I've waited for years and now there's less than a month before the release of Dark Companion! Alexandra Machinist, my wonderful agent, surprised me this morning by sending the terrific review in Publishers Weekly:
Buttressing adult author Acosta's (the Casa Dracula series) YA debut are nods to the gothic tradition and Jane Eyre parallels that she encourages through epigraphs, character names, and the events that unfold. Her well-drawn characters shine--Jane especially, whose very nongothic life on the street makes for a gritty opening and influences the whole. Jack Radcliffe (the mountain-biking incarnation of Mr. Rochester) and Jane's clearly delineated classmates are vivid actors in the drama as well...

Acosta's story is an impressive contender in the crowded YA paranormal field.
It's so nice that the reviewer saw all the gothic references!

I've been talking a lot about gothics, especially with readers who have questions about the genre and my novel. One reader told me that she enjoyed getting a "behind the scenes" perspective, so I decided to post a Q&A with answers to questions at Marta Acosta's Dark Companion. This Q&A is on a separate blog because it has so many spoilers.

I've done a little searching around and I think that Craig White of the University of Houston does a great job summarizing the elements of gothic fiction.
  • haunted houses - castles - woods mazes - labyrinths - closed doors & secret passages/rooms
  • light and dark interplay with shades of gray or blood-red colors fair &amp
  • dark ladies - twinning, doubling, & doppelgangers
  • repressed fears & desires
  • memory of past crime or sin
  • death & decay
  • bad-boy Byronic heroes
  • blood as visual spectacle and genealogy/ethnicity
  • spectral or grotesque figures
  • lurid symbols, creepy or startling sounds, screams in the night, groans from unknown rooms
I can put a check next to each of these elements!

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