Writers have been bending the laws of physics and time ever since they put pen (or quill) to paper. The place where science meets the speculative has always had a home in gothic fiction. Think of that giant helmet inexplicably crashing down on Conrad in Horace Walpoleโs The Castle of Otranto, and the unorthodox experiments in Mary Shelleyโs Frankensteinโthe first science fiction novel and a gothic classic. While H.G. Wells is often credited with writing the very first time travel novel, a Spanish author named Enrique Gaspar actually got there eight years earlier with El Anacronรณpete, published in 1887. El Anacronรณpete follows a man who goes back in time with a pre-Tardis-style time machine to marry his niece (!) and then travels to various points in history before he reaches the moment of creation itself.
In my new novel, The Artist of Blackberry Grange, there are no time machines, only portals to the pastโin the form of uncanny paintings that transport my main character, Sadie, into her ailing great-auntโs youth, where she discovers that (almost) everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie.
In the five novels listed here, youโll find elements of science fiction and fantasy interwoven with gothic themes as characters navigate the complexities of wrestling with time.
The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison
When history professor Cecily Bridge-Davis inherits sixty-five acres of land from her father, she isnโt expecting to discover a time travel curse thatโs plagued over a century of Bridge kindred. In every generation, one of the offspring of each Bridge family unit goes missingโwhisked back in time. As her fatherโs only child, Cecily knows she is next. Armed only with a family Bible listing her ancestors, and a map of the Bridge property, Cecily puts her skills as a historian to the test as she races against time to uncover the roots of the Bridge family curse and end the cycle before she disappears forever. The Fallen Fruit is a sweeping, multi-generational timeslip family saga with Southern Gothic atmosphere that explores the scars of ancestral trauma and the inevitable power of fate.
Grimdark by Shannon Morgan
In this upcoming modern gothic, a woman accompanies her husband to his ancestral home to claim his inheritance, only to discover her own destiny is tied to events from the past. Like many gothic heroines, when Clรณ comes to Grimdark Hall, she finds it cold and unwelcoming. Inhabited by her husbandโs cruel and eccentric older sisters, who contrive countless ways to torment Clรณ, Grimdarkโs labyrinthine halls and hidden rooms nevertheless hold an irresistible appeal. While exploring the estate and its surrounding fens, Clรณ begins experiencing disturbing visions brought about by the chiming of a ghostly clock. Every time the clock strikes thirteen, Clo is swept back to a time when women are burned as witches and curses transcend death. As echoes of past lives converge in the present, Clรณ is forced to reckon with old betrayals driven by greed before she falls victim to vengeful grievances.
The Star and The Strange Moon by Constance Sayers
When a cursed, vintage film captivates a young film student, his quest to unlock the mystery behind the disappearance of its vanished star transcends the limits of time. Itโs 1968 and actress Gemma Turner is on the cusp of obscurity when sheโs offered the lead role in a groundbreaking horror film, Lโรtrange Lune. She believes her dreams of stardom are finally coming true, until the night she disappears on-set, only to discover sheโs been pulled into the nightmarish world of the film sheโs starring in. Forced to replay the same terrifying scenes over and over, Gemma desperately attempts to change the script to survive. Meanwhile, in 2007, film student Christopher Kent has been fascinated by the mysterious film, and Gemma, for years. Only screened once a decade, Lโรtrange Lune impossibly contains new scenes at every screeningโฆeven though its star disappeared almost forty years before. As Christopher encounters the darkness at the heart of the filmโs history, heโs also drawn into its perilous curse. A hypnotic tale of the dangers of artistic obsession and a love unbound from the limits of time.
Where Ivy Dares to Grow by Marielle Thompson
In a similar vein to Diana Gabaldonโs Outlander, Thompsonโs debut centers a woman in love with a man from the past, but itโs her main characterโs inner struggle with mental health that makes this novel truly unique and powerful. When Saoirse Reed travels to the cliffside manor where her fiancรฉโs terminally ill mother awaits death, she receives a cold welcome. Her future in-laws make no attempt to hide their disdain for Saoirse, and her fiancรฉโs affections have grown sparse in the wake of his motherโs death. Lonely and struggling with dissociative episodes, Saoirse wanders the unkept gardens surrounding the estate, where she slips into the past and encounters Theo Page, her fiancรฉโs ancestor. Drawn in by Theoโs warmth and melancholy charm, Saoirse finds herself falling for him, while at the same time her tenuous hold on reality begins to crumble. A heart-wrenching, evocative timeslip love story as well as a deeply sympathetic and honest portrayal of mental illness.
Beguiled by Night by Nicole Eigener
You might think youโve read every iteration of vampire fiction out there. But you havenโt met Vauquelin. Born an aristocrat in seventeenth-century France, Vauquelin is jaded by his long existence. A bit of a snob. Now living in modern Los Angeles, his ennui and self-imposed exile suddenly shatter when time unravels, catapulting Vauquelin into his past, where heโs forced to confront old wounds and acknowledge the macabre nature of his existence. But thereโs hope, too. As Vauquelin revisits former lovers and old enemies alike, a chance for atonement and reconciliation emerges. As he regresses through time, an unexpected choice presents itselfโone that might alter his future completely, or cost him the only true happiness heโs ever known. Beguiled by Night is a decadent, impeccably researched blend of gothic horror, historical fiction, and timeslip sci-fi, with touches of dark humor and erotica. If you like your vampires sophisticated, queer, and unabashedly bloodthirsty, you may have just found a new favorite in Vauquelin.ย
Paulette Kennedy is the author of The Artist of Blackberry Grange (2025), The Devil and Mrs. Davenport (2024), The Witch of Tin Mountain (2023), and Parting the Veil (2021), which received the HNS Review Editorโs Choice Award. Her work has been featured in People Magazine, The Mary Sue, and BookBub. Originally from the Missouri Ozarks, where as a young girl she could often be found wandering through the gravestones in her neighborhood cemetery, Pauletteโs affinity for fog-covered landscapes and haunted heroines only grew, inspiring her to become a writer. She now lives with her family and a menagerie of rescue pets in sunny Southern California, where sometimes, on the very best days, the mountains are wreathed in gothic fog.
You can connect with her on Instagram at @pkennedywrites or her website: www.paulettekennedy.com
Pauletteโs next release, The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael, coming in 2026, is a novel of gothic suspense set in nineteenth-century Charleston, South Carolina.
