Books like 'A Dark and Starless Forest'
Readers who enjoyed A Dark and Starless Forest by Sarah Hollowell also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy horror urban fantasy mystery supernatural lgbtq paranormal wlw magic
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The Magnus Archives: Season 2 by NOT A BOOK
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... -
The Magnus Archives: Season 1 by Jonathan Sims
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 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... -
The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe last member of a murdered House tries to protect his ward from forced marriage to a monster while uncovering clues to his own tortured past. The Tarot Sequence imagines a modern-day Atlantis off the coast of Massachusetts, governed by powerful Courts based on the traditional Tarot deck... -
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 52 ratingsYadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free... -
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Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Schaeffer
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAfter escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market.There’s only one way to keep herself safe... -
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe dreamers walk among us . . . and so do the dreamed. Those who dream cannot stop dreaming – they can only try to control it. Those who are dreamed cannot have their own lives – they will sleep forever if their dreamers die.And then there are those who are drawn to the dreamers. To use them. To trap them. To kill them before their dreams destroy us all.Ronan Lynch is a dreamer... -
The Witchstone by Henry H. Neff
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn unforgettable, high-stakes, laugh-out-loud funny novel, The Witchstone blends the merciless humor of The Good Place with the spellbinding fantasy of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods.Meet Laszlo, eight-hundred-year-old demon and Hell’s least productive Curse Keeper. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves a pathetic family upstate and a mysterious black stone... -
Midnight by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsSkulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain are back in their most gripping story yet, as book 11, Midnight, picks up where Resurrection left off – and runs.For years, Valkyrie Cain has struggled to keep her loved ones safe from harm, plunging into battle – time and time again – by Skulduggery Pleasant’s side, and always emerging triumphant... -
Sixteen Souls by Rosie Talbot
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsSixteen-year-old Charlie Frith has problems. His crush is dating someone else, his sisters have glitter-bombed his prosthesis (again), and he's a seer-of-spirits in York, the most haunted city in England, and all his friends are ghosts.To make matters worse, it seems that famous spirits are mysteriously vanishing from York's haunted streets and alleys... -
The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable... -
Lobizona by Romina Garber, Romina Russell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSome people ARE illegal.Lobizonas do NOT exist.Both of these statements are false.Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered... -
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... -
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsA thought-provoking and haunting novel about a creature that escapes from an artist's canvas, whose talent is sniffing out monsters in a world that claims they don't exist anymore. Perfect for fans of Akata Witch and Shadowshaper . There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught... -
The Hollow and the Haunted by Camilla Raines
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this darkly magical, romantic YA fantasy debut, a closeted teenage psychic in small-town Washington foresees the death of his sworn enemy, and is forced to work with him to save his life. Sparks fly, but the dead are restless, and some ghosts don't want to stay buried...Perfect for fans of The Raven Cycle, Cemetery Boys and Sixteen Souls... -
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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... -
Cold Case by Jim Butcher
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsShort Story included in Brief...Categorized as:
paranormal magical-realism magic dark witches-wizards low-fantasy fantasy urban-fantasy -
Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA tightly woven blend of myth, magic, and the ties of a found family.Ghosts that speak in smoke. Spirits with teeth like glass. A parasitic, soul-eating spirit worm has gone into a feeding frenzy, but all the Jong-ro Police Department’s violent crimes unit sees is a string of suicides. Except for Kim Han-gil, Seoul’s only spirit detective. He’s seen this before...Categorized as:
lgbtq paranormal magic poc-mc found-family witches-wizards magical-realism low-fantasy -
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'... -
Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes a witchy story full of black girl magic as one girl’s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life, while revealing to her an even darker future.Katrell doesn’t mind talking to the dead; she just wishes it made more money... -
