Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales

Aiken, J., Anderson, M., Gaiman, N., Kiernan, C., Maguire, G., Nix, G., Rees, C., ...Yourgrau, B. (2006). Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
ISBN-10: 0763627372
ISBN-13: 9780763627379

•Plot Summary
Lungewater-While on the way to visit Aunt Theodosia, a young narrator meets an old gentleman who regales the narrator with a tale about Count Boyanus. Boyanus had fallen in love with a woman, and sent her poetry via his slave, Stiva. The serf had been given instructions to always use the shortest route, but taken a long one instead, since it was safer. Despite his poetry, the Count was unsuccessful in his pursuit, and the woman had three daughters in as many years-Noelle, Christina, and one unknown. Stiva was followed by the Count on his way to deliver the final poem, and drowned when forced to take the shorter route. The old man telling the tale was Stiva's brother, the information passed to him by a young man that had befriended Stiva, who also passed on due to a wound. The Count was believed to have drowned as well, and when the old and narrator arrive at the house of the Count's former love, it is revealed that Aunt Theodosia was the third daughter. Her mother had never read the poems, and Theodosia burns all three to finish the tale.
Morgan Roehmer's Boys-Ashley works as a set designer and cast member of a Halloween fright farm. About to begin her shift as usual, bad weather sets in, and over her headphones she is told to take refuge in the barn. Alone, Ashley's imagination begins to run wild, as the site once belonged to a farm where Morgan Roehmer murdered and hid several young men, later uncovered and buried. As the evening progresses, Ashley encounters a spectre, a young man that says he's still on the property, buried under the porch. Believing him, and his statement that he can fix her broken headphones, she gives him the device. But the boy is not what he appears, and the clever ghost of Morgan Roehmer strangles Ashley, becoming stronger each time he kills-so he can maintain the appearance he had at seventeen.
Watch and Wake-Jim is on the way home, although his parents don't know it. Lacking funds, he stops in a restaurant, and asks if there is B&B anywhere close by. His plan is to call his parents, and have them pay the bill so he can sleep. While eating a sandwich, he is told he'll be paid to watch a corpse through the night. Agreeable, Jim is introduced to the man's family, including his grieving wife, Jenn. After the house grows quiet, and Jim is reading, he sees a weasel in the window. Chasing it off, he eventually falls asleep. Jenn wakes him up in the morning, telling him that weasel are witches, but bears are the worst. On his way out of town, Jim sees the mourning party for the funeral, including the professional mourners and necromancer. The necromancer awakens the husband, who is also named Jim, and explains that Jenn poisoned him. She also killed the younger Jim in his sleep, and quickly the young man's facial features are being torn away. They are only wax.
Forbidden Brides...of Dread Desire-Amelia Earnshawe, like any good gothic heroine, is fleeing something in the dark when she comes upon a residence that might provide refuge. Admitted into the house, she comes to understand her destiny, and helps to discover the dead body of the house's former owner-dead no less than a century, Amelia attests, after sticking her finger into the goo that remains of his decaying body, and licks the goo off. Except that Amelia is not real. She is a a real accounting, of real life, by a woeful young man that feels his writing is not what it should be. When his older brother, thought dead already, comes to reclaim his estate, the estate enter into a heated sword fight. Watching the contest, a human skull and a raven. The young runs his brother through, and in so doing, receives only half finished warnings of things most dire. The older brother is given to the butler for burial, and the raven asks the young man if he enjoys writing the sorts of tales he's been writing. If writing fantasy might not be better than writing what is real, but the young man insists otherwise, and the raven says he will comment "Nevermore," flying away. From there, the butler explains to the scullery maid that she must never repeat what he tells her...and ghouls wait for the brides Amelia will be delivering to them, with a side of breadsticks.
The Dead and the Moonstruck-Jane Starling is a changeling, chosen by The Cuckoo to be plucked from Providence, and taken below. For eight years, she has been studying for her Three Confirmations, the only way she will be allowed to live. At night, her mother visits, telling her she is beautiful, and wishing she could have remained at the beach. No one is sure if Jane will pass her Third confirmation, not even her best friend, ghul pup Sorrow. Jane makes her descent to meet the dragon, Nidhogg Rootnibbler, becoming drenched in moonlight. She has passed, and can now live, even if it among monsters.
Have No Fear, Crumpot is Here-Walter has a made up a world of his own, based on a character named Crumpot, one that has a tendency to lead him into scrapes. His father is constantly lecturing Walter about responsibility, and when one too many adventures occur, Walter is sent to stay with friends of the family-the Wilkies. The couple also have a son, whose name is also Walter, a sickly looking little boy in a red velvet jacket that sleeps his days away. When the Wilkies' babysitter can't come over one evening, Walter is given the responsibility. He loses track of time, however, and realizes it's already dark outside once he's aware again. Seeing a man and his son outside, he calls to them, but stops when he's confronted by a strangely beautiful girl he'd seen only days before. She claims Walter Wilkie is a vampire, and gives Walter the tools to kill the little boy, just moments before he's bitten.
Stone Tower-As far back as she can remember, Tara has been cold in the tower. A voice tells her to go to bed, to get up and go to school, to dress, to eat. She can't recall how she used to dress or the names of people she realizes she ought to know. Fleeing from the world outside, she can only run back to her tower prison. Memories are coming back to her, a lullaby that used to be sung to Tara when she was little, a distinguished man who became harder and harder to understand-her father. A raven has been appearing at her window, its feathers left on the windowsill, until one morning she finds several that are bloody. Tara had been hiding from her father, she could now remember, and the raven is Jeremy-the missing boy that Tara had been dating, the one her father told her she could not see again. Defiant, she jumps from her tower, and finds the raven. The cold melts away, and the missing boy is in her arms, the two finally warm.
The Prank-Melanie has been charged with a hate crime, but as a teenager, she is released into the custody of her Aunt Beryl. The woman is old, and it's only in this visit that Melanie finds out that Beryl is her Great Aunt, her mother's aunt. She's never been married, and Melanie wonders if she might have been a lesbian, the type of woman that Melanie had hit with an iron bar nine times. Beryl drills her on the crime committed, and Melanie breaks into the attic because Beryl tells her not to, finding the still-living sister that Beryl hasn't mentioned. What's more, she's been preserved at the same age she was when Beryl committed her own hate crime-placing rat poison in her food. Now she is half rat, but Melanies frees her from the bed where Beryl has had her tied, and the three are also all released from their hate.
Writing on the Wall-Mark Banks found the house one day, and made an offer over the phone. It has Victorian charm, and he wasn't as sensitive to the paranormal as his son, Sam. As the renovations of the old home begin, a Witch's bottle is found over the door, and a cat's corpse in the fireplace. They are methods of protection, and with the items taken away, history is on the verge of repeating itself. The son of Mark's contractor, Tom, has developed a crush on Katie Banks (Mark's daughter). In the span of only a few days, the crush has become something more, and Sam is seeing visions in Katie's room. A girl that the family discovers fell to her death, pushed when she spurned the advances of a young man of which her father didn't approve. Katie has peeled away layers of her wallpaper, and revealed a message pleading with Kate to go. Believing it is a message for someone else, she is not prepared when Tom arrives in her room, bent on getting revenge for Katie not being already in love with him. When Mark and Sam arrive, Tom is dead on the floor of Katie's room, and she still has the chisel in her hand.
Endings-It is a simple ending, to a very long story. His two swords rest in a chair, Joy and Sorrow. That is not their real names, and for a moment he recalls their mother, now long dead. But he is not dead, is somewhere between dead and alive. A young hero came to the house, and chose Sorrow, killing the real daughters. Now, all that remains is the owner of the two swords. A second youth arrives, too young to be a hero, but he has chosen Joy. Once through the heart, and then across the throat, it is all that is required to finally have the swords' owner finally have Joy.

•Critical Evaluation
A fantastic treat, gothic stories, not horror. There are moments of whimsy and dry humor, but all intertwined into the overall gothic tapestry.

•Reader’s Annotation
Suitable for all teens, and intricate enough to even intrigue those that tend to enjoy more bite to their fantasy tales.

•Genre
Short Stories, Gothic Fiction

•Curriculum Ties
English
History
Folktales

•Booktalking Ideas
Halloween, the Gothic novel, Poe, Byron, Polidori, Neil Gaiman fans

•Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 9-12/Ages 14-19

•Challenge Issues
N/A

•Why did you include this book in you’re the titles you selected?
I have always been a huge fan of gothic novels, the kind with the estate on a moor, and a brooding figure that might kill as easily as turn out a hero. This collection of short stories was, hands down, my favorite of the books I chose for this course.