Books like 'Notable American Women'
Readers who enjoyed Notable American Women by Ben Marcus also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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Morally Ambiguous by Veronica Lancet
Rated: 4.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsShe just wants to be loved… by the one man who is not capable of feeling it. A CUTE PSYCHO Charming and unpredictable, Vlad Kuznetsov is known as the joker of the underground world. Known to many yet known by none, he is a true social chameleon. His feigned affability might present him as inoffensive but his inner demons could unleash a bloodbath at any time... -
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsSome inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.The story "Omelas" was first published in New Dimensions 3, a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won Le Guin the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story... -
Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAndy Gage was born in 1965 and murdered not long after by his stepfather. . . . It was no ordinary murder. Though the torture and abuse that killed him were real, Andy Gage's death wasn't. Only his soul actually died, and when it died, it broke in pieces. Then the pieces became souls in their own right, coinheritors of Andy Gage's life. . . -
Del tiempo y sus demonios by Diego Armando Arciniegas Malagón
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDEL TIEMPO Y SUS DEMONIOS: PERSIGUIENDO LA VERDADEsta novela se desarrolla en un pequeño y misterioso pueblo. En un territorio hermoso, inhóspito a la luz de aquellas certezas que las mayorías consideran irrefutables. Lejos del tiempo que, arbitrariamente, tomara la sabia decisión de separar el bien del mal...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction mystery fiction horror classics psychological fantasy -
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Cold Fire / Hideaway / The Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz, Leigh Nichols
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA collection of three previously published Koontz novels. This will be the first time The Key To Midnight will be available in hardcover... -
The Secrets of the Shadows by Helen Phifer
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSophie was afraid of the man in the shadows. He terrified her, but he would always disappear when someone else came. But one day in June 1984, she didn't escape. He took her. When a young woman is found draped over a gravestone in a chilling murder, police officer Annie Graham experiences a familiar sense of dread... -
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsGlen Runciter runs a lucrative business—deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in “half-life,” a dreamlike state of suspended animation...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction postmodernism satire 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Emma Frost Mystery Series: Vol 4-6 by Willow Rose
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsASIN moved from less recent editionCROSS YOU HEART AND HOPE TO DIE:We all know that high school reunions can be a daunting and sometimes horrifying experience. Well, for Emma Frost that is exactly what it becomes when she is invited to meet with all of her old classmates at a desolated hotel in the most Northern part of Denmark...Categorized as:
literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary cozy female-mc fiction -
The Lime Works: A Novel (Vintage International) by Thomas Bernhard
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFor five years, Konrad has imprisoned himself and his crippled wife in an abandoned lime works where he’s conducted odd auditory experiments and prepared to write his masterwork, The Sense of Hearing. As the story begins, he’s just blown the head off his wife with the Mannlicher carbine she kept strapped to her wheelchair... -
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 68 ratingsYears ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Internet. No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism postmodernism 21st-century action-adventure adult book classics -
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side... -
Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die by Willow Rose
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsASIN moved from less recent editionWe all know that high school reunions can be a daunting and sometimes horrifying experience. Well, for Emma Frost that is exactly what it becomes when she is invited to meet with all of her old class-mates at a desolated hotel in the most Northern part of Denmark... -
Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis collection features tormented individuals who play out their doom in various odd little towns, as well as in dark sectors frequented by sinister and often blackly comical eccentrics. The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives... -
Evil Eye by Madhuri Shekar, Harsh Nayyar
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPallavi is an aspiring writer living in California. Her mother, Usha, is thousands of miles away in Delhi - and obsessed with finding her daughter a husband...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult audiobook book contemporary -
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Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez, Megan McDowell
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn these wildly imaginative, devilishly daring tales of the macabre, internationally bestselling author Mariana Enriquez brings contemporary Argentina to vibrant life as a place where shocking inequality, violence, and corruption are the law of the land, while military dictatorship and legions of desaparecidos loom large in the collective memory...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary dark -
Pastoralia by George Saunders
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsWith this new collection, George Saunders takes us even further into the shocking, uproarious and oddly familiar landscape of his imagination.The stories in Pastoralia are set in a slightly skewed version of America, where elements of contemporary life have been merged, twisted, and amplified, casting their absurdity-and our humanity-in a startling new light...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism philosophical postmodernism satire 20th-century 21st-century -
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko, Sergey Dyachenko
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe definitive English language translation of the internationally bestselling Ukrainian novel—a brilliant dark fantasy with "the potential to be a modern classic" (Lev Grossman), combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way.Our life is brief . . -
