Doomed Romances is an anthology of dark, gothic romances from the mid-1800s to the modern day. It includes hits like Mary Shelley and Carmilla up to contemporary hits like V Castro. I really enjoyed Carmilla. I've been meaning to read it for a while, and it lives up to the hype.

Doomed Romances is a collection of short stories that delves into the dark and tragic side of love, bringing together tales from 19th-century classic authors and contemporary writers. The premise is captivating, especially for those who enjoy immersing themselves in short narratives about impossible loves. However, the execution turned out to be inconsistent, resulting in a reading experience with its highs and lows.

The collection starts strong with a fascinating story by Mary Shelley, perfectly capturing the melancholic and reflective tone expected from such tales. Revisiting Carmilla was also enjoyable, but after that, the more classic stories that followed began to tire me. Perhaps this was due to my mood at the time—I didn’t have the patience for the dense pacing and elaborate style that many of these stories embody.

On the other hand, as the stories took on a more modern tone, my interest reignited. It was a relief to reach V. Castro's story, which is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the collection. Her writing is visceral, emotional, and powerful, standing out as one of the best narratives in the book.

Joanne Ella Parsons, as the curator of the collection, deserves praise for her ability to select stories that capture different tones and interpretations of doomed romances. However, the imbalance in styles and pacing among the stories makes Doomed Romances an uneven experience overall.

Overall, it’s a book that shines in parts but doesn’t hold up as a whole. Even so, I’d recommend it to fans of short stories who enjoy exploring the darker side of love—especially if they’re open to navigating between the classic and the contemporary.

Lastly, I’d like to thank NetGalley for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had a certain investment in this one even ahead of publication; at a Tales Of The Weird event a while back, I asked a question from the audience, which I rarely do, and it was: how do the volumes get chosen, such that niche themes like spooky tattoos come out years ahead of what you'd think would be more obvious ones like this? Having read it, though, it's not at all what I would have guessed. Only a handful of the pieces are drawn from the series' regular stomping grounds of eerie stories in the few decades either side of 1900; of those, only one, by Marjorie Bowen, has what you could really call a doomed romance, and that's between two lightly sketched side characters who become victims of the protagonist's vainglorious Faustian schemes. Ella D'Arcy's White Magic is even less menacing than the title suggests; Alice Perrin's Kipling-esque The Tiger Charm has a bad marriage, but that's a very different thing to a doomed romance, especially then. Running earlier, we have nearly a third of the volume taken up with Carmilla, definitely a worthy and relevant inclusion but also one easily had elsewhere; before even that, Mary Shelley's The Invisible Girl is very much Gothic by numbers, with none of the eerie spark that enlivens her hit. Wilkie Collins turns out to at least be pacier than many of his peers, but his haunted sailor and exotic island setting means here he can't help but feel like Conrad lite. And the best that can be said of Mary Elizabeth Braddon is that at least the 19th century's take on the Georgians, while tediously moralistic, isn't quite as narcissistic as the 21st's. Speaking of which, in the other direction, we have a brief pause at Angela Carter's peerless The Lady Of The House Of Love (why can nobody else do overripe this well?) before touching down in our own benighted millennium, where, yes, The Glass Bottle Trick is only my second favourite Nalo Hopkinson Bluebeard riff, but she did set a high bar. Kalaamu Ya Salaam's Could You Wear My Eyes?, on the other hand...look, one of the reasons I love genre fiction is the space it allows for reified metaphors. But it needs to be a delighted realisation, like seeing a conjuring trick come off before it dawns on you how it worked, not this dogged plod through a checklist of things a particularly oblivious man doesn't understand about how women see the world. It might have worked if the narrator were the widower who, in a misguided gesture of devotion, has his dead wife's eyes implanted – but with the story told by her ghost, who tells us exactly why he has each unexpected reaction as soon as he does, it's more exercise than art. Still, Tracy Fahey's I'll Be Your Mirror gets the closing stretch back on track, intimate, creepy, perfectly fitted to the theme. And V Castro's closing Dancehall Devil is a little programmatic, but brief and bloody enough not to pall. Not at all the book I expected it to be, but some good stuff here nonetheless.

(Netgalley ARC)

I've read three or four other books in this series from the British Library, and felt this was a strong collection. I hope they continue to publish!

A collection that, despite some imperfections, manages to capture the essence of Gothic romance across centuries. I started reading with some skepticism - anthologies can be terribly uneven - but I must admit that this journey through time via tales of love and darkness proved more compelling than I expected.
The strengths are remarkable: Le Fanu's "Carmilla" shines brightly, confirming its status as a timeless classic. The contemporary stories, particularly those by Hopkinson and Castro, bring a breath of fresh air while maintaining the Gothic spirit. The author introductions are a welcome addition that contextualizes each story in its historical period.
Sure, not everything works perfectly: some tales show their age not only in style but also in pacing, and the inclusion of a novella among the short stories somewhat disrupts the reading flow. Yet, just when I was about to consider the collection "merely" decent, the final stories significantly raised the bar.
It’s a collection that, despite some less successful moments, still manages to weave a fascinating tapestry of cursed passions and supernatural love stories. While it may not achieve perfection, it offers enough captivating moments to make it a worthwhile read for fans of Gothic romance.

