Adventure; Fantasy; Gothic Fiction
Add up one terrifying castle, two kidnapping attempts, multiple ghost sightings, and a perilous escape, and you've got the makings of an epic adventure in your hands. The fun just doesn't stop for Emily St. Aubert after she gets whisked off to Italy. Here's the kicker: Em is constantly in physical danger—from Count Morano, the leering Italian lords, and possibly even the creepy Barnardine. It's no fun for Em, but all the action makes for one rollicking adventure story.
If pure adventure isn't enough for you, though, try throwing in some fantastical elements. Here's a definition headed your way: fiction with strange or otherworldly settings or characters gets the fantasy label. And if strange music in the forest and a mysterious ghostly presence don't fit the bill for fantasy, we don't know what does.
But above all, this is aGothic novel. There's a terrifying villain (Montoni), a hefty dose of mystery (murdered wives and ghosts galore), and that archetypal creepy castle. There's Goth all over Emily's world.