This or That Reading Challenge discussion

This: Read a gothic horror.
That: Read a zombpoc (zombie apocalypse).

For this month I chose This: Read a gothic horror, for which I read The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, which is considered the first ever gothic horror novel, written in 1764. From what I read about it this work is considered highly influential on the genre, establishing many of the familiar elements including secret passageways, trapdoors, painting that move, etc. Unfortunately the writing did suffer from age, and contained many overly verbose dialogues which got so repetitive at times that even the characters would remark on it ("please, will you just get to the point, you're exhausting my patience!"). Still, it did have some fun spooky qualities and a couple of surprise deaths. Since it was the first and written in 1764, I'm willing to grade on a curve and score it a '3'. Decent if you're curious about the origins of the genre, but not a great work in and of itself.

I chose This and read The Inhabitants. It was a mixture of creepy house, seemingly nice neighbours turned psychopathic, creepy ancestors and helpful, protective ghosties. It was a perfect modern gothic horror.