Much of her writing, particularly the later work, is suffused with a supernatural or mystical element. Fairy-tales were recurring motifs and these were often intertwined with psychological realism presented in a poetic style. The change in her writing style from her less mature work was partly a result of the influence of Edgar Allan Poe, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, and Carl Jonas Love Almquist, and partly a reaction to violence in entertainment that had begun to gain ground in cultural expression; Gripe sought to manufacture plot tension in less overt ways.