True to my word, I read a Carson McCullers book after she was mentioned frequently in the last book that I read (The End of Loneliness by Benedict Wells), and I am certainly impressed; she wrote Reflections in a Golden Eye at only 23 years old. This is also my first true southern gothic. McCullers’ writing was so ominous and atmospheric despite the book not actually being particularly scary; however, you still get the creeping sense that something is coming up until the very last page. It was dark but also surprisingly hilarious. 

In one of the only four explicitly queer (English-language) books of the first half of the 20th century, Carson McCullers details the fictional events leading up to a murder on a military base in Georgia. She explores isolation, marital issues, obsession, and more in this tightly wound novella.

Carson McCullers writes an intriguing cast of characters ranging from military men, housewives of vastly different experience, and my personal favorite, Anacleto, the flamboyant Filippino worker of one of the wives. She perfectly captured the feelings of estrangement from society and being an outcast that come with queerness, other “sexual deviance,” or even just being a little odd. You can really see the threads of gothic literature and queerness as they influence this story and the southern gothic genre. A really fascinating book and I will definitely read more by her.