Books like 'How the Dead Live'
Readers who enjoyed How the Dead Live by Will Self also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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Good Omens by Dirk Maggs, Terry Pratchett
Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman’s celebrated apocalyptic comic novel, with bonus length episodes and outtakes.According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday in fact. Just after Any Answers on Radio 4….Events have been set in motion to bring about the End of Days...Categorized as:
classics humor low-fantasy magical-realism satire action-adventure angels apocalyptic -
Leave the Window Open by Victoria E. Schwab
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA free story from Wesley’s POV, set a few hours after the end of The Unbound...Categorized as:
humor low-fantasy magical-realism audiobook book contemporary dystopia female-author -
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 70 ratingsPiranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsWelcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go.If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here.If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back.And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it….Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure book coming-of-age contemporary dark fiction -
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Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 95 ratings‘Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don’t let you go around again until you get it right.’People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day...Categorized as:
classics humor magical-realism satire 20th-century action-adventure angels apocalyptic -
Neverwhere: BBC Dramatisation by Neil Gaiman, Dirk Maggs
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBeneath the streets of London there is another London. A subterranean labyrinth of sewers and abandoned tube stations. A somewhere that is Neverwhere.An act of kindness sees Richard Mayhew catapulted from his ordinary life into a subterranean world under the streets of London...Categorized as:
humor low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFollowing the Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted Son of a Trickster comes Trickster Drift, the second book in Eden Robinson's captivating Trickster trilogy.In an effort to keep all forms of magic at bay, Jared, 17, has quit drugs and drinking. But his troubles are not over: now he's being stalked by David, his mom's ex--a preppy, khaki-wearing psycho with a proclivity for rib-breaking...Categorized as:
humor literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism audiobook book coming-of-age contemporary -
Undeading Bells by Drew Hayes
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAfter surviving countless perils and dangers, including an examination by the Blood Council, Fred is preparing to take on his most important adventure to date: marrying Krystal. That is, if he can get everything handled in time. Visiting Boarback, hiring new staff, clearing out his schedule for a honeymoon; there’s no shortage of tasks to check off before the big day arrives... -
Hell for the Holidays by D.M. Guay
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe tree is trimmed. The mistletoe is hung. The eggnog is spiked. It’s time to celebrate the merriest, most heart-warming Christmas ever! Or not? No. Definitely, absolutely not. This Christmas won’t be cheerful. It’ll be more like Ash vs Evil Dead meets National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Because the Wallace family’s annual Christmas Eve party is about to skid off the rails... -
Hades by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen a viral video puts twelve-year-old Xanther under a spotlight of scrutiny at school, her little white cat—still slumbering, still unnamed—offers the only escape, though it comes at a price. Not even Xanther’ parents can deny the strange currents now shuddering around their eldest, touching off inexplicable happenings. Entities troubling the dreams of the twins seem to have singled out Freya... -
Beelzebelle by Heide Goody
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTo the devil a daughter! Parenthood can come as a shock to some. It’s especially shocking if you are Satan, the Prince of Hell, and are trying to live a quiet life of semi-retirement in suburban England under the name of Jeremy Clovenhoof... -
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... -
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... -
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:
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Dead Serious Case #1: Miz Dusty Le Frey by Vawn Cassidy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn the business of unfinished business...Tristan Everett had always preferred the company of the dead because they were quiet and didn’t talk back. As a slightly awkward introvert working as a pathologist at the Hackney Public Mortuary suited him just fine. That is, until a freak accident with a rogue ice cube and suddenly he can see ghosts... -
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 86 ratingsUnder the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London...Categorized as:
classics humor low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure angels audiobook -
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 99 ratingsFirst published in 2001, here is the New York Times bestselling novel that became an instant classic and was hailed by USA Today as “a powerful, searing force that makes readers confront what is real and what is not…”—now a TV series from FremantleMedia North America is coming to STARZ with Bryan Fuller and Michael Green as showrunners, and starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Crispin Glover,...Categorized as:
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Hellzapoppin' by Heide Goody, Iain Grant
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLife at St Cadfan’s is never dull. There’s the cellar full of unexplained corpses. There’s the struggle to find food when the island is placed under quarantine. And there’s that peculiar staircase in the cellar… Being a demon in Hell has its own problems. There’s the increasingly impossible torture quotas to meet. There’s the entire horde of Hell waiting for you to slip up and make a mistake... -
