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2026 Reading Challenge

2026

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S. Elizabeth has read 43 of 100 books.

43%

S. Elizabeth

Goodreads Author

Born

May 12

Website

https://unquietthings.com/

Twitter

mlleghoul

Genre

Art

Member Since

August 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/ghoulnextdoor

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S. Elizabeth is a Florida-based writer specializing in art, the macabre, and the supernatural.

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Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

S. Elizabeth The Art of Darkness: A Treasury of the Morbid, Melancholic and Macabre is inspired by a lifetime's worth of obsession with the dark and what can be fo…moreThe Art of Darkness: A Treasury of the Morbid, Melancholic and Macabre is inspired by a lifetime's worth of obsession with the dark and what can be found seething in the shadows when we stop being too frightened to peek. Or when we embrace these fears and anxieties, and we peer into the void, anyway!

When I was a child, I loved things all fairy and "flowerdy" (my 5 year old term for heaps of blossoms and blooms). think I was a cottage core early adopter, hee hee! I was terrified of ugly, scary, angry, wild things: Lou Ferrigno as the Incredible Hulk; the feral alien otherworldly vibe of my cousin's freaky KISS posters, and honestly, as silly as it sounds, George Hamilton as some vampire guy in a film called Love at First Bite scared the shit out of me! And I think that was meant to be a comedy! And Scooby Doo? Man, that gave me nightmares.

But somewhere along the way, that panic and fright regarding the bloodsuckers and monsters from outer space began to give way to fascination, and whereas I would once hide my face behind a pillow when something scary was happening, I now began to feel the itchy urge to peek. As I grew older, the fascination with fearsome things slowly turned into an obsession, and, much like a nerdy vampire creep myself, I began to gobble up and devour every bit of frightening or creepy media that came my way.

From literature and film, to music and art, from that time forward, I was hungry for all things unearthly and strange, ghastly and ghostly, gruesome and grotesque. I also grew up in a household with a mother who was an astrologer, who had tarot cards tucked into every nook and cranny, and mysterious artworks hung on every wall. All of her relationships, whether friends or romantic entanglements, were with bohemian weirdos and heavily tinged with magic and mysticism.

My former stepfather for a long time ran a small rare occult book business; I worked with him for a spell many years ago, and it was an incredible experience. Just me and these beautiful old books full of magic and witchcraft and demonology all day long! For a bookworm introvert with a penchant for the esoteric and obscure, that was as close to paradise that I will ever get! These interests and inclinations festered and blossomed and grew alongside me, inside me, over the years and are now what inform and inspire my writing, most of which can be found at my blog Unquiet Things, where I ramble about art, music, fashion, perfume, anxiety, and grief–particularly as these subjects intersect with horror, the supernatural, and death.

There's A LOT of art there. Art is another longtime fascination of mine. These two obsessions—art and darkness—became so deeply entwined for me over time that to celebrate them in a book seemed like the most obvious thing in the world.(less)

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Combine Editions
S. Elizabeth’s books

Average rating: 4.12 · 856 ratings · 156 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Art of the Occult: A Visual Sourcebook for the Modern Mystic 4.18 avg rating — 510 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Art of Darkness: A Treasury of the Morbid, Melancholic and Macabre 3.95 avg rating — 248 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Art of Fantasy: A Visual Sourcebook of All That is Unreal 4.24 avg rating — 98 ratings — published 2022 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Art of the Unknown: A Visual Treasury of the Esoteric, Uncanny and Unexplained 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

3 posts
S. Elizabeth's Blog

The Art of Darkness promo photos

An image of the front cover of The Art of Darkness, a beautifully illustrated tome of darkly artistic themes, surrounded by autumnal flowers.

When I had an idea for some promotional photos for The Art of Darkness, I immediately knew the perfect creative human for the job: photographer of artful, vivid floral still-lifes, Alyssa Thorne.

One of my very favorite things is to work closely with a beloved artist whose work I adore and together, we endeavor to bring a weird vision or dream to life. Granted, my input is minimal and vague and pro Read more of this blog post »

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Published on August 26, 2022 08:47

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Series by S. Elizabeth

Art in the Margins #1 (1 book)
by

S. Elizabeth (Goodreads Author)

4.18 avg rating — 509 ratings

Art in the Margins #2 (1 book)
by

S. Elizabeth (Goodreads Author)

3.95 avg rating — 248 ratings

What happens when two best friends team up with a has-been horror director to undo a cinematic curse that accidentally awakens the...

S. is Currently Reading

S. Elizabeth is currently reading

Babel

by R.F. Kuang (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Sep 05, 2025 06:50PM

S. Elizabeth is currently reading

Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

by Mark Fisher

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Aug 26, 2025 01:40PM

S. Elizabeth is currently reading

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

by Katherine May

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Aug 26, 2025 01:40PM

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S.’s Recent Updates

S. Elizabeth rated a book liked it The House of Whispers by Laura Purcell (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 27, 2026 04:25AM · like
S. Elizabeth rated a book liked it Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Celia has tried MLMs. She has wanted a baby, lost pregnancies, and kept moving forward in the vague way people drift along when they don't have anywhere in particular to be moving toward. Desperate and tired, she arrives at Kindred Cove, an isolated ...more
Apr 21, 2026 01:21PM · like · see review
S. Elizabeth rated a book liked it Little Wild by Laura Evans	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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S. Elizabeth rated a book liked it Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Celia has tried MLMs. She has wanted a baby, lost pregnancies, and kept moving forward in the vague way people drift along when they don't have anywhere in particular to be moving toward. Desperate and tired, she arrives at Kindred Cove, an isolated ...more
Apr 18, 2026 05:53AM · like · see review
S. Elizabeth rated a book really liked it Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 15, 2026 06:43PM · like
S. Elizabeth rated a book it was amazing There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
There is a moment in There Is No Antimemetics Division where a character arrives at her job, settles in, and gradually realizes she has been doing this job for decades. She is in charge of things. She has an entire history here. She just can't rememb ...more
Apr 14, 2026 02:45PM · 4 likes · like · see review
S. Elizabeth rated a book liked it The Anniversary by Alex Finlay (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Quinn and Jules are seventeen when their lives collide on May 1st, 1992 — he gets arrested breaking up a fight, she survives an attack by a serial killer who has been striking every May Day for years. The novel then follows them both across the next ...more
Apr 13, 2026 12:40PM · like · see review
S. Elizabeth rated a book it was amazing Strange Girls by Sarvat Hasin (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Ava and Aliya meet at a small university near London and fall into a kind of friendship that is its own closed world. They are the strange girls; they write stories that bleed into each other; they are each other's entire point of reference for a few ...more
Apr 13, 2026 12:32PM · 2 likes · like · see review
S. Elizabeth rated a book really liked it The Cold House by A.G. Slatter	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 09, 2026 04:24AM · like
S. Elizabeth rated a book liked it House of Idyll by Delilah S. Dawson (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 07, 2026 04:43AM · like

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S.’s Quotes

“Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

155 likes

“No place worth knowing yields itself at sight, and those the least
inviting on first view may leave the most haunting pictures upon the
walls of memory.”
― Algernon Blackwood, A Prisoner in Fairyland

45 likes