Books like 'In the Night Wood'
Readers who enjoyed In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy horror mystery supernatural dark fantasy urban fantasy gothic magical-realism folk-horror
-
The Magnus Archives: Season 3 by Jonathan Sims
Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe Magnus Archives is a horror audiobook written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall and distributed by Rusty Quill. Sims narrates the stories in-character as the main character, Jonathan Sims, the newly-appointed head archivist of the fictional Magnus Institute; an institution based in London centred on research into the paranormal... -
Lies Ripped Open by Steve McHugh
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsOver a hundred years have passed since a group of violent killers went on the rampage, murdering innocent victims for fun. But even back then, sorcerer Nate Garrett, aka Hellequin, knew there was more to it than simple savage pleasure—souls were being stolen.Nate’s discovery of the souls’ use, and of those supporting the group’s plan, made him question everything he believed... -
Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom World Fantasy Award-winning author Charles de Lint, a tale of love, courage, and the transforming power of imagination Isabelle Copley's visionary art frees ancient spirits. As the young student of the cruel, brilliant artist Vincent Rushkin, she discovered she could paint images so vividly real they brought her wildest fantasies to life...Categorized as:
fairy-tale low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings action-adventure anthologies -
With Silent Screams by Steve McHugh
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsHis name is Nathan Garrett, but he’s also known as Hellequin. And murdering one of his friends and trying to blow him up is a good way to get this centuries-old sorcerer’s full attention…An old friend’s dead body, a cryptic note, and an explosion that almost costs him his own life propel Nate headfirst into a mystery involving a new threat from an old foe...Categorized as:
crime dark historical-fiction low-fantasy myths paranormal retellings action-adventure -
-
The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction by Neil Gaiman, Marlon James
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn outstanding array—52 pieces in all—of selected fiction from the multiple-award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, curated by his readers around the world, and introduced with a foreword by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon JamesSpanning Gaiman’s career to date, The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction is a captivating collection from one of the world’s most beloved...Categorized as:
dark low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings 21st-century action-adventure -
Vultures by Chuck Wendig
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsIn the sixth and final thriller of the “wildly entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) Miriam Black series, Miriam tries to break the curse of her powers, but first she must face The Trespasser a final time... -
In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThis fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise...Categorized as:
dark fairy-tale family historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal retellings -
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsTwin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.This is the story of what happened first…Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline...Categorized as:
dark fairy-tale family gothic magical-realism paranormal retellings action-adventure -
The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen you do a good job for someone, there’s a strong chance they’ll offer you more work or recommend you elsewhere. So Daniel Mackmain isn’t particularly surprised when his boss’s architect brother asks for his help on a historic house renovation in the Cotswolds. Except Dan’s a dryad’s son, and he soon realises there’s a whole lot more going on... -
Slawter by Darren Shan
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsLights. Camera. Slawter!Grubbs Grady and his half-brother Bill-E are thrilled to join their uncle Dervish as onset consultants for the newest movie by cult horror producer David A Hayms. Shot in a deserted town renamed Slawter, the demon-themed movie is to be Hayms's masterpiece. But as strange incidents disrupt the set, Grubbs begins to wonder whether more than filming is afoot... -
Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA deliciously dark bubblegum-gothic fairytale from a stunning new Australian talent.‘He's gone the same way as those little birds that bothered me with their awful songs! And you will too, you and your horrible heart-music, because you won't stay out of my woods!'There's a dead girl in a birdcage in the woods. That's not unusual. Isola Wilde sees a lot of things other people don't... -
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsA missing God.A library with the secrets to the universe. A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.Carolyn's not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts... -
Long Lost by Jacqueline West
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsEleven-year-old Fiona has just read a book that doesn’t exist. When Fiona’s family moves to be closer to her older sister’s figure skating club—and far from Fiona’s close-knit group of friends—nobody seems to notice Fiona’s unhappiness. Alone and out of place, Fiona ventures to the town’s library, a rambling mansion donated to the town by the long-dead heiress... -
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsClive Barker has made his mark on modern fiction by exposing all that is surreal and magical in the ordinary world --- and exploring the profound and overwhelming terror that results... -
-
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 63 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar... -
