#Elspeth Barker

[antigonick]

It was lucky she had never had any intention of having babies; now she would certainly never marry either. She would live out her days [here], a bookish spinster attended by cats and parrots, until that time when she might become ethereal, pure spirit untainted by the woes of flesh, a phantom drifting with the winds. What fun she would have as a ghost. She could hardly wait.

—Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia

[virgin-martyr]

'You’re a big girl now.' She didn’t want to be a big girl. It seemed she was punished for something which happened without her choice or knowledge.

Elspeth Barker, excerpt from O Caledonia

[hairtusk]

'To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies?' Well, she knew the name of that altar, the dim, blood-boultered altar of womanhood.

Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia (1991)

[pinkbowjournal]

She stood on the terrace shaking the wet honeysuckle over her face, breathing its perfume, a creature momentarily compounded of dew and air and fragrance.

Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia.

[keychaintabithascarlet]

She’s always been dead!!! She starts the story dead and you can’t save her!!! No matter how much you want to!!! And you will want to!!! She starts the story dead but that doesn’t matter because she was born dead!!! She’s never been real to anybody!!!

[myhikari21things]

Read of O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker (1991) (188pgs)

[the-end-of-art]

From O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker.

[brucklethings]

“Sometimes Janet thought that life’s sole purpose was to teach one how to die. As in most spheres, so in this, animals did better than people.”

- Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia

[petalpetal]

Anyway here is the full list of books I’ve read this year this is a mix of adult and YA with one middle school book the ones in bold are my big reccomenders

- Hild and Menewood by Nicola Griffith

- Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin

- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

- Joan by Kathrine J. Chen

- The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

- Butcher of The Forest by Premee Mohamed

- The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

- Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian

- Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

- The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik

- Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

- Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: and Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott

- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

- Godkiller and Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner

- Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

- The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec

- A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee

- The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White

- Lore by Alexandra Bracken

- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

- The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

- Gallant by V.E. Schwab

- Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati

- The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

- No One Will Come Back For Us: And Other Stories by Premee Mohamed

- Slasher Girls & Monster Boys by Various Authors

- The Libarary of Legends by Janie Chang

- The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman

- Girls Who Burn by MK Pagano

- Starve Arc by Andrew Michael Hurley

- Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

- Catfish Rolling by Clara Kumagai

- A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher

- The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

- Circe by Madeline Miller

- Woodworm by Layla Martínez

- The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

- Sworn Soldier series by T. Kingfisher

- Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth

- A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel

- Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

- Jonathan Strange & Me Norrell by Susanna Clarke

- The Darkest Part of The Forest by Holly Black

- The Fortune Teller by Gwendolyn Womack

- Six Crimson Cranes series by Elizabeth Lim

- A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

- Boys In the Valley by Philip Fracassi

- The West Passage by Jared Pechaček @jpechacek

- The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh

- Revelator by Daryl Gregory

- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

- Hera by Jennifer Saint

- Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

- Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

- The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones

- The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

- Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs

- The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

- The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

- The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones

- Sistersong by Lucy Holland

- House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

- The Book of Gothel by Mary McMyne

- The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

- The Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless

- The Witch of Colchis by Rosie Hewlett

- Sisters of Sword & Song by Rebecca Ross

- Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier

- Little Eve by Catriona Ward

- Pilgrim: A Medieval Horror by Mitchell Lüthi

- The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk

- Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid

- O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker

- everything by Shirley Jackson

[antigonick]

Sometimes Janet thought that life's sole purpose was to teach one how to die. As in most spheres, so in this, animals did better than people.

—Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia

[virgin-martyr]

Divine pity. Human pity was not enough. A bleeding heart could only bleed and bleed.

Elspeth Barker, excerpt from O Caledonia

[the-forest-library]

25 in 2025

Thanks for the tag @aliteraryprinces!

Some books I'm looking forward to this year.

Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell

O Pioneers! - Willa Cather

The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemison

Night Watch - Terry Pratchett

The Black Bird Oracle - Deborah Harkness

If On a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Stoner - John Williams

The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros

Hild - Nicola Griffith

O Caledonia - Elspeth Barker (buddy read with @lilymaidofgallifrey)

Instead of Three Wishes - Megan Whalen Turner

Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee

The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis

All the Painted Stars - Emma Denny

Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales - Heather Fawcett (February 11)

Sunrise on the Reaping - Suzanne Collins (March 18)

Everything is Tuberculosis - John Green (March 18)

Say You'll Remember Me - Abby Jimenez (April 1)

The Maid's Secret - Nita Prose (April 8)

Great Big Beautiful Life - Emily Henry (April 22)

The Listeners - Maggie Stiefvater (June 3)

Atmosphere - Taylor Jenkins Reid (June 3)

Glorious Rivals - Jennifer Lynn Barnes (July 29)

[wrishwrosh]

it’s time for DAMP BOOKS DECEMBER

here’s a rec list of cold wet seasonal reads: atmospheric books about offputting people, featuring mud, bog, spit, blood, wine, fog, ash, etc.

let’s get clammy with it. additional damp recs appreciated.

o caledonia by elspeth barker

a weird little girl in midcentury scotland. bonus wets: mushroom spores, slush, jam

the western wind by samantha harvey

a medieval murder mystery. bonus wets: goose grease, floodwater, the blood of christ

eileen by ottessa mosfegh

a juvenile prison administrator’s quarter life crisis. bonus wets: vomit, stale wine, dirty snow

the pull of the stars by emma donoghue

a couple days in a spanish flu clinic/maternity ward in dublin. bonus wets: amniotic fluid, mucus, soggy newspaper

a mercy by toni morrison

a household dissolving in seventeenth century new york. bonus wets: pox, mist, molasses

wolf hall by hilary mantel

a bureaucrat in the court of henry viii. bonus wets: ink, fever sweat, the thames

ghost wall by sarah moss

a camping trip with stone age reenactors. bonus wets: damson juice, bog bodies, bramble

the man who shot out my eye is dead by chanelle benz

a short story collection. bonus wets: brain matter, milk, the blood of christ again

never let me go by kazuo ishiguro

a dystopian art school for mysterious children. bonus wets: rain, marshland, tears

the name of the rose by umberto eco

a monastic murder mystery and also a primer on every theological debate that ever happened in 14th century europe. bonus wets: pig’s blood, bathwater, ink

wuthering heights by emily brontë

a case study in isolation, incest, and insanity, and the novel that inspired the whole list. bonus wets: dog saliva, mist, assorted consanguineous fluids

close range by annie proulx

a collection of wyoming stories. bonus wets: spit, semen, cold coffee

the giant, o’brien by hilary mantel

a giant irish storyteller visits london and loses his body to science. bonus wets: gin, pus, graveyard mud

study for obedience by sarah bernstein

a stifled woman in her family’s homeland. bonus wets: potato mold, creekwater, milk

giovanni’s room by james baldwin

an american in paris makes a mess. bonus wets: cognac, condensation, the seine

moby dick by herman melville

a man, another man, a third man, and a whale. bonus wets: sperm, fish chowder, sperm (other one)

the lottery and other stories by shirley jackson

a collection of unsettling stories about polite people. bonus wets: hose water, flop sweat, furniture polish

[louisegluckpdf]

Reading list pleaaaase

Or poems you’d recommend um…. Anything freakish or dealing w/ the mortal coil. October stuff ykwim. Romgerri aura

october books reading list

wuthering heights by emily brontë

literature and evil by georges bataille

erotism: death and sensuality by georges bataille

o caledonia by elspeth barker

the weird and the eerie by mark fisher

death by landscape by elvia wilk

carnality by lina wolff

lapvona by otessa moshfegh

october poetry reading list

the second hour of the night by frank bidart

october by louise glück

dear eros, by traci brimhall

sometimes a wild god by tom hirons

óda by attila jozsef

the dark cavalier by margaret widdemer

to one shortly to die by walt whitman