Julia O’Connell
Publicity Director at Penzler Publishers; Freelance editor; Book blogger at The Gothic Library. She/her ✡️📚
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellI'm planning the annual charity teach-athon for Romancing the Gothic. GOTHS FOR BREAKFAST is a full day of classes and workshops (more or less related to the Gothic) raising money for @magicbreakfastuk.bsky.social to feed hungry kids! Looking for volunteer speakers! Get in touch!
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellMutual Aid by Dean Spade is free on Libro for the next week (until 2/2). We know that books can't fix everything, but they can help us show up for and strengthen our communities. Our employee book club read this last year, leading to a great discussion. We hope that it helps others do the same 💗 ⏬
- New blog post! Check out my review of THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by @sgj.bsky.social, which I can already tell is going to be one of my favorite reads of the year: www.thegothiclibrary.com/review-of-th... 💙📚 😱📚
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellThis is International Gothic Reading Month! This January and every January to come, we are reading Gothic literature. Visit the International Gothic Reading Month (IGRM) website for more details on how to participate. americangothicsociety.com/internationa... #Booksy #Readersky #Gothicfans #Gothic
- New blog post! Check out my list of books I’m excited for coming out in 2026, with a bit of everything ranging from pure horror to fantasy to cozy sci-fi, with some dashes of mystery and romance: www.thegothiclibrary.com/books-im-exc... 💙📚 😱📚
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellThis year, I'm running a lot of courses through other organisations, but I'm also running one myself! A deep dive into the work of Ann Radcliffe. Come and explore the works of the Gothic Enchantress with me and go beyond the stereotypes! buytickets.at/romancingthe...
- Reposted by Julia O’Connellpeek = 🫣 peak = 🗻 pique = 👀
- Check out the books I worked on this year!
- New blog post! Check out my recap of my reading for 2025. It’s been a weird year, but there were some great reads along the way… www.thegothiclibrary.com/my-2025-read...
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellRomancing the Gothic organises free talks every Saturday all through the year! Our talks are open to all, happen at two different times (usually) so people can join us from different time zones, and are free (though donations welcome to support the programme) This year's programme below!
- New blog post! Check out my review of @sarahgailey.bsky.social’s strange and sexy take on John Carpenter’s The Thing—SPREAD ME: www.thegothiclibrary.com/review-of-sp... 💙📚 😱📚
- Happy Chanukah!
- Okay, the AI-generated book club scam emails are getting ridiculous. Just got forwarded one from one of my authors that is literally a page long, with effusive flowery language.
- “I was wandering through Amazon in my usual suspicious manner when your book suddenly appeared like a clue that absolutely did not want to be ignored….” Anyway, as soon as you see like 3 of these, you’ll be able to instantly recognize them by the ChatGPT cadence.
- But if you’re not familiar yet, here are some tips for recognizing this particular scam: 1) They will explain the plot of your book back to you and/or list themes as though writing an analysis paper for school
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View full thread3) AI loves lists. The description will be filled with lists of adjectives and towards the end of the email, there’s always a bulleted list (with or without actual bullet formatting) of 3-5 things that you will get out of being “featured” in this “book club”
- I’m hiring a new intern to support me and the rest of the publishing team at Penzler Publishers!
- Are you a recent college grad who loves mysteries & thrillers? We're hiring for a winter/spring intern to support our publishing team, starting in January! This position is part-time, paid, and in-person at our NYC offices. Click the link for details: www.mysteriousbookshop.com/pages/job-op...
- New blog post! If you love demons and dysfunctional families, check out my review of PLAY NICE by @rachelharrison.bsky.social: www.thegothiclibrary.com/review-of-pl... 💙📚 😱📚
- Crisis averted: I was able to find a copy of Play Nice at The Twisted Spine and check the quote I needed. Hooray for indie bookstores! Keep an eye out for my review tomorrow morning!
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellHi! We're a small business & we'd love to get a sale today. 1st time since we set up in 2015 that we've had no traffic on #SmallBusinessSaturday It's so hard, we know everyone is spread thin. Us too. But if you like vintage / gothy stuff, everything below is still available, thanks for your time:
- Adding to this thread of nifty things that additional brand-new Gothy / Batty / Catty / Vintage goodies are now available via Torch & Arrow, all one of a kind & part of Etsy's big cyber sale! Your support is *such* a help in a difficult year. 🖤 torchandarrow.etsy.com #BlueSkyNightMarket
- Does anyone have a physical or ebook copy of Rachel Harrison’s latest novel, Play Nice? I read the audiobook, but need to check the exact wording of a quote and have no idea how to go about finding it in the audiobook… If you’ve got a copy and are willing to look up the quote for me, let me know!
- And if you don’t have a copy, stay tuned for my next book review…
- New blog post! Check out my review of CINDER HOUSE, a spooky and sweet Cinderella retelling by @freyamarske.bsky.social: www.thegothiclibrary.com/review-of-ci... 💙📚
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellSeen as it looks like I won't have a main job for a while (and seen as I haven't been paid anything since September) if you'd like to support the work that I do through Romancing the Gothic, you can! You can also buy courses (in case you didn't know!) ko-fi.com/samhirst
- New blog post! Check out my reflections on this year’s #AScareADay reading challenge for October: www.thegothiclibrary.com/ascareaday-2...
