Northern Gothic

by Nick Mamatas

Northern Gothic is the story of supernaturally crossed worlds — Manhattan’s Chelsea district of the present and New York during the Civil War draft riots. William, a young Irish immigrant trying to avoid the war, and Ahmadi, a gay man from the South trying to make it in the Big Apple, find their paths — and destinies — intertwined as William is sucked into the racist violence of the riots and Ahmadi is pulled inexorably into the past.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction

110 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2001

About the author

Nick Mamatas is the author of the Lovecraftian Beat road novel Move Under Ground, which was nominated for both the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards, the Civil War ghost story Northern Gothic, also a Stoker nominee, the suburban nighmare novel Under My Roof, and over thirty short stories and hundreds of articles (some of which were collected in 3000 Miles Per Hour in Every Direction at Once). His work has appeared in Razor, Village Voice, Spex, Clamor, In These Times, Polyphony, several Disinformation and Ben Bella Books anthologies, and the books Corpse Blossoms, Poe's Lighthouse, Before & After: Stories from New York, and Short and Sweet.

Nick's forthcoming works include the collection You Might Sleep... (November 2008) and Haunted Legends, an anthology with Ellen Datlow (Tor Books 2009).

A native New Yorker, Nick now lives in the California Bay Area.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I looked forward to picking up Mamatas after Brian Keene pushed his name; unfortunately, this book did not settle well in my person. The mix of historical and present events did not come together well, nor did Mamatas's prose style. Mamatas has talent, no doubt, and I suspect that I will pick up some of his other work in the future.

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Especially right now, this feels like an unusually exhausting litany of racism, homophobia, paranoia, greed, and lethal violence, packed with lynchings in the historical timeline and near-lynchings in the present timeline, and jumping back and forth between them with emotionally bruising rapidity. I would have liked more time to get to know these characters and figure out why I cared what they were going through, or why any of it was happening — not necessarily the physical details of the time connection between them, but some sort of larger, more resonant, less wearisome theme than "Prejudice is a constant and cities are a powderkeg of racist violence."

[Hugo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two timelines, with only the most tenuous of connections, both delineated well enough with good characterisation and sense of time and place, but neither of them come together in a satisfying fashion, and the book as a whole ends limply.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting novella that explores several themes passionately and unrelentingly, set in New York during the draft riots of 1863 and alternately during the summer of 1998. The characters aren't especially likeable, but it is a thought-provoking work.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nick's got chops.

That's all I can say.