Lanny by Max Porter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThere’s a village sixty miles outside London. It’s no different from many other villages in England: one pub, one church, red-brick cottages, council cottages and a few bigger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might do anywhere, speaking of loving and needing and working and dying and walking the dogs... -
White Trash Warlock by David R. Slayton
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsGuthrie was a good place to be from, but it wasn’t a great place to live, not when you were like Adam, in all the ways Adam was like Adam.Adam Binder hasn’t spoken to his brother in years, not since Bobby had him committed to a psych ward for hearing voices... -
Stockings and Spells by Nancy Warren
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsA Holiday Market With crafts, toys, hot chocolate And a killer!The Vampire Knitting Club decide to take part in Oxford’s Holiday Market, selling exquisite hand knit scarves, sweaters and gift items. Their most popular item is the hand knit Christmas stocking, brightly colored and extra long to squeeze in a few extra small gifts... -
The Merciless III: Origins of Evil by Danielle Vega
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHorror queen Danielle Vega finally reveals the sinister mystery of how a teen girl named Brooklyn became the epitome of evil in this terrifying prequel to the series MTV calls "Mean Girls meets The Exorcist." Brooklyn knows that there's no good without evil, no right without wrong... -
The Thread That Binds the Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTom Renfield, janitor-cum-taxi driver, has always had some weird abilities - seeing ghosts, perceiving other 'currents' of energy... but he's always tried to ignore them. Running from himself seems to be a large part of how he ended up in the tiny town of Arcadia...Categorized as:
dark magic magical-realism paranormal witches-wizards book coming-of-age contemporary -
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Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe author of Half-Resurrection Blues returns in a new Bone Street Rumba Novel—a knife-edge, noir-shaded urban fantasy of crime after death.The streets of New York are hungry tonight... Carlos Delacruz straddles the line between the living and the not-so alive. As an agent for the Council of the Dead, he eliminates New York’s ghostlier problems... -
Night of the Living Queers: 13 Tales of Terror & Delight by Ryan Douglass, Kalynn Bayron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsNight of the Living Queers is a YA horror anthology that explores a night when anything is possible, exclusively featuring queer authors of color putting fresh spins on classic horror tropes and tales.No matter its name or occasion, Halloween is more than a Hallmark holiday, it’s a symbol of transformation... -
The Lights Go Out in Lychford by Paul Cornell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBe careful what you wish for…The continuing tale in the award-nominated Witches of Lychford series, described by Seanan McGuire as “Beautifully written, perfectly cruel and ultimately kind”.The borders of Lychford are crumbling. Other realities threaten to seep into the otherwise quiet village, and the resident wise woman is struggling to remain wise...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magic magical-realism paranormal witches-wizards action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Barrow Will Send What it May by Margaret Killjoy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMargaret Killjoy’s Danielle Cain series is a dropkick-in-the-mouth anarcho-punk fantasy that pits traveling anarchist Danielle Cain against eternal spirits, hypocritical ideologues, and brutal, unfeeling officers of the law... -
Bridge of Souls by Victoria E. Schwab
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsWhere there are ghosts, Cassidy Blake follows ... unless it's the other way around?Cass thinks she might have this ghost-hunting thing down. After all, she and her ghost best friend, Jacob, have survived two haunted cities while travelling for her parents' TV show.But nothing can prepare Cass for New Orleans, which wears all of its hauntings on its sleeve... -
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...Categorized as:
dark low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal witches-wizards adult anthologies classics -
Dead Man's Quill by Jordan Castillo Price
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's all fun and games until someone loses a hand.Dixon has been dying to introduce Yuri to Uncle Fonzo, the Hand of his family, and now he'll finally get that chance. All they need to do is meet him at a traveling carnival with an unused piece of Spellcraft. Easy peasy, right? Not even a little. And even worse, they might encounter a clown... -
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... -
Fallen Thorns by Harvey Oliver Baxter
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings‘A great death is in the air.’Arlo is lost. He thought he had everything figured out. Go to university, fall in love, get a job.But life doesn’t always work like that, and before he has a chance to figure it out, he dies.In the space of a night, Arlo is plunged into a world of blood and immortality and finds a group of people who swear to always have his back... -
Lockjaw by Matteo L. Cerilli
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Cerilli delivers a stunning debut in this gripping paranormal horror novel about queer teens growing up in a community that doesn’t accept them and the insidious danger of apathy... -