- Day 31, the final story of #AScareADay is “The Path She Sings” by Vanessa Fogg. A fitting last name for this story! The narrator grieves his undead wife. The creature that moves around his house is no longer her, not really. Or is it? 1/
- Ironically, the people of this town must play dead to stay alive when the icy mist comes. What happens to people who live alone? Why does the burden fall on their loved ones? Like yesterday’s story, this is a bittersweet one of love and grief. But was this ending a happy ending? 2/ #AScareADay
- I loved the prose style of this one. “The cold earth speaks. I enter the earth, I follow the worms. I flee the creeping mist—I flee Death—into the arms of the Dead.” 3/ #AScareADay
- Day 30 of #AScareADay is “Bleeding Hearts” by Suzan Palumbo. A sweet, uplifting tale as we near the end of the challenge. A witch who heals heartbreaks finally begins to face her own grief and open her heart up to someone new. 1/
- Each heartbreak that Ashley plants in her garden grows into a different kind of flower. I’m intrigued by if there’s meaning behind the different flowers they grow into. If your heartbreak grew into a beautiful flower, would you want to keep it, abandon it, or destroy it? 2/ #AScareADay
- Ashley, of course, has her own untreated heartbreak that she has allowed to fester. Physician, heal thyself! 3/ #AScareADay
- Day 29 of #AScareADay is “The Portrait of Sal Pullman” by Lonnie Nadler and Abby Howard—a web comic and one of the most unsettling stories we’ve read so far! “I am celebrated. I am a masterpiece. I am in hell.” 1/
- Just like Basil in The Picture of Dorian Gray, the painter in this comic fears that he has put too much of himself into his most recent painting. Only, in this case, his fear comes true in a very literal sense… 2/ #AScareADay
- A recurring theme in this month’s stories is a protagonist whose perceptions cannot be corroborated by companions. In this case, the painter sees a monster on the canvas, but others see a brilliant self portrait. What do you do when others mistake a monster for you? 3/ #AScareADay
- Day 28 of #AScareADay is “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island” by Nibedita Sen This was the only story on this year’s challenge that I’ve read before. In fact, I’ve had the pleasure of listening to Nibedita read it aloud at two different salons. 1/
- This story is still one of my faves and I get something new from it every time. This time these lines struck me as Carmilla-like: “prone to intemperate moods and a tendency to attach herself with sudden fits of feverish fondness to one or more of the other girls.” 2/ #AScareADay
- And this time around, I paid a lot more attention to the article authors and their relationship to each other. Every time, though, I giggle at this title: Dead and Delicious II: Eat What You Want, and If People Don’t Like It, Eat Them Too. 3/ #AScareADay
- Day 27 of #AScareADay is “Uncontainable” by Helen Stubbs “Good Wife Henny is fair of face but her heart is festerin’ black.” Young Rochelle seldom speaks, but when she does she speaks the truth. 1/
- Rochelle struggles to communicate, but she knows a secret that could save lives. Thankfully the nameless narrator has the patience and curiosity to sit with and listen to the child the rest of the household dismiss as mad. 2/ #AScareADay
- This story gets quite gory, but the scariest part is the psychological effect Good Wife Henny has on those who interact with her. Just a conversation with her will make you grin and giggle and dismiss any suspicions… Is Rochelle’s neurodivergence what allows her to see through it? 3/ #AScareADay
- Reposted by Julia O’ConnellFeels like I'm preaching to the choir here, but seriously. Food pantries can stretch every dollar you spend on goods to drop off at their doors twice as far as you can, and stretch it into fresh, locally brought goods, too. Give $$.
- Day 26 of #AScareADay is the poem “The Right Foot of Juan De Oñate” by Martín Espada. A bronze statue of a brutal conquistador faces a poetic justice. 1/
- “The city fathers smash champagne bottles across the horse's legs to christen the statue, and Oñate's spirit remembers the chainsaw” I like the image of one spirit that inhabits all statues of Oñate and is tormented by the memory of the vengeance visited upon a single incarnation. 2/ #AScareADay
- Day 25 of #AScareADay is “Eleanor Atkins is Dead and Her House is Boarded Up” by Kaaron Warren This was a fun one! Mostly a happy ghost story, but still with a slight air of the eerie or ominous. 1/
- The ghosts that haunt Eleanor’s home are benevolent…or are they? They keep her happy, leave money around, and help her discover pleasure and comfort. But they won’t let her leave, and her children don’t want to stay in the house. “Can evil be needy?” 2/ #AScareADay
- We know these spirits can manipulate her emotions, because they make her lonely when they want the house filled with company. Was Eleanor truly happy, or was this an artificial emotion induced by the ghosts? And does that difference matter? Were they right to board up the house? 3/ #AScareADay
