Haunted States is a unique guidebook that explores the dark, often horrifying, history of
the US. Based on the author’s journey across the United States in summer 2022,
it explores locations connected to Gothic fiction and film, tracking the
relationship between the American landscapes and the various forms of fictional horror
the nation has produced over the centuries.

Part cultural history and part travelogue,
Haunted States traces how the American Gothic draws inspiration from the natural and
built environments, with the astounding geographical variation of the landscape
influencing the distinctive forms of horror produced across its many diverse regions. The
book also investigates how the horrors of the American Gothic have their roots in the
nation’s dark history of colonialism, slavery, violence and oppression – past sins that
continue to haunt the national consciousness to this day. Taking horror (in
literature, film and the visual arts) as its starting point, Haunted States investigates the
landscapes, places and cultures that produced it.

Incorporating first-person travel
narrative, historical context and supplementary interviews, Haunted States journeys
across the USA to learn about its eclectic, regional forms of horror.