The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe Metamorphosis and Other Stories, by Franz Kafka, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism philosophical 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics -
A Private Cathedral: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAfter finding himself caught up in one of Louisiana’s oldest and bloodiest family rivalries, Detective Dave Robicheaux must battle the most terrifying adversary he has ever encountered: a time-traveling superhuman assassin.The Shondell and Balangie families are longtime enemies in the New Iberia criminal underworld and show each other no mercy...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism action-adventure adult assassinations audiobook book contemporary -
Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA dark, quasi-detective novel, Cosmos follows the classic noir motif to explore the arbitrariness of language, the joke of human freedom, and man’s attempt to bring order out of chaos in his psychological life.Published in 1965, Cosmos is the last novel by Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) and his most somber and multifaceted work... -
Shattered Silk by Barbara Michaels
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA Killer Lurks In her quaint vintage clothing boutique in picturesque Georgetown, Karen Nevitt' s laces and white linens seem so innocent. Her aunt' s aged friends have even ransacked their attics to help the novice entrepreneur launch her business... -
Death with Interruptions by José Saramago
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsNobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant new novel poses the question what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death?On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This, of course, causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially mass celebration...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Eenie, Meenie by Willow Rose
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJohnny is a criminal. He has been locked up before - but never in a place quite like this. Now he wonders if he will ever make it through to his release date - alive...EENIE, MEENIE is a 15,000 word thriller novella from Willow Rose, author of the International Bestselling horror-series starring the Danish reporter Rebekka Franck. It is not for the faint at heart...Categorized as:
literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror mystery -
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsTravis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend... -
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Everything's Fine by Matthew Pridham
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsEric’s day is off to a rough start: his regional managers are in town, he’s running late to work, the moon seems to be falling apart, and he just can’t seem to get his tie right. At least he has his priorities straight: it’s the little things that matter... -
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud by Ben Sherwood
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud tells the haunting story of a young man who narrowly survives a terrible car wreck that kills his little brother. Years later, the brothers’ bond remains so strong that it transcends the normal boundaries separating life and death. Charlie St. Cloud lives in a snug New England fishing village... -
Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsLoop me in, odd one.The words, spoken in the deep of night by a sleeping child, chill the young man watching over her. For this was a favorite phrase of Stormy Llewellyn, his lost love, and Stormy is dead, gone forever from this world. In the haunted halls of the isolated monastery where he had sought peace, Odd Thomas is stalking spirits of an infinitely darker nature...Categorized as:
humor magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book california comedy -
The Whalestoe Letters by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsBetween 1982 and 1989, Pelafina H. Lièvre sent her son, Johnny Truant, a series of letters from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute, a psychiatric facility in Ohio where she spent the final years of her life... -
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... -
Death with Interruptions by José Saramago
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsNobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's brilliant new novel poses the question what happens when the grim reaper decides there will be no more death?On the first day of the new year, no one dies. This, of course, causes consternation among politicians, religious leaders, morticians, and doctors. Among the general public, on the other hand, there is initially mass celebration...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century 21st-century adult audiobook book -
Spirits That Walk in Shadow by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRoommates Jaimie Locke and Kim Calloway are each looking to find a new life at college. It’s Jaimie’s first time Outside—away from her large, complicated family and their magical traditions—and she wants to learn what nonmagical life is like. Kim is anxious to escape the depression that’s been dragging her down since last year so she can make new friends and create the art she loves... -
Viskningar i mörkret by Amanda Stevens
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWork is a welcome refuge for New Orleans homicide detective Evangeline Theroux. Feeling suffocated by her new baby, in whose eyes she sees only her dead husband, she throws herself into a high-profile murder case. Reclusive writer Lena Saunders offers Evangeline a provocative theory about the crime: it is the work of a lunatic vigilante... -
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsA haunting, atmospheric, and deeply suspenseful novel from the acclaimed author of The Enchanted about an investigator who must use her unique insights to find a missing little girl...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century abuse action-adventure adult audiobook book -
Father of Lies by Brian Evenson
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAt the urging of his wife, Provost Fochs reluctantly agrees to see a therapist, Dr. Feshtig. Through the therapist's detailed notes, correspondence from the church, and the provost himself, the provost's sickness emerges and the reader is drawn into the disturbing inner workings of a violent pedophile.The provost relays his crimes in excruciating detail... -
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The Televisionary Oracle by Rob Brezsny
