on New Year’s Eve, the community’s dread transforms into terror.
Cora, a keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, is immediately enthralled, certain that what locals think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species.
Eager to investigate, she is introduced to parish vicar William Ransome, who is equally suspicious of the rumors but for different reasons!
14. Affinity by Sarah Waters
An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work.
Among Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by an apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed.
Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits, and unseemly passions until she is finally driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s and her own freedom.
15. Secrets of Rose Briar Hall by Kelsey James
For Millie Turner, the young and beautiful wife of a powerful New York stockbroker, Rose Briar Hall—a gleaming edifice of white marble on the North Shore—is more than a home. Every lavish detail speaks of Charles Turner’s status and wealth, and its stylish interior is a testament to Millie’s sophistication.
All that’s left is to prove her worthiness to be his bride. What better way than to throw a grand party for New York’s social elite?
After painstaking planning, the night of the event arrives, and all is perfect—until Millie wakes to a cold, eerily quiet house and a gray cloud where her memory should be. Can it be true that she has been in and out of consciousness for weeks, ever since the party took a terrifying turn?
Millie recalls nothing. But her friends have shunned her, and it soon becomes clear that if she can’t find out what happened that night, much more than her reputation will be at risk!
16. The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James
In 1947, Londoner Alice Miller accepts a governess post at Winterbourne, looking after Captain Jonathan de Grey’s twin children. Falling under the de Greys’ spell, Alice believes the family will heal her own past sorrows.
But then the twins’ adoration becomes deceitful and taunting. Their father, ever distant, turns spiteful and cruel. The manor itself seems to lash out. Alice finds her surroundings subtly altered, her air slightly chilled. Something malicious resents her presence, clouding her senses and threatening her sanity.
In present day New York, art gallery curator Rachel Wright has learned that she is a descendant of the de Greys and an heir to Winterbourne. Adopted as an infant, she never knew her birth parents or her lineage. Finally, Rachel will find answers to questions about her identity that have haunted her entire life!
17. The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox
Something has awakened in Willow Hall. Eighteen-year-old Lydia Montrose can feel it. But she has no idea what it is.
Rocked by rumor and scandal, Lydia, her parents, and her sisters, Catherine and Emeline, fled their sparkling life in Boston for the sleepy country estate. But bone-chilling noises in the night have Lydia convinced their idyllic new home wasn’t exactly vacant when they arrived.
The Salem witch trials cast a long shadow over the Montrose family as the cloying heat of summer in Massachusetts mingles with something sinister in the air. Willow Hall’s sprawling history is no stranger to secrets, and its dark past soon calls to Lydia, igniting ancient magic she never knew she possessed.
But with menacing forces unwilling to rest and threatening to tear her family apart, Lydia must learn to harness her newly discovered power or risk losing everyone she holds dear.
Conclusion
That’s it! Those were some of the most popular gothic historical novels that you should definitely read if you are a fan of the genre. But make sure to read both classic and modern novels, as they have complex characters and plot twists that keep you guessing until the very end.
Happy reading, and may your journey through these gothic historical fiction books be filled with thrills, chills, and literary delights!
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