Books like 'Flames'
Readers who enjoyed Flames by Robbie Arnott also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy horror supernatural magical-realism literary-fiction outdoors animals gothic lgbtq
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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... -
The Ghost and the Birthday Boy by Bobbi Holmes, Anna J. McIntyre
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLily and Ian’s families come to Frederickport to celebrate Connor’s first Birthday. Bringing the in-laws together is not always easy, especially when uninvited guests from the spirit realm show up... -
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... -
The Witches of Santo Stefano by Wendy Webb
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn investigative journalist uncovers the haunting secret history of her own ancestors in a bewitching novel by the bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake.When Cassie Graves discovers her husband’s affair, it’s enough to chip away at the foundation of her life. But after researching her family’s Italian ancestry, it completely crumbles beneath her...Categorized as:
magical-realism paranormal gothic family fiction mystery historical-fiction contemporary -
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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:
lgbtq literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal action-adventure adult book -
Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the award-winning author of The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy comes an unforgettable and deeply personal story of the ghosts that surround us—and the ones we carry inside. The house seemed to sit apart from the others on Katydid Street, silent and alone, like it didn’t fit among them... -
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... -
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... -
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary -
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... -
Shadow Mirror by Richie Tankersley Cusick
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsUnsettling. There's no better word to describe Miranda Barnes's ability to hear the cries of the dead, feel the wind move her hair when they run by, and - dare she look into a mirror - see the reflection of a ghostly woman behind her. There's only one person to turn to for support: Etienne. As sexy as he is mysterious, Miranda can't help but be drawn to him. He believes her; he wants to help her... -
American Gothic Tales by Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Brockden Brown
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJoyce Carol Oates has a special perspective on the “gothic” in American short fiction, at least partially because her own horror yarns rank on the spine-tingling chart with the masters. She is able to see the unbroken link of the macabre that ties Edgar Allan Poe to Anne Rice and to recognize the dark psychological bonds between Henry James and Stephen King... -
Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJennifer Thorne skewers all-too-familiar family dynamics in this sly, wickedly funny vacation-Gothic. Beautifully unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly inescapable bonds of family mythology.Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive... -
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...Categorized as:
family gothic literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism outdoors paranormal 21st-century -
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Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsImagine an America very similar to our own. It's got homework, best friends, and pistachio ice cream. There are some differences. This America has been shaped dramatically by the magic, monsters, knowledge, and legends of its peoples, those Indigenous and those not...Categorized as:
animals family lgbtq low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal action-adventure alternate-history -
The Keepers of Metsan Valo by Wendy Webb
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe spirits of Nordic folklore come calling in this entrancing tale of family secrets and ancient mysteries by the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Haunting of Brynn Wilder.In Metsan Valo, her family home on Lake Superior, Anni Halla’s beloved grandmother has died. Among her fond memories, what Anni remembers most vividly is her grandmother’s eerie yet enchanting storytelling... -
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... -
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:
gothic literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
The Threads of the Heart by Carole Martinez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThey say Frasquita knows magic, that she is a healer with occult powers, that perhaps she is a sorcerer. She does indeed possess a remarkable gift, one that has been passed down to the women in her family for generations...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 21st-century adult book contemporary -
The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of Girl One comes a spellbinding adventure about a strange power lurking in the Arkansas Ozarks, and the group of friends obsessed with finding it.Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, Arkansas, the small town they all fled after high school graduation. Each is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter that reads, You promised... -
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... -
Resurrectionists by Kim Wilkins
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsYoung Australian cellist Maisie Fielding is bored with her career and her overpowering, manipulative musical family. Faking a wrist injury, she takes time off to return to England, her mother's home country, to search for her own roots and to find out more about her grandmother, a 'white witch' who settled in a bleak village on the North Yorkshire coast... -
The Secret of Cypriere Bayou by Jana Deleon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA MANSION OF HORRORS DEEP IN THE LOUISIANA BAYOUS...For Olivia Markham, laMalediction is the ideal setting in which to complete her work. But something is sending a chill up the usually fearless author's spine. There are the unearthly noises, the sliding panels, the hidden passageways...and John Landry, the sexy caretaker who seems less than welcoming... -
Spirit's Key by Edith Cohn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSpirit's Key is a mystery with a bit of magic for fans of Savvy and Because of Winn Dixie.By now, twelve-year-old Spirit Holden should have inherited the family gift: the ability to see the future. But when she holds a house key in her hand like her dad does to read its owner's destiny, she can’t see anything...Categorized as:
animals family low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal action-adventure book children -
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I Will Never Leave You by Kara A. Kennedy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis emotional debut thriller follows a teen girl being haunted by the ghost of her toxic ex-girlfriend, who gives her a chilling ultimatum—help her possess another girl or go down for her murder."A blistering exploration of the ugliest and tenderest parts of love, Kennedy turns the classic ghost story on its head."—Courtney Gould, author of The Dead and the DarkMaya has always belonged to Alana... -
American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from the 1940's Until Now by Peter Straub, John Collier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLike its companion volume, this Library of America hardcover contains 750 pages of classic tales of horror, hauntings, terrifying obsessions, and unearthly presences...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal adult anthologies classics contemporary -
Verdigris by Michele Mari
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAt the tail end of the 1960s, the thirteen-year-old Michelino spends his summers at his grandparents’ modest estate in Nasca, near Lake Maggiore, losing himself in the tales of horror, adventure, and mystery shelved in his grandfather’s library... -
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... -
When the Crow's Away by Auralee Wallace
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsThe ghost of a recently deceased chocolatier believes he was murdered, and it's up to young witch Brynn Warren to use her magical gifts and old-fashioned sleuthing skills to find out how he really met his bitter end in this enchanting new Evenfall Witches B&B Mystery... -
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 paranormal adult anthologies audiobook contemporary -
Things We Say in the Dark by Kirsty Logan
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 15 ratings'Gripping . . . You won't put it down' Sunday TelegraphA shocking collection of dark stories, ranging from chilling contemporary fairytales to disturbing supernatural fiction.Alone in a remote house in Iceland a woman is unnerved by her isolation; another can only find respite from the clinging ghost that follows her by submerging herself in an overgrown pool...Categorized as:
gothic lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal adult anthologies contemporary -
A Dark and Starless Forest by Sarah Hollowell
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsWhen her siblings start to go missing, a girl must confront the dark thing that lives in the forest—and the growing darkness in herself—in this debut YA contemporary fantasy for fans of Wilder Girls.Derry and her eight siblings live in an isolated house by the lake, separated from the rest of the world by an eerie and menacing forest... -
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...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal adult book contemporary fiction -
Saffron and Brimstone: Strange Stories by Elizabeth Hand
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWidely praised and widely read, Elizabeth Hand is regarded as one of America's leading literary fantasists. This new collection (an expansion of the limited-release Bibliomancy, which won the World Fantasy Award in 2005) showcases a wildly inventive author at the height of her