Five New Texts to Add to Your Gothic Fiction Unit [S7 EP. 229]

Listen to the full episode below:

Grab your pumpkin spice latte and favorite sweater, because it’s almost Halloween and there’s no better time than now to read gothic fiction! We’re here to share some new texts with you - roundup style.  

You’ll hear from us and three of our ELA friends so you can walk away with fresh stories to add to your gothic fiction archive. You can pair these newer options with the classics (Poe, we’re looking at you!).  Be sure to scroll down to meet each of our friends and see links to where you can find them and their brilliant ideas 👻 💗

If you enjoy these suggestions, come join us over in Happy Hour! It’s our monthly membership where we zoom in and talk more about the technical side of implementation.

You can shop all of our favorite books on Bookshop.org (Amanda’s list and Marie’s list) or Amazon.

Meet Our Guests:

English Teacher and Curriculum Writer

When she's not battling burnout or resurrecting classic lit from the dead, Danielle hosts the Anti-Burnout for English Teachers podcast and shares teaching ideas @englishclassroomarchitect on Instagram. For more about teaching the unit in this segment check out her blog at http://www.englishclassroomarchitect.com/BNTgothic

Curriculum Writer

You can follow Samantha on Instagram @samanthainsecondary for tons of fresh YA book recs or visit her website for tips on creating joyful readers at http://www.samanthainsecondary.com. For the unit she talks about in her segment, head to http://www.samanthainsecondary.com/mystery.


Curriculum Writer

You can see how Ashley dresses up her dog for Halloween on Instagram @BuildingBookLove and read more about teaching “The Oval Portrait” and “The Feather Pillow” on her blog: Gothic Literature Short Story: Teaching The Oval Portrait by Poe

Topics Discussed:

  • Why we love Gothic literature so much

  • Ideas for doing a film and television study

  • Highlighting gothic fiction by pairing a modern young adult novel with a classic text 

  • Bringing in SEL by exploring mental health in literature 

  • Activities and discussion prompts to use alongside these texts

  • Gothic elements that can be analyzed in short stories

Texts Mentioned:

Resources Mentioned:

check out other bnt episodes:

More about Brave New Teaching:

Join hosts Amanda Cardenas (Mud & Ink Teaching) and Marie Morris (The Caffeinated Classroom) in discussions about being brave, trying new things, and all things teaching! As seasoned classroom teachers, Amanda and Marie bring their experience, insight, energy, and oh, so many opinions and ideas... It's time for all teachers to take their classroom and teaching practice into their own hands!

Tune in on your favorite podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.