Last night, my husband and I finished watching the miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix. Created by the showrunner behind horror retellings The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, this latest venture takes inspiration from none other than Edgar Allan Poe. While the title comes from Poe’s short story about the last two remaining members of the once-powerful Usher family, the series pulls inspiration from nearly all of Poe’s short stories, poems, and novels, including my personal favorite, “The Case of Amontillado.” You can buy the works of Edgar Allan Poe for your digital library here.

(Also, as someone who owns a black cat, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to find the antics of the black cat in the episode titled “The Black Cat” funny, but, honestly, they were hilarious and very much on brand for black cats.)

Modern gothic is difficult to pull off (ask me how I know after next month’s NaNoWriMo), but the contemporary treatment of Poe’s body of work was incredible and so much fun to watch. It also made me want to find other modern adaptations of his work. For your patrons who finish watching The Fall of the House of Usher and want more Poe retellings, the title on this list will make their midnights a little less dreary.

Edgar Allan Poe Retellings 

His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler 

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Edgar Allan Poe may be a hundred and fifty years beyond this world, but the themes of his beloved works have much in common with modern young adult fiction. Whether the stories are familiar to readers or discovered for the first time, readers will revel in both Edgar Allan Poe’s classic tales, and in the 13 unique and unforgettable ways that they’ve been brought to life. Contributors include Tiffany D. Jackson, Marieke Nijkamp, Rin Chupeco and more.

(Recently I read something that suggested the unnamed narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a woman and it’s my new favorite theory of all time.)

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 

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When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania. What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves. Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all. 

Ashes on the Waves by Mary Lindsey 

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Liam MacGregor is cursed. Haunted by the wails of fantastical Bean Sidhes and labeled a demon by the villagers of Dòchas, Liam has accepted that things will never get better for him—until a wealthy heiress named Annabel Leighton arrives on the island and Liam’s fate is changed forever. 

With Anna, Liam finally finds the happiness he has always been denied, but the violent, mythical Otherworlders, who inhabit the island and the sea around it, have other plans. They make a wager on the couple’s love, testing its strength through a series of cruel obstacles. But the tragedies draw Liam and Anna even closer. Frustrated, the creatures put the couple through one last trial—and this time it’s not only their love that’s in danger of being destroyed. 

Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin 

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Everything is in ruins. A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them. So what does Araby Worth have to live for? Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does. And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for—no matter what it costs her. 

The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters 

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Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all of Edgar’s plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!”