There weren't an awful amount of books concerning the modern Goth subculture, so I initially put these in the order they came out, rather than any thematic order. The reason for that, basically, is that I remember quite a few coming out and as I thought about them in groups of when they were published. At the time I stated that I may reorder them at some point in the future, especially if many more books are released.
The paragraph above was written twenty years ago (I've modified the tense in a few bits) so it's about time I did that reordering I mentioned as there are a lot more books out there these days (in 2024).
Mick Mercer - The Gothic Rock Black Book The first book on Goth that I'm aware of, this one came out in the eighties.
Mick Mercer - Gothic Rock For a lot of Goths of my generation, this was their introduction to the scene. An amusing writing style, though it's not always clear when Mercer is joking, when they're giving their view of Goth history.
Mick Mercer - The Hex Files Not as good as the previous work in ways that I would struggle to explain exactly, though Mercer expanded the scope and heads out into fetish and vampire territory.
Mick Mercer - 21st Century Goth Losing a lot of objectivity, and contradicting a few things said in earlier books. As noted in the preamble to this page, most of this was written in the 2000s, so I'm not going to stand by my opinions until I re-read these books!
Dave Thompson - The Dark Reign of Gothic Rock: In the Reptile House with The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus and The Cure Got this one, shall fill in a paragraph or two when I've read it.
Gavin Baddeley - Goth Chic: A Connoisseur's Guide to Dark Culture Another I have, not read yet.
- Goth: Identity, Style and Subculture
Ratfink and Pete McKenna - Once Upon a Fiend A recent purchase, looks to be an interesting look behind the scenes of one of the original Goth bands.
Voltaire - What is Goth? Torn between putting this here or on the Goth comics page. Don't have a copy, what I've seen looks amusing (very USA-centric, as can be expected from Voltaire).
Nancy Kilpatrick - The Goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined Looks interesting, would like to get my hands on a copy.
"Siouxsie and the Banshees": The Authorised Biography - Mark Paytress
Fiction is served by a number of authors with Gothic links. Many of these feature Goth characters in their works.
Caitlin R. Kiernan - Low Red Moon
Poppy Z. Brite - Drawing Blood
Poppy Z. Brite - Exquisite Corpse
Poppy Z. Brite - Self-made Man
Poppy Z. Brite - Love in Vein II
Buzz Parker, Brian Brooks, Rob Reger - Emily (the Strange)
Rob Reger - Emily's Secret Book of Strange
Steve Jackson Games - Chez Goth
