November Pick (Book Drop Day 2025)
Gothic Novel
Welcome to Reading Revisited, a place for friends to enjoy some good old-fashioned book chat while revisiting the truth, beauty, and goodness we’ve found in our favorite books.
Don’t forget that this is more than a book list. We’d love to have you join one of our book clubs. Reading in community is one of the best things you can do!
Here’s what one of our oldest in person book club members has to say about how being a part of a book club can help you keep reading…
You simply can't find a group quite like Reading Revisited! The battle for true leisure time is a regular struggle for myself (not just creating the time and space for it, but more importantly remembering I need it and it is to be highly valued). I have a tendency to be quite practical - getting caught in the daily efficiency trap. This group serves as a regular reminder to slow down and ponder the "true, good, and beautiful" instead of my to-do list and worries ad nauseum. What a relief to be brought outside of self-absorption and into a community who thinks deeply and far reaching.
- Mary O’Connell
Picture this with me: it’s a crisp 55 degrees out, the day is gray, leaves are changing, sun will set before dinnertime. You’re in your cozy chair under a warm blanket with a hot cup of something in one hand and a nice fat book in the other. In other words, it is GOTHIC NOVEL season.
Every October/November we like to indulge in something on the moody side, and our gothic novels never seem to disappoint. As your resident “gothic girl” (aka
) it is my supreme pleasure to announce that our November book this year is Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
It is with some healthy fear and trembling that we announce this read - we are well aware that this book is one that tends to elicit some strong opinions on both sides. Wherever you fall when it comes to this book, though, I hope that you will read along with us. It is a novel that most certainly deserves our attention, and is largely recognized as a quintessential representation of the gothic genre. I look forward to being your guide for our weekly Read Along Guides. 1
Some of our previous gothic novels include:2
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (RR 2024)
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (RR 2023)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (RR 2022)
Villette by Charlotte Brontë (RR 2022)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (RR 2021)
I will now pass the torch onto some of our beloved substack friends who are going to share with you their thoughts on Wuthering Heights:
From
of “The Reader and The Writer”
When Kelsie first reached out to ask if I would consider writing a blurb about one of the books on Reading Revisited’s 2025–2026 list—my initial reaction was: What?! I’m not a writer. No way.
But then I saw the list… and there it was—my favorite book ever: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
I know this book is controversial. There seem to be two camps: those who love it and those who hate it. I’m firmly in the love it camp, and I hope I can convince you to join me.
I have two goals: to offer you some advice on how to approach the book, and to lay the groundwork for you to fall in love with this timeless story.
Notice I didn’t say love story—because it’s not. I repeat: it is not a love story. Get that out of your mind first and foremost.
Wuthering Heights is a glimpse into humanity at its worst. I know—that’s not exactly a glowing endorsement. But hear me out.
I love this book. I love Emily Brontë’s gift with language—how she paints a serene, windswept moor, only to jolt you back into harsh emotional reality. She’s a wordsmith in every sense. I love the mystery and suspense that grip you until the very last page.
And I love the story, the deceptively simple, yet profoundly layered narrative of a boy and girl who destroy one another, and everyone who dares to love them.
Wuthering Heights is Brontë’s only novel, but her depth and command of language is stunning. And what she chose to say with it is even more powerful. It’s not a love story—it’s a warning about obsession, about the danger of desperately clinging to someone or something we should have released long ago.
She tells it through characters who are so deeply flawed, they feel painfully real. Your first instinct might be to judge Heathcliff and Catherine as awful people, and they do behave badly. However, I urge you to hold your judgment. I’d hate for someone to judge me in my worst hours.
Instead, read as an observer. Look for the cracks of humanity. Find compassion for these characters, because in many ways, they are you and me. Learn from them.
So yes, I said earlier that it’s not a love story—and I stand by that. But maybe it’s something else: a lesson in how to love yourself. And sometimes, loving yourself means letting go of what you want most.
For me, reading Wuthering Heights feels like putting on that old college sweatshirt—35 years old, a little ratty, full of holes—but it still fits. And somehow, it still works.
I’ve returned to it again and again throughout different stages of life. And each time, it offers me something new. After becoming a parent, I saw Heathcliff in a completely new light. Parenthood changed my lens—it softened something in me and allowed me to see not just pain and cruelty, but the wounded child underneath. Most importantly, it allowed me to see the power my words have on those I love.
Now, for my advice.
