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As we gear up for Halloween, we get all gussied up in Gothic.

Del Sandeen joins me to talk about the curses, colorism, and all the many influences in her Southern Gothic debut This Cursed House. It’s a novel that twists the sub-genre’s typical reliance on race, for a more subtle, pernicious form of prejudice.

But it’s also chock full of all the haunted house–cursed family–secret rooms–and weird incest that you could want from a truly Gothic novel. It’s a damn good time, as is this conversation.

We talk about New Orleans hauntings, the inspiration of Del’s grandmother, forgiveness as a theme, and the relative ickiness of incest.

Consider this your starting gun for spooky season.

Enjoy.

Other books mentioned:

• Voodoo Dreams (1993), by Jewel Parker Rhodes
• The Good House (2003), by Tananarive Due
• Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison
• The Vanishing Half (2020), by Brit Bennett
• Sing, Unburied Sing (2017) , by Jesymn Ward
• When the Reckoning Comes (2021), by LaTanya McQueen
• “A Rose For Emily,” (1930), by William Faulkner
• “Jordan’s End,” in The Shadowy Third (1923), by Ellen Glasgow
• The Elementals (1981), by Michael McDowell
• The Conjure Woman (1899), by Charles W. Chesnutt
• The House Behind the Cedars (1900), by Charles W. Chesnutt

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