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“Am I dead?”Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask.Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, 'A Spell for Foolish Hearts' to the terrifying tension of the urban legend 'Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez'... -
Chapel of Ease by Alex Bledsoe
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe latest installment in Alex Bledsoe's critically-acclaimed Tufa series that Kirkus Reviews calls "powerful, character-driven drama...a sheer delight." (starred review)When Matt Johanssen, a young New York actor, auditions for "Chapel of Ease," an off-Broadway musical, he is instantly charmed by Ray Parrish, the show's writer and composer...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings rural -
Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? by Paul Cornell
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe ghost of Sherlock Holmes is dead, but who will solve his murder?The Great Detective's ghost has walked London's streets for an age, given shape by people's memories. Now someone's put a ceremonial dagger through his chest. But what's the motive? And who - or what - could kill a ghost?When policing London's supernatural underworld, eliminating the impossible is not an option... -
Dark and Shallow Lies by Ginny Myers Sain
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide... -
Oblivion by Kelly Creagh
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThis electrifying conclusion to the Nevermore trilogy takes one last trip to the dream world of Edgar Allan Poe to reveal the intertwined fates of Isobel and Varen.The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? —Edgar Allan PoeThe fine line between life and death blurred long ago for Isobel Lanley...Categorized as:
dark ghosts gothic historical-fiction paranormal retellings action-adventure alpha-mc -
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsNew York Times bestselling and Alex, Nebula, and Hugo-Award-winning author Seanan McGuire introduces readers to a world of amoral alchemy, shadowy organizations, and impossible cities in this standalone fantasy.Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.Meet Dodger, his twin...Categorized as:
dark family low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal season-autumn spooky action-adventure -
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 79 ratingsGalaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away... -
Tales From the Hinterland by Melissa Albert
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales by the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country!Journey into the Hinterland, a brutal and beautiful world where a young woman spends a night with Death, brides are wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and an enchantress is killed twice―and still lives...Categorized as:
dark fairy-tale historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings -
Demon Road by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe mind-blowing new supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.Full of Landy’s trademark wit, action and razor-sharp dialogue, DEMON ROAD kicks off with a shocking opener and never lets up the pace in an epic road-trip across the supernatural landscape of America...Categorized as:
dark low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings action-adventure audiobook -
-
Last Call by Tim Powers
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTwenty years ago Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player and went into hiding, after a weird high-stakes game played with Tarot cards. But now the cards - and the supernatural powers behind them - have found him again.Crane's father killed gangster Bugsy Siegel in 1948 to become the Fisher King, and to keep that power he is determined to kill his son... -
North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNathan Ballingrud's Shirley Jackson Award winning debut collection is a shattering and luminous experience not to be missed by those who love to explore the darker parts of the human psyche. Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.These are love stories... -
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Proboscis" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story... -
Horns by Joe Hill
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsIgnatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples.At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief... -
Dark Ladies: Conjure Wife/Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsConjure WifeWitchcraft. Norman Saylor considered it nothing but superstition, until he learned that his own wife was a practicing sorceress. Even still, he refuses to accept the truth that every woman knows...that in the secret occult warfare that governs our lives, witchcraft is a matter of life and death... -
The Memory Eater by Rebecca Mahoney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA teenage girl must save her town from a memory-devouring monster in this piercing exploration of grief, trauma, and memory, from the author of The Valley and the Flood.For generations, a monster called the Memory Eater has lived in the caves of Whistler Beach, Maine, surviving off the unhappy memories of those who want to forget... -
High Moor by Graeme Reynolds
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsWhen John Simpson hears of a bizarre animal attack in his old home town of High Moor, it stirs memories of a long forgotten horror. John knows the truth. A werewolf stalks the town once more, and on the night of the next full moon, the killing will begin again. He should know. He survived a werewolf attack in 1986, during the worst year of his life... -
The Fisherman by John Langan
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true... -
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 60 ratingsHigh in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld... -
