J. Ann Thomas Revitalizes Goth Romance with Gilded Age Ghosts

February 13 was, aptly, a bit of a dark and stormy night. Wet snow dripped onto the sidewalks as people in winter coats trudged into Third Place Books in Ravenna. That night, Tacoma-based writer J. Ann Thomas was discussing her newly published novel, The Spirit Collection of Thorne Hall, a Gilded Age romance novel, and her first adult novel. 

Thomas is known for her young adult fantasy series The Asperfell Trilogy. Originally from Wenatchee, she now teaches and lives in Tacoma in a 124-year-old house, almost the same age as the house where she set her latest novel.

Thorne Hall, the setting of the story, is based on Ventfort Hall, a mansion in the small town of Lenox, Massachusetts. Originally built by J.P. Morgan in 1895 as a 28,000 sq. ft. “summer cottage” for his sister Sarah, the house was left abandoned for many years before being turned into a Gilded Age museum. Even now, Thomas explained, there are parts of the property that remain crumbling, and this frankly only adds to its Gothic tone. “You can’t really have a Gothic romance without these decrepit, haunting places,” she said when introducing the research process. 

Ventfort Hall in Massachusetts, complete with overcast sky and looming façade.

Chrissypan via Wikipedia Commons

Thomas distinguished between horror and Gothic as genres, citing Robert Eggers’ recent interpretation of the Dracula legend, Nosferatu, as an example. Sexy, atmospheric, and almost always taking place in a creepy, crumbling house, a Gothic novel has a set of rules that have defined the genre. The Spirit Collection of Thorne Hall has all the essentials. In the present day, Elegy Thorne is trapped through a curse on her family’s estate, which is frozen in time in the Gilded Age and haunted by 15 spirits. Everything changes when her family’s preservationist brings along his son Atticus one day, and the romance part of the novel begins.

The ghosts in the novel are not just fleeting visions or shadows. Thomas clarified that they are revenants that take on physical form and can even kill (and they have). Also a classically trained opera singer, Thomas brought her music background to the novel, incorporating songs from the often eerie Child Ballads into the plot as a device through which Elegy controls the ghosts. 

As part of her research process, Thomas flew alone to Lenox and visited the house, and obtained the house’s blueprints from the museum staff. Architecture and the physical layout were key in visualizing the novel, particularly in deciding what region of the house each ghost haunts. She also used the Costume Institute’s Gilded Age collection for specific costume inspiration and researched subtle differences in language for the way her ghosts would speak. 

In response to an audience question, Thomas spoke to her favorite aspects of working on the novel. One was going to Lenox in October. “It’s like a religion to the Berkshires,” she said about autumn. As a fiction writer from New Hampshire who felt drawn to the Pacific Northwest for its similarly spooky, misty vibes, I resonated with Thomas’ enchantment with New England. Thomas also loved writing the ghosts, developing a real soft spot for the ghost in the basement. 

The novel opens in 1902 with a dinner party gone disturbingly wrong when a medium invited to the party successfully summons the dead. Even from the first scene, Thorne Hall feels alive and envelops the reader. There is a distinct sense of claustrophobia to the setting. The ghosts are fascinating, each having died in different eras but forced to live under the same roof. These eclectic spirits ground the novel in an underlying melancholy feeling, even though many of them are tricksters with playful sides. In contrast, the love story has a cozy, autumnal appeal that provides some needed relief from the novel’s more sinister aspects. 

She loved playing with the lovers’ dynamic in quiet moments. “Guys, I’m a romantic,” she said, adding that there will likely always be an element of romance in her work. 

Thomas’ first adult novel excels in capturing the beauty in decay, and in doing so fulfills its Gothic promise. “I wrote this book because I wanted to read this book,” Thomas said when wrapping up the event, a sentence that stayed with and reinvigorated me to keep writing my own stories. 

The Spirit Collective of Thorne Hall is available in print and audiobook editions now.