Tag Archives: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

September 23, 2026

Magickal Gothic Fiction

How wild is your heart? How far will you let your imagination journey into the unknown realms of magickal powers?

Stories in the Magickal Gothic fiction genre tell readers they are in for a supernatural adventure, a terror that expands the mind and elevates the imagination. When mystery and magick, romance and ghosts, intertwine with the supernatural, there is a terrifying haunting.

An emotional intensity captures the reader. If you’ve not experienced Magickal Gothic fiction, I’m here to define and recommend this new level of Gothic Horror—although horror is the root category, in Magickal Gothic we experience a distinctive phenomenon.

Ann Radcliffe, known as the originator of the Female Gothic Movement (The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), explained that “Terror and horror are so far opposite, that the first expands the soul, and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life; the other [horror] contracts, freezes, and nearly annihilates them.” She explains that “terror is a very high one” and “lies in the uncertainty and obscurity.”

Stephen King reminds us of the three types of terror: “I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out. I’m not proud.”  Danse Macabre.

King describes this sublime terror as, ‘when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but turn around and there’s nothing there.’ But of course something is threatening there, and we instinctively know it.

In storytelling, this terror exists in Magickal Gothic fiction because Gothic, by its very nature, is sublime. For example, in Elizabeth Hand’s Wylding Hall, this story has a deep subtlety to it, with music being the supernatural power of magick, mixed with folklore and psychological uncertainty, ghostly presences, and all wrapped in an atmospheric mystery. This is not the kind of literal horror that contracts and freezes the reader, but it is a serious haunting for the reader.

Defining Magickal Gothic exhibits a range of variations and includes the following. Settings are dark, ancestral estates; a structured magickal or suggested occult power rules this fictional world (spell-craft, magickal artifacts, rituals, curses, art, ancient books, or folklore and history); hidden realms play into the action; ghostly or otherworldly entities drive the theme; characters seek emotional or psychological answers about themselves or a lost one, which drive the plot.

Romantic intrigue or sexual tensions are a classic element that raises the stakes. Language, of course, is a defining feature, the prose acting as an instrument of the intense dread, beauty, and mystery—descriptive narrative breaks open the fictional dream for the reader.

What books lurk in these magickal Gothic shadows? To name a few of these genre-blending, or genre-bending, novels . . .

The Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness: witches, demons, magickal manuscripts, vampires, blood magick.

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia: haunted house, ghosts, science, evil, magickal arts, cultural feminist themes.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke: magickians, ghosts, literary secrets, historical powers.

The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon: ghosts, cursed books, magickal powers.

Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand: occult music, folklore, ghostly presences, magickal blends of spell-craft.

The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling: alchemical magick, spell-craft, magicians, feminist themes, ghosts, love story, body horror.

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt, Chelsea Iversen: London estate, magickal garden, ambiguous ghostly presenses, psychological and feminist themes, love story.

Affinity, Sarah Waters: Victorian England, unruly ghosts, magick, spiritualism, romance.

The Year of the Witching, Alexis Henderson:  Dark forest setting, ghostly shadows, ancient witch magick.

Everything Is Magick

Readers love the fictional dream of fantastical realms, magick, and ghostly worlds beyond. As you explore the various genres (and many overlap into cross-genres), whether it be Urban or Rural Gothic, Southern or Suburban Gothic, Paranormal Gothic, Historical Gothic, Dark Romantic Gothic, Cosmic or Eco Gothic, Folk or Crime/Mystery Gothic, Sci-fi or Techno Gothic, Fantasy Gothic, there is a new and excited readership for Magickal Gothic among these diversities.

Gothic writers will continue to terrify readers with their high creativity. These stories will enlighten and grow our understanding of fear, oppression, endurance, and morality.

Is Gothic a mirror or a mask? Let’s find out if the ghost in the mirror is you or trying to become you.

Coming soon . . .  An International Gothic Reading Month! Watch this blog for when and where this event will be made public. We are on a mission to encourage and proliferate Gothic readers and writers, authors and publishers, and Gothic books displayed in shops and libraries. Why? Because Gothic communicates that the mysteries of our spirituality possess wisdom, beauty, and redemption.

I sign off with my own Magickal Gothic adventure.

Please share your thoughts about Magickal Gothic. Comment if you have a title to add or author you admire who writes in this genre. Are you an author of Magickal Gothic? I invite authors to post your titles and links in the comments. Please join me in promoting Magickal Gothic literature!

Gothic shadows are whispering. What are yours saying?