Gothic Novels About the Horror of Compulsory Heterosexuality

Abby begins A Guest in the House in a loveless marriage with her new husband. She seems to be sleepwalking through her life, unsure of why she feels so unfulfilled. Then she starts to fantasize and dream about her husband’s first wife, Sheila. Unlike the muted color palette of the rest of the book, these scenes are in vivid, psychedelic color. She imagines herself as a knight who rescues Sheila from a tower. (And what sapphic hasn’t had that fantasy?) As she spends more of her time with the ghost of Sheila, she becomes obsessed with the idea that her husband murdered her.

I find it interesting that so many of the Goodreads reviews of this book say it has queer subtext, when—no spoilers—it is very much on the page. In fact, I think it’s a straightforward reading to say that Abby is dissatisfied in her life because she hasn’t faced that she’s a lesbian: compulsory heterosexuality is so effective as repressing her desires that they only come to the surface by falling in love with her husband’s ghost.

This is a gorgeous, unsettling read about obsessive love.

Cassie is starting over after a devastating breakup with her girlfriend and overwhelm at her job. She returns to her hometown, where she bumps into her high school friend, Eli, who is now a widower with two kids. Only a few months later, she’s married to him and homeschooling his kids in the woods. But nothing she does lives up to the image of Eli’s first wife, Beth. (Sound familiar?) She’s also struggling with harm OCD, and violent images invade her mind. Cassie begins to hear the house speak to her, telling her the secrets of what really happened to Eli’s first wife.

Although Cassie hasn’t repressed her queerness like Abby, I still see this as a story about compulsory heterosexuality. Cassie is trying to become the perfect wife and (step)mother and failing—she begins to crumble under the pressure of not meeting these standards. She has fled from her old life into what is supposed to be a comfortable, traditional, domestic life, only to find it much more dangerous.

In 1986 Philippines, Josephine gets an invitation from a childhood friend, Hiraya, to visit her home. Despite the rumors that Hiraya’s family are witches, Josephine agrees, and finds herself drawn into a mazelike house haunted by generation of secrets and regret.

One of the contributors to my blog, the Lesbrary, had a fascinating interview with this author about how Filipino history and folklore as well as queerness play into this story. Not only does Josephine struggle with compulsory heterosexuality; we also see how her mother’s generation was trapped by these same expectations. These women are made “monstrous” by living outside of societal norms—norms imposed by colonialism.