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The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThe Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers—even for graduations, weddings, or baptisms... -
All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O'Donoghue, Stefanie Caponi
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMaeve’s strangely astute tarot readings make her the talk of the school, until a classmate draws a chilling and unfamiliar card—and then disappears. After Maeve finds a pack of tarot cards while cleaning out a closet during her in-school suspension, she quickly becomes the most sought-after diviner at St. Bernadette’s Catholic school... -
Half Wild by Sally Green
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 38 ratings"You will have a powerful Gift, but it’s how you use it that will show you to be good or bad."In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted... -
Red Knight Falling by Craig Schaefer
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFresh from their victory over the Bogeyman, FBI agent Harmony Black and her team, Vigilant Lock, face a new type of threat: one from beyond the stars.They’d always heard the Red Knight was an urban legend: in 1954, three years before Sputnik launched, a mysterious satellite was sighted circling Earth, though no power on the planet had such technology...Categorized as:
dark lgbtq low-fantasy magic magical-realism paranormal witches-wizards action-adventure -
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsAlex Stern returns in another tale of murder and dark magic set among the Ivy League elite…Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of hell—even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. But Alex is playing with forces far beyond her control, and when faculty members begin to die off, she knows these aren’t just accidents... -
Bait and Witch by Angela M. Sanders
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLibrarian Josie Way moved to small-town Oregon to lay low. Instead, thanks to newfound magic abilities—and a killer on the loose—she’s leapt out of the frying pan and into a cauldron of trouble . . . Josie Way loved working among the Library of Congress’s leather-scented stacks—until she uncovered corruption and made herself a target...Categorized as:
paranormal witches-wizards magic romantic-love magical-realism low-fantasy mystery cozy -
Sanctuary by V.V. James
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe small Connecticut town of Sanctuary is rocked by the death of its star quarterback. Daniel's death looked like an accident, but everyone knows his ex-girlfriend Harper is the daughter of a witch - and she was there when he died. Then the rumours start. When Harper insists Dan was guilty of a terrible act, the town turns on her...Categorized as:
family low-fantasy magic magical-realism paranormal romantic-love witches-wizards wlw -
The Archived by Victoria E. Schwab
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsImagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself... -
Missing, Presumed Dead by Emma Berquist
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith a touch, Lexi can sense how and when someone will die. Some say it’s a gift. But to Lexi it’s a curse—one that keeps her friendless and alone. All that changes when Lexi foresees the violent death of a young woman, Jane, outside a club. But Jane doesn’t go to the afterlife quietly. Her ghost remains behind, determined to hunt down her murderer, and she needs Lexi’s help... -
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... -
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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... -
Mercury Retrograde by Laura Bickle
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSomething venomous has come to Temperance …It's been two months since Petra Dee and her coyote sidekick Sig faced off against Temperance's resident alchemist, but things are far from quiet. When an Internet video of a massive snake in the backcountry of Yellowstone goes viral, a chase for the mythical basilisk is on... -
Strange Folk by Alli Dyer
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA woman returns to her estranged, magical family in Appalachia but when a man is found dead in the woods nearby, it seems the family has conjured something sinister in this lush, shimmering, and wildly imaginative debut novel that is perfect for fans of Alice Hoffman, Deborah Harkness, and Sarah Addison Allen.Lee left Craw Valley at eighteen without a backward glance... -
Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThree sisters. One spell. Countless dead.Lula Mortiz feels like an outsider. Her sister's newfound Encantrix powers have wounded her in ways that Lula's bruja healing powers can't fix, and she longs for the comfort her family once brought her. Thank the Deos for Maks, her sweet, steady boyfriend who sees the beauty within her and brings light to her life... -
The Shadows by Jacqueline West
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsOld Ms. McMartin is definitely dead. Now her crumbling Victorian mansion lies vacant. When eleven-year-old Olive and her dippy mathematician parents move in, she knows there's something odd about the place--not least the walls covered in strange antique paintings... -
Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsCoco meets Stranger Things with a hint of Ghostbusters in this action-packed supernatural fantasy.For Lucely Luna, ghosts are more than just the family business.Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine...
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