Into the Forest by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Familiar, Volume 1 Wherein the cat is found . . .The Familiar, Volume 2 Wherein the cat is hungry . . . From the universally acclaimed, genre-busting author of House of Leaves comes the second volume of The Familiar, a "novel [which] goes beyond the experimental into the visionary, creating a language and style that expands the horizon of meaning . . -
The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSophie loves the hidden shop below her parents' bookstore, where dreams are secretly bought and sold. When the dream shop is robbed and her parents go missing, Sophie must unravel the truth to save them. Together with her best friend—a wisecracking and fanatically loyal monster named Monster—she must decide whom to trust with her family’s carefully guarded secrets... -
Demon by Tosca Lee
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsClayton has just been hired to author a memoir for Lucian, a demon with an extraordinary story to share. The fallen angel chronicles a life of heavenly bliss and rebellion, human creation and salvation, and God's relentless pursuit of mankind... -
The Ivory and the Horn by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn the city of Newford, when the stars and the vibes are right, you can touch magic. Mermaids sing in the murky harbor, desert spirits crowd the night, and dreams are more real than waking. Charles de Lint began his chronicles of the extraordinary city of Newford in "Memory & Dream" and the short-story collection "Dreams Underfoot...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary dark-fantasy fiction -
The Buying of Lot 37 by Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor
Rated: 4.47 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the authors of the New York Times bestselling novels It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale and the creators of the #1 international podcast of the same name, comes a collection of episodes from Season Three of their hit podcast, featuring an introduction by the authors, a foreword by Dessa, behind-the-scenes commentary, and original illustrations...Categorized as:
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Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsMysterious doors with lizard-head knobs. Talking stone statues. A crazy girl with a hatchet. Yes, Liv's dreams have been pretty weird lately. Especially the one where she's in a graveyard at night, watching four boys conduct dark magic rituals.The strangest part is that Liv recognizes the boys in her dream...Categorized as:
humor low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book comedy contemporary -
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Redwood by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Season One finale of this riveting multisensory masterpiece from the visionary author of House of Leaves...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction low-fantasy fiction fantasy horror mystery contemporary -
Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAuthor’s Note: At the World Fantasy Convention in 2018, I went to dinner with some lovely people who let me babble about Horror. I read, watch, and play Horror every week, but I barely ever write it. Instead I tend to put Horror-y things back out as humorous stories or heartwarming stories... -
The Glass God by Kate Griffin
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSharon Li: apprentice shaman and community support officer for the magically inclined. It wasn't the career Sharon had in mind, but she's getting used to running Magicals Anonymous and learning how to Be One With The City.When the Midnight Mayor goes missing, leaving only a suspiciously innocent-looking umbrella behind him, Sharon finds herself promoted. Her first task: find the Midnight Mayor...Categorized as:
humor low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult book contemporary female-author -
Trader by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA novel of loss, identity, and, in the strangest of places, hope.Max Trader is a luthier, a maker of guitars. Johnny Devlin is chronically unemployed. Max is solitary, quiet, responsible. Johnny is a lady-killer, a drunk, a charming loser... -
The Little Country by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhen folk musician Janey Little finds a mysterious manuscript in an old trunk in her grandfather's cottage, she is swept into a dangerous realm both strange and familiar. But true magic lurks within the pages of The Little Country, drawing genuine danger from across the oceans into Janey's life, impelling her--armed only with her music--toward a terrifying confrontation...Categorized as:
classics low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult book contemporary dark-fantasy -
Peace by Gene Wolfe
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsMesmerizing sci-fi from the author the Denver Post calls "one of the literary giants of science fiction." The melancholy memoir of Alden Dennis Weer, an embittered old man living in a small midwestern town, reveals a miraculous dimension. For Weer's imagination has the power to obliterate time and reshape reality, transcending even death itself...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
Oddjobs by Heide Goody, Iain Grant
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt’s the end of the world as we know it, but someone still needs to do the paperwork. Incomprehensible horrors from beyond are going to devour our world but that’s no excuse to get all emotional about it. Morag Murray works for the secret government organisation responsible for making sure the apocalypse goes as smoothly and as quietly as possible... -
Kane by Dick Wybrow
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKane was a wolf until he was bitten by a man. He's now a six-foot-seven French-Canadian searching for the guy who infected him, so he can return to his pack. Born as a creature of the forest, Kane is cunning, strong, and brave. He's also a terrible driver. And reading makes no sense to his wolf brain. So, he's hired a troubled Minneapolis dive bar worker to help him out... -
Book of Souls by Brad Magnarella
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsEVERY WIZARD'S STORY HAS A BEGINNING Let’s go back to the night I turned thirteen, the night Grandpa filleted my finger with his cane sword. I can’t say what terrified me more, the cold anger in his eyes or the crazy things in his locked study. A talking trunk. Squirming coats. A bookshelf whose titles shifted before my eyes. And one chilling title in particular: Book of Souls...Categorized as:
classics humor literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Overneath by Peter S. Beagle
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn odd couple patrols a county full of mythological beasts and ornery locals. A familiar youngster from the world of The Last Unicorn is gifted in magic but terrible at spell-casting. A seemingly incorruptible judge meets his match in a mysterious thief who steals his heart. Two old friends discover that the Overneath goes anywhere, including locations better left unvisited...Categorized as:
humor low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult anthologies contemporary dragons -
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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:
classics low-fantasy magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary dark dark-fantasy -
Just Dreaming by Kerstin Gier
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA dream traveler faces the greatest challenge she's yet encountered in this gripping third and final book of the Silver trilogy.The course of dream travel never did run smooth—at least, not in Liv Silver's experience...Categorized as:
humor low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book comedy contemporary -
Spirits in the Wires by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAt a popular Newford online research and library Web site called the Wordwood, a mysterious crash occurs. Everyone visiting the site at the moment of the crash vanishes from where they were sitting in front of their computers. Christy Ridding's girlfriend Saskia disappears right before his eyes, along with countless others... -
Inferno by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThis is the 6th Pocket printing.Cover Artist: Harry BennettAn unearthly voice hisses unholy welcome. And the late, great Allen Carpentier begins his one-way journey into the dim nether regions where flame-colored demons wield diabolically sharp pitchforks and tormented vixens reign forever in a pond of sheer ice... -
Last Stand in Lychford by Paul Cornell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsCelestial beings and human witches clash for the future of the human and fairy worlds in this exciting conclusion to the Witches of Lychford seriesThere are changes in the air, both in Lychford and in the land of fairy.The magical protections previously employed by the town are gone, and the forces of darkness are closing in – both figuratively and literally...Categorized as:
humor low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFaber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.Lips the colour of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like 'guilt, and guilt, and guilt': these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom...Categorized as:
classics literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
Yarrow by Charles de Lint
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of Moonheart and Memory and DreamCat Midhir had made a reputation as the author of popular fantasy novels. But the secret that her fans didn't know was that her Otherworld was no fantasy. Then, one night, a thief stole her dreams. Since then, she's been trapped in the everyday. And the Others are coming to find her.. -
Clovenhoof by Heide Goody, Iain Grant
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCharged with gross incompetence, Satan is fired from his job as Prince of Hell and exiled to that most terrible of places: English suburbia... -
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsIn the twelve unforgettable tales of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible, Kafkaesque nightmare...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook contemporary dystopia -
Outside the Dog Museum by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsHarry Radcliffe is a brilliant prize-winning architect---witty and remarkable. He's also a self-serving opportunist, ready to take advantage of whatever situations, and women, come his way. But now, newly divorced and having had an inexplicable nervous breakdown, Harry is being wooed by the extremely wealthy Sultan of Saru to design a billion-dollar dog museum... -
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A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLibrarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 071263441X / 9780712634410.Just as the the word "weird" has many implications and shades of meaning, so too does the latest--weird--work by this gifted and perplexing writer. As Carroll ( Bones of the Moon ; Sleeping in Flame ) himself says, "Life has a habit of turning dark corners... -
Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGraham Joyce travels to an enthralling, suspense-charged landscape in this hallucinatory novel of a father's quest to save his daughter -- without destroying himself. Dan Innes has received shattering news from the British Embassy in Bangkok: his daughter, Charlie, whom he hasn't seen or spoken to in two years, has been imprisoned in a Thai jail for drug smuggling...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult book contemporary dark -
The Last Coin by James P. Blaylock
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJudas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Twenty-nine of the coins are already in the possession of the unpleasant Pennyman. The last coin is all that stands between the world and doom, and it now belongs to ordinary Andrew Vanbergen, owner of an inn where dark magic and bizarre heroism are about to intertwine... -
The Golem of Brooklyn by Adam Mansbach
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIn Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, a golem is a humanoid being created out of mud or clay and animated through secret prayers. Its sole purpose is to defend the Jewish people against the immediate threat of violence. It is always a rabbi who makes a golem, and always in a time of crisis... -
Consultation With a Vampire by Patrick E. McLean
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEdwin Windsor, Evil Efficiency Consultant, returns with his manic lawyer Topper and his faithful secretary in this prequel to How to Succeed in Evil. Edwin is approached by a vampire, who offers him the prospect of eternal life if Edwin will help him with the troubles the modern world has presented his kind... -
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
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