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 73 ratingsThe dead don't talk. I don't know why. But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Sometimes the silent souls who seek out Odd want justice. Occasionally their otherworldly tips help him prevent a crime. But this time it’s different... -
-
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsNOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions... -
The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsCourtney Gould’s thrilling debut The Dead and the Dark is about the things that lurk in dark corners, the parts of you that can’t remain hidden, and about finding home in places―and people―you didn’t expect.The Dark has been waiting for far too long, and it won't stay hidden any longer. Something is wrong in Snakebite, Oregon... -
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsOver the course of two award-winning collections and a critically acclaimed novel, The Croning, Laird Barron has arisen as one of the strongest and most original literary voices in modern horror and the dark fantastic... -
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 40 ratingsWhen Jack left Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister—whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice—back to their home on the Moors.But death in their adopted world isn't always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack is herself carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her... -
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill, Christopher Golden
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsA collection of short stories.Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945.... Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town... -
Vault of Glass by Candace Robinson
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSome see it... Some don't...People in the town of Deer Park, Texas are vanishing. There is a strange museum, known as Quinsey Wolfe's Glass Vault, that appears overnight. Perrie Madeline's best friend and ex-boyfriend are among the missing. Perrie, along with her friend August, go on a pursuit to search for them in the mysterious museum... -
Indexing by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 30 ratings“Never underestimate the power of a good story.”Good advice...especially when a story can kill you.For most people, the story of their lives is just that: the accumulation of time, encounters, and actions into a cohesive whole... -
Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 54 ratings“A prodigiously imaginative collection.”—New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice “Dazzling tales from a master of the fantastic... -
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsMultiple award winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before published American Gods story, "Black Dog," written exclusively for this volume... -
Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsRose Marshall died in 1952 in Buckley Township, Michigan, run off the road by a man named Bobby Cross—a man who had sold his soul to live forever, and intended to use her death to pay the price of his immortality. Trouble was, he didn’t ask Rose what she thought of the idea.It’s been more than sixty years since that night, and she’s still sixteen, and she’s still running... -
-
Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWilliam ""Dead"" Kennedy has problems. He's haunted by family, by dead people with unfinished business, and by those perfect pop songs that you can't get out of your head. He's a 32-year-old Texan still in love with his ex-wife. He just lost his job at Pet-Co for eating cat food. His air-conditioning is broken, there's no good music on the radio, and he's been dreaming about ghost roads... -
From a Whisper to a Scream by Samuel M. Key, Charles de Lint
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the early 1990s, Charles de Lint wrote and published three dark fantasy novels under the pen name "Samuel M. Key”. Now, Orb presents them for the first time under de Lint’s own name.Years after the death of a notorious child murderer, children have begun to die again...and a crime photographer begins to suspect he has the one true clue that connects the horrific events... -
Enshadowed by Kelly Creagh
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTrue love takes a twisted turn in the second book of this modern gothic romance trilogy channeling the dark brilliance of Edgar Allan Poe.Varen Nethers is trapped in a perilous dreamworld—a treacherous and desolate realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life... -
The Body Library by Jeff Noon
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsJeff Noon returns with a staggering hallucinogenic sequel to A Man of Shadows, taking hapless investigator John Nyquist into a city where reality is contaminated by the imagination of its citizensIn a city dissolving into an infected sprawl of ideas, where words come to life and reality is contaminated by stories, John Nyquist wakes up in a room with a dead body..Categorized as:
crime dark historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult audiobook -
Sweetly (Fairytale Retellings, #2) by Jackson Pearce
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAs a child, Gretchen's twin sister was taken by a witch in the woods. Ever since, Gretchen and her brother, Ansel, have felt the long branches of the witch's forest threatening to make them disappear, too.Years later, when their stepmother casts Gretchen and Ansel out, they find themselves in sleepy Live Oak, South Carolina... -
Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King, Richard Chizmar
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe little town of Castle Rock, Maine has witnessed some strange events and unusual visitors over the years, but there is one story that has never been told... until now.There are three ways up to Castle View from the town of Castle Rock: Route 117, Pleasant Road, and the Suicide Stairs...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.