This is absolutely perfect for anyone who just went to see Nosferatu and is looking for something to give them the same feelings of “eternal torment, aching loneliness, and unsettling discomfort.”

Although I cannot say I loved every story within Doomed Romances, as is the nature of anthologies, what I can say is that I absolutely loved Parsons’s intention behind her choices for each romantically gruesome story she picked to include. Parsons’s introduction to Doomed Romances was very interesting, particularly when discussing how the use of supernatural elements in gothic romance allow for authors to play with the concept of “female rebellion” and “transgressive sexuality.”

Overall, I enjoyed the read and would recommend this to anyone who likes gothic tales that serve as a critique to conventional romance and gender expectations.

Several things are enjoyable with this collection. The style and subject matter.
But honestly something was missing. Some stories didn't have a true ending.
That isn't always bad, but I think that would have helped a litte.
I didn't feel a good connection between the actual stories and the title of the collection.

This was a fun read if you' are into a horror vibe with just enough romance to keep you hooked.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Anthologies can be really hit or miss, and it's hard when the subject is a topic that's not easy to find in older literature. I found that this collection of short stories definitely showcased a broad range of topics and styles, and even eras, but they didn't really fit the brief in terms of the actual title of the book itself. 'Carmilla' was, of course, massive, and took up a huge amount of the book - while I understand the inclusion, it definitely took up a lot of real estate that made the other stories feel more ancillary.

I will give credit where credit is due to the author themselves, who came up with lovely introductions for each and every one of the stories, giving them all the space to be showcased really well. Each story was justified, even if some of them didn't fit very well, and I found them more enjoyable than some of the stories at times. There definitely could have been a bit more of a focus on fitting the theme, but it is a weird one, and I found the author did a reasonable job with all that considered!

This book wasn't my cup of tea but if you like gothic vibes then you might like this book. I will give this book a try again in the future.

I love a good gothic tale of the macabre and this really hit that spot. Some of the stories are slowburns and it's perfectly fine because the setting is so good that I want to stay in it as long as I can. A new auto-buy author for me!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this free e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved this deeply gothic jewel box of a collection of doomed love stories. It was the perfect balance of macabre and lush, horror and romance. It was such a treat to see Carmilla and Angela Carter's The Lady of the House of Love collected together, along with others that were new to me.

The anthology begins with a 1833 short story by Mary Shelley and ends with one written in 2022. Given that it spans nearly two centuries, it's impressive and well curated the collection felt. Jo Ella Parsons has done a wonderful job of choosing stories that complement and contrast each other.

Thank you to British Library Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF @ 19%

this isn’t the read for me, i can’t get into it. it seems like i’m just reading a bunch of words, but not really connecting with them nor the stories. i was in the middle of carmilla, and i just had to stop because i just can’t, and it was also very slowwww. i could possibly try this again, but i can’t atm.

Bizarre, macabre, weird stories about women and their doomed lovers. Loved every story and every minute.

this is my kind of anthology. you got horror, romance, gothic & eerie vibes. i enjoyed it a lot. i'm not gonna lie it was SO SLOW at the beginning and i was partly confused and was zoning out but the collections of stories was very interesting. some didn't really quite hit the mark for me but the rest was really good.

thank you for a copy! i cannot wait to read this next Halloween!

This contained one of my favourite books Carmilla. Like any anthology there is some that are worse than others BUT there was some great horror romances towards the end of the book. I would highly recommend.
Tragic but also fills the romance hole would be good to read around valentines day.

Doomed Romances is such a good story. The characters are so good. So involving. This story can catch anyone by the eyes. So so good.

A lovely compilation of stories and authors both familiar and new to me.

It was absolutely fascinating to see how they all tie together thematically, each story building upon the last, until you are left with a fascinating introspection on love and ill-fated romances. It is hard to critique anthologies such as this, when it really ought to be a critique of each story on its own. Nevertheless, over all, the collection holds its weight and does what it sets out to do.

I really appreciated the introduction to each author, the explanation of their history and the time period in which their story was written. I felt that it really added to the experience of reading, and isn't something you really see in modern short story collections. It added depth to the reading, and also served as a good way to bridge one story to the next without feeling as if you've been jarred from one world to the next, as I often feel reading anthologies.

I enjoyed reading it, and felt like I had a broader appreciation for the horror-romance genre as a whole, as well as a reinvigorated love for those precious familiar favourites (looking at you Carmilla).

An excellent collection of stories from all walks of literature. Perfect for a lover of all things literary, as well as all things macabre.
A personal favorite was the excerpt from Carmilla. I love seeing all types of works compiled like this. It had a perfect amount of variety!

I loved this as a anthology, it had that horror and romance element that I was looking for from the description. Each author wrote the story beautifully. I enjoyed that there was classics in this anthology with modern pieces as well. I was glad I got to read this and am excited for more.