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMillions of people already live their lives in accordance with Rob Brezsny's "Real Astrology" prophecies. But the time has come for a deeper dose of Brezsny's brain. The Televisionary Oracle is an archetypal roller-coaster that would make Rumi dizzy and leave Carl Jung gasping for breath...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism adult alpha-mc anthologies contemporary female-mc -
The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThis is an enchanted place. Others don't see it, but I do.The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century abuse adult audiobook book contemporary -
The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp, Jesús Cañadas
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsJack Sparks died while writing this book.It was no secret that journalist Jack Sparks had been researching the occult for his new book. No stranger to controversy, he'd already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed... -
Naoko by Keigo Higashino
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNaoko, a major bestseller and film in Japan, is a poignant and wily take on gender relations from a master of the detective story. Expertly and seamlessly interweaving the real and the unreal, Naoko involves a regular guy whose world is rocked when his wife dies in a bus accident. His young daughter survives, but seems to be inhabited by her mother’s personality... -
The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsAlready a #1 international bestseller, this tautly written and gripping psychological thriller forces a police inspector to reluctantly return to her hometown in Basque Country—a place engulfed in mythology and superstition—to solve a series of eerie murders...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century adult audiobook book contemporary crime -
Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA newborn's absent face appears on the back of someone else's head, a filmmaker goes to gruesome lengths to achieve the silence he's after for his final scene, and a therapist begins, impossibly, to appear in a troubled patient's room late at night. In these stories of doubt, delusion, and paranoia, no belief, no claim to objectivity, is immune to the distortions of human perception...Categorized as:
literary-fiction 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary cosmic-horror dark dystopia -
The Music of the Deep by Elizabeth Hall
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFleeing an abusive marriage and tormented by her past, Alexandra Turner finds solace in a small coastal town on Puget Sound and a job with a local marine biologist studying orcas.After befriending a group of locals, Alex learns that she has moved to a place that has a reputation of being the “most haunted town in Washington... -
Rock-a-bye Baby by Willow Rose
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLisa Rasmussen just had a baby and everything in her life seems perfect at this point. Only she wishes that everyone else around her would be as flawless as she is and stop getting in her way. And if they won't listen, then she'll make them.ROCK-A-BYE BABY, is a thriller novella from Willow Rose, author of the International Bestselling horror-series starring the Danish reporter Rebekka Franck...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies comedy contemporary fiction -
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... -
Shattered by Dean Koontz
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsRUN... OR DIEThe van was in back of them again. Closer this time. There could be no mistake--they were being followed.RUN... OR DIEBut why? The question kept nagging at Alex and Colin as they left Philadelphia behind and sped toward their new home in San Francisco. Courtney would be waiting for the, ready to begin a wonderful new life with her husband, her brother...RUN.. -
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Lexicon by Max Barry
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAt an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics--at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure audiobook boarding-school book -
The Gates of Evangeline by Hester Young
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratings*A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2015*From a unique new talent comes a fast-paced debut, introducing a heroine whose dark visions bring to light secrets that will heal or destroy those around her . . . When New York journalist and recently bereaved mother Charlotte “Charlie” Cates begins to experience vivid dreams about children in danger, she’s sure that she’s lost her mind...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult amateur-sleuth audiobook book contemporary crime -
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Transmigration of Timothy Archer, the final novel in the trilogy that also includes Valis and The Divine Invasion, is an anguished, learned, and very moving investigation of the paradoxes of belief. It is the story of Timothy Archer, an urbane Episcopal bishop haunted by the suicides of his son and mistress - and driven by them into a bizarre quest for the identity of Christ...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism philosophical postmodernism 20th-century adult aliens audiobook -
The Boy Who Could See Demons by Carolyn Jess-Cooke
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsI first met my demon the morning that Mum said Dad had gone. Alex Connolly is ten years old, likes onions on toast, and can balance on the back legs of his chair for fourteen minutes. His best friend is a 9000-year-old demon called Ruen. When his depressive mother attempts suicide yet again, Alex meets child psychiatrist Anya... -
Murder of Angels by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the award-winning author of Silk and Threshold...To find the solace she seeks, Niki Ky must return to the house on the side of Red Mountain in Birmingham, Alabama, to finish what her lover Spyder Baxter started. Her odyssey will take her places no human was meant to travel, and she will face creatures no human should ever have to face.. -
The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSam and his friends are like any normal gang of normal young boys—roaming wild around the outskirts of their car-factory town, daring adults to challenge their freedom. Then one day Sam wakes to find the tooth fairy sitting on the edge of his bed—but this is not the benign figure of childhood myth. This is an enigmatic presence that both torments and seduces him, changing his life forever...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century book coming-of-age contemporary dark dark-fantasy
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