Modern gothic, anyone? It seems to be a genre that is largely dead, but Johanne Lykke Holm’s novel Strega is one of the few modern-day examples of the genre. I suppose that makes the genre ‘modern’ gothic all the more fitting.
The story of Strega centres on nine young women who are sent to work at a remote Alpine hotel fittingly that overlooks the fittingly named town of Strega. No guests arrive for a long while, and when they eventually do show up for a large party, nineteen-year-old worker Rafa is nowhere to be found.
Based on what I can source online, Strega seems to carry some feminist themes and offers a critique of sorts about the treatment of women and the expectations that are planted in their heads from a young age.
This not-too-long and interesting novel from a genre that doesn’t get the same love it once used to strikes me as an interesting and unique read. Still, the middling review scores of roughly three stars I see cropping up online make me all the more curious about the novel—is the story told poorly? Are its socio-political messages to ham-fisted? Does it simply rub some readers the wrong way? Does it defy the conventions many expect from a modern gothic?
A lot of questions, but no answers unless you and I get to reading it. Or, you know, you could just read someone else’s already published review and break my heart…
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