Southern Gothic: Books and Bites Podcast, Ep. 94

Books and Bites

On this episode, we discuss Southern Gothic books, one of the prompts on the Summer-Fall Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge. Southern Gothic is a sub-genre of Gothic fiction--or, as Michael says, it's "Gothic with a twang."

According to Book Riot, some of the characteristics of Southern Gothic include, “eccentric, flawed characters, sinister events, elements of the supernatural or fantastical, and themes relating to race, class, decay, violence, and isolation.”

Our picks for this month include a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, a YA mystery, and a haunting, surprisingly spicy novel.

Carrie’s Pick

The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty

In this 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning novella, Laurel McElva Hand, a widow in her mid-forties, travels from her home in Chicago to New Orleans, where her father is having a routine eye operation that proves fatal.

Laurel and her crass, young stepmother accompany his body back to Mississippi.

After the funeral, Laurel is left alone in her childhood home to reckon with her past and the loss of her mother, father, and husband.

Pairing: Pat Nixon’s Hot Chicken Salad, a comforting and nostalgic casserole that was popular in the 1970s.

Jacqueline’s Pick

Losing Brave by Bailee Madison and Stefne Miller

Payton Brave is a popular high school girl whose twin sister Dylan has been missing for more than a year. Payton was mentally devastated by the disappearance of her sister and cannot remember anything about the day Dylan disappeared at the train station.

As Payton slowly attempts to recover the events in her mind, strange, unexplainable things begin happening. Set in a small Mississippi town, this young adult mystery focuses on death, social interaction, and terror.

Pairing: Air Fryer Donuts. Enjoy with coffee for a modern equivalent of tea and crumpets.

Michael’s Pick

House of Cotton by Monica Brashears

Alone and practically broke in the East Tennessee mountains, nineteen-year-old Magnolia meets Cotton, a well-dressed man with blood on his hands who offers her a modeling job.

The catch? Cotton has discovered a niche market where people who have missing loved ones will pay a lot of money to see them again. His aunt Eden can transform Magnolia to look like just about anyone.

Pairing: Nashville Hot Chicken, because a spicy book calls for a spicy dish.