Embrace the confusion. The beginning is confusing—no doubt about it. You’re not sure who’s narrating, the names blur together, and everything feels disorienting. My advice? Embrace the confusion. Trust that it will work itself out. And remember, you’ll have this wonderful community of women (and men) to help guide you through it.
Stay off the internet. People have strong opinions about this book—and that’s okay. Honestly, that’s the mark of a truly gifted writer, and Brontë is just that. Try to go into the reading experience with an open mind.
Give it a(nother) chance. If you’ve read it before and loved it, welcome back! But if you didn’t love it—or dare I say hated it—try again. You’re in a different place now. Maybe you’ve lived through loss. Maybe you’ve grown. Maybe, like me, you’ve become a parent. Life changes us, and those changes reshape how we see stories like this one.
Read it in community. And finally, read this great story with a community that loves literature. This book demands discussion. If you try to process it alone, you’re left holding all these strong feelings with nowhere to put them. Hearing other perspectives can challenge you, stretch you, and even soften you.
It might just change your life. It changed mine. And it changed me—for the wiser, for the braver, and for the better.
From
of “A Stream of Words”
When Elizabeth Gaskell visited the childhood home of her friend Charlotte Brontë, she described the Yorkshire people as “a powerful race both in mind and body, both for good and evil.” These strong personalities, capable of such great emotion, inhabited not only Charlotte’s stories, but also her sister Emily’s only novel, Wuthering Heights, which focuses on the Earnshaw and Linton families, and the vindictive Heathcliff. Many scholars have pointed out the influence of Shakespeare’s plays on Emily’s childhood stories and poems, how her imaginary world of Gondal was populated by fierce queens and love plots reminiscent of Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. Wuthering Heights is also a kind of Shakespearean drama, but one rooted in these eccentric, forceful personalities that Emily knew so well: a Yorkshire story of feuding families, tumultuous passion, and eventual reconciliation. Wuthering Heights is also a Gothic novel, drawing on the striking landscape of the Brontë’s childhood home and borrowing a Romantic fascination with the supernatural to create an otherworldly atmosphere—it’s not just a drama of human nature, but also a ghost story. This threefold texture of Shakespeare drama, Gothic spirit, and realism borrowed from Emily’s own experience of a particular place and kind of people make the novel a fascinating read, which invites the reader to question the consequences of consuming passion and revenge.
and don’t miss Olivia’s excellent essay: Whatever Stuff of Our Souls
Tentative Schedule:
Wednesday, October 15th: Introduction and Schedule
Monday, October 20th: ep. ##: Intro to Wuthering Heights
Wednesday, October 22nd: Read Along Guide 1
Wednesday, October 29th: Read Along Guide 2
Wednesday, November 5th: Read Along Guide 3
Wednesday, November 12th: Read Along Guide 4
Thursday, November 27th: Wuthering Heights Virtual Book Club
Monday, December 8th: ep. ##: Revisiting Wuthering Heights
Stay tuned for what you should read with us in December, it’ll be rather poetic…
Check out the previous Book Drop Day Posts:
Welcome to Book Drop Day
September (Book About Books)
October (American Classic)
Until next time, keep revisiting the good books that enrich your life and nourish your soul.
In Case You Missed It:
On the Podcast:
ep. 57: Bookish Bio of Griffin Gooch (a Bookish PhD Student)
ep. 58: One Year Anniversary of the Reading Revisited Podcast
What We’re Reading Now/Next:
June
Trust by Hernan Diaz
July
Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
August
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
A Few Reminders:
If you are wanting to get in on the in person or virtual community please contact us!
We have turned on paid subscriptions which will allow you to support the work we are doing here as well as receive Read Along Guide PDFs each month and voice recordings of the Read Along Guides.
If you would like to make a small contribution to the work we’re doing here at Reading Revisited, we invite you to do so with the Buy (Us) a Coffee button below. We so appreciate your support!
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It is our habit, here at Reading Revisited, to post weekly Read Along Guides. We like to think of these “RAGs” as bookmarked notes, or “just some things I couldn’t help but notice,” which we don’t want to forget to bring up with our friend next time we get together to discuss the book.
Each month has been assigned a “guide” to write these weekly Read Along Guides.
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First time I read it in high school (only good thing I got out of my brief Twilight obsession) I loved it. Last time I read this I was pregnant with my first and my hormones were not having it-too many unhappy and self-destructive people. I’m excited to give it a go again with this lovely community!
Victory is mine!!!!