The (New) Southern Gothic

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Have you ever lived in the South? I lived in kinda-south, Atlanta, for five years, and it was eye-opening. Yes, Atlanta itself was hip and stylish--but behind the scenes, a few blocks away and then a few miles away and then even farther away, there was a surprise at every turn. In 1980, (before it was a cliché) I did a long series of TV stories called Main Street, where every Monday I’d close my eyes and point to a place on the map of Georgia—and then my photographer and I would go explore. And do features on whatever we found.

I could tell you stories.

And today so will the wonderful Emily Carpenter. Her intense new book, Until The Day I Die, is one of the most surprising thrillers I’ve ever read. Just when you think you know what it’s about—whoa. A surprise at every turn.

Where did her writing brain come from? The south.   

The (New) Southern Gothic

By Emily Carpenter

  

If you were awake for any length of time in high school English Lit class, you were surely the recipient of a basic primer on Southern Gothic and its full list of regulars. William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, Toni Morrison, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, Zora Neale Hurston—they are the foremothers and fathers of the genre of outcasts, broken dreams, and deeds done in the swampy, mosquito-infested darkness.

They are my foremothers and fathers too, and when I read their books, something in my soul recognizes a sort of indefinable, DNA-level kinship.

But today’s South is no longer the South of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. We have new players on the scene who are writing a new style of gothic. They depict the modern South, those former puddles and pockets of isolated oddities, adapting to the information age. They show the people and places stretched and expanded in unexpected directions by that great equalizer, the internet. I, for one, rejoice. I love seeing the genre continue, but to do it in a new way, transforming into something even more interesting and relevant.

As our accents have lost their dips and curves and lilting notes, our horizons have expanded beyond the tales our grandparents told us. And yet, there are still to be found, in Alabama and Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, small pockets of the old people and the old ways. Our older generations—and some of our younger ones too—do still yearn for some ghost of the past to return. But in the end, we know better. We’ve seen too much to really believe it would be wise to return.

The new South is still a place of mystery, elegance, and soul. Still one of violence, death, and grotesqueries. A place where, as Mr. Faulkner put it, “The past is never dead. It’s not even the past.” 

There is tension here, there always will be, between the classes and races, between the high-handed and the downtrodden. In the words of Jamie Kornegay, “There is God and the Devil, standing in the muddy, snake-swarmed baptismal river, holding hands.” The chief difference being, these events now typically take place at an open-air shopping malls and mega churches housed in converted warehouses.

I like that contrast, and I use it in all of my books to varying degrees. But here are a few of those markers that I consider to be the enduring hallmarks of the New Southern Gothic style:

Old houses, old farms and old churches, all falling into disrepair. Sagging porches, leaking roofs, mold and rot and ivy choking their walls, their very existence is a memorial of the past and a warning for the future.

Old-time religion—the real, the not-so-real, and the very, very bad. Everyone has been steeped in church-going down here but shaking off the shackles of guilt and superstition—and believing there is Someone who, in the End, may punish their misdeeds—informs all the characters actions.

Race—whether or not the story directly addresses the relationships between the races, the subject still settles over every story set in the South like a thick blanket of humidity. Whether the characters true attitudes are revealed directly or indirectly, their deep-seated biases are usually revealed by what they do and say. Or don’t.

Secrets—hidden skeletons, twisted confidences, nasty knowledge that must be kept in the family, the only place these things are safe. Of course, New England and Midwestern families have their secrets too. But Southerners serve up their secrets with a special sauce, the kind that packs a kick as it’s going down. It’s something about the genial way they don’t try all that hard to hide what they’ve done. There’s a bit of a wink and a nod, a slap on the back that says they know you understand why they did what they had to do. Why, the sheriff understood too.

A new crop of authors is melding the traditional Southern Gothic aesthetic with elements of fantasy, humor, and horror, and I get practically giddy when I realize I’m in the capable hands of a Southern writer who’s taking me for a gothic ride. Joshilyn Jackson, Charlaine Harris, Lori Roy, M.O. Walsh, Tananarive Due, and Kimberly Brock are some of my recent favorites and inform my personal take on the genre in so many ways. Hewing to the tenants of true Southern Gothic, these writers are pushing the boundaries of the category, telling updated stories for a South that’s ever-changing and yet somehow always the same. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  So thought-provoking! And you are right, so evocative. Reds and readers—have you ever lived in the South? Visited ? Wondered? Let us know! And who are your favorite Southern writers? And one lucky commenter will win UNTIL THE DAY I DIE!

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From the bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls comes a riveting novel about a mother and daughter separated by grief, secrets, and a conspiracy that threatens to destroy their lives.

If there’s a healthy way to grieve, Erin Gaines hasn’t found it. After her husband’s sudden death, the runaway success of the tech company they built with their best friends has become overwhelming. Her nerves are frayed, she’s disengaged, and her frustrated daughter, Shorie, is pulling away from her. Maybe Erin’s friends and family are right. Maybe a few weeks at a spa resort in the Caribbean islands is just what she needs to hit the reset button…

Shorie is not only worried about her mother’s mental state but also for the future of her parents’ company. Especially when she begins to suspect that not all of Erin’s colleagues can be trusted. It seems someone is spinning an intricate web of deception—the foundation for a conspiracy that is putting everything, and everyone she loves, at risk. And she may be the only one who can stop it.

Now, thousands of miles away in a remote, and oftentimes menacing, tropical jungle, Erin is beginning to have similar fears. Things at the resort aren’t exactly how the brochure described, and unless she’s losing her mind, Erin’s pretty sure she wasn’t sent there to recover—she was sent to disappear.

  

Emily Carpenter is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of suspense novels, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies, Every Single Secret, and the forthcoming Until the Day I Die, which Publishers Weekly calls “chilling…shocking.” After graduating from Auburn with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, she moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. You can visit Emily at emilycarpenterauthor.com and on Facebook and Twitter.