When Gothic Goes to the Suburbs

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I love reading (and writing) books with small towns, and houses set in the woods, and a setting that feels like a character. I’m a huge fan of atmosphere, and I find myself repeatedly drawn to themes of the past, and hidden secrets lurking under the surface of a picturesque façade. So maybe that’s why reading gothic fiction always transports me—particularly that tone, where the setting feels alive, and the secrets and the past feel alive as well.

In my latest book, Such A Quiet Place, I wanted to pull the boundaries of a small town setting even tighter, make it feel inescapable, even though there are roads leading in and out. I was thinking about all those same elements that resonate with me in gothic fiction: A place that feels like a character, the isolation and the secrets and the past, all built into the bones of a place.

I realized how much a suburban setting was suited for that same experience, with the façade of security and safety, and a place that feels alive. The growing tension, that sense of unease. The way that you never know what’s happening behind closed doors, even when those doors are in sight. The way you can be surrounded by others, but still feel alone. The realization that safety is not at all what you thought.

In Such A Quiet Place, the neighborhood of Hollow’s Edge is the type of close-knit community where everyone believes they know everything about one another—until a crime destroys that façade, and the neighbors help convict one of their own, Ruby Fletcher. The story begins a year and a half later, just as Ruby’s conviction is overturned, and she comes right back to Hollow’s Edge. Her return shakes everyone, and the neighborhood is practically simmering with tension: Is a killer back among them? Or has the true killer been among them, all along?

Here are 6 more suspense novels that bring elements of the gothic into the suburbs:

The Wife Upstairs, by Rachel Hawkins

A sharp, fresh twist on a classic, this story reimagines Jane Eyre as a domestic suspense set in the modern-day south. Jane is now a dogwalker in the upscale neighborhood of Thornfield Estates, a development of McMansions in suburban Alabama, where she meets the recently widowed Eddie Rochester. But the ghost of the first Mrs. Rochester feels ever-present, and everyone in the neighborhood seems to know something she doesn’t. What truly happened to Eddie’s first wife? And is there a murderer in their midst? The atmosphere in Thornfield Estates is brimming with tension—as is Jane’s house. And it feels like everyone in this book has something to hide.

Behind Closed Doors, by B.A. Paris

Jack and Grace seem like an ideal couple from the outside. They live in a beautiful home in England, and host dinner parties for friends and neighbors. Still newlyweds, Grace has recently left her job, dedicating herself to their home, and Jack works as a lawyer. From the outside, they project happiness. But as the story continues, that façade quickly unravels. Feelings of isolation and dread steadily grow as chapters alternate between the past and the present. The simple horror of this story is in the truth that lies just behind their front door, that no one else seems to notice.

Home Before Dark, by Riley Sager

A notorious house set just outside a town in Vermont provides the setting for Riley Sager’s chilling is-it-haunted thriller, where past and present collide. Maggie hasn’t set foot in that house since her 20-day stay when she was a child, when her family was driven out by a terrifying experience, which would go on to become the subject of her father’s nonfiction bestseller, House of Horrors. But now Maggie has inherited that house—and she’s about to unearth the truth about what secrets really lie within those walls. The tension is palpable between Maggie and the people in town, who were made the center of a story by her father’s book. And that tension only grows throughout the story, as chapters alternate between Maggie’s story in the present and excerpts of her father’s bestselling book, from twenty-five years earlier.

Good Neighbors, by Sarah Langan

An exclusive community in suburban Long Island sets the scene for this unnerving story, where a sinkhole has opened, and the formerly close relationships between neighbors quickly begin to unravel. Something toxic seems to be spreading up and down the picturesque Maple Street, and there’s a growing sense of unease and dread that permeates everything. In addition to the chilling premise, the story is revealed in a fascinating way: both through the present account of events, and with excerpts written in the future about the ordeal, giving the reader a haunting insight into the horrors that beset what had once been such a close community—and the series of events that led up to the shocking end.

The Winter Sister, by Megan Collins

Sixteen years after her sister’s unsolved murder, Sylvie returns home to Spring Hill, Connecticut, to care for her ailing mother in this incredibly atmospheric story that examines the complex bonds within families. Everyone involved in her sister’s case is still around, including the boyfriend her sister was forbidden from seeing. Being home brings back unresolved memories of the night of her sister’s disappearance, and Sylvie begins digging into the past, unearthing secrets that have remained long-buried in her community, and her home, layer by haunting layer.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson

Merricat, eighteen, is the only member of her family to venture into town from her crumbling estate on the outskirts of a Vermont village. Years earlier, several members of her family died under mysterious circumstances, and her sister was accused—and acquitted—of the crime. But there’s still a heavy cloud of suspicion hanging over Merricat’s home, and an intense feeling of isolation from the rest of town. Those tensions only exacerbate throughout, until the secrets of the past and the danger of the present ultimately collide, in chilling fashion.

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