The Bloody Chamber – Angela Carter
Angela Carter’s collection of reimagined fairy tales has everything I want in a story. Gore, violence, magic, romance, sex, strong female characters and a wry smile as you read. I devoured this book in a matter of days and will continue to devour it again and again. They are bedtime stories for grown-ups. I highly recommend you read them.
Edgar Allan Poe
The master of the gothic, I fell instantly in love with his macabre brand of romance. From the lyrical beauty of Annabel Lee to the brooding terror of The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe is able to capture a spectrum of sadness, fear and mental torture unlike any other writer.
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
Mrs Danvers is possibly one of my favourite literary characters ever. This story is full of stunning characters, and the complex interplay between them all will have you ensnared in its web from the first few pages.
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights is the first book that made me fall madly in love with a fictional man. Brooding Heathcliff. Raging Heathcliff. Crazy Heathcliff. He was exciting, dangerous & my gateway drug into love affairs with countless other literary anti-heroes from Bateman to Lestat.
Glamorama – Bret Easton Ellis
Bret Easton Ellis is responsible for both my fascination with serial killers & my penchant for an unreliable narrator. In Glamorama, his gritty, gory prose, enigmatic characters & bizarre storyline became an obsession of mine in my teens. He is most famous for American Psycho, but I feel Glamorama is his finest work.
Chloe Gorman is a copywriter, poet & aspiring author. Her poetry and fiction leans towards romantic, dark and gothic themes. She has an MA in Professional Writing from Falmouth University for which she received a distinction. She has poems published in journals including Black Bough Issues 1 & 2, Mookychick & Rhythm and Bone Press. Her debut flash publication is forthcoming with Twist In Time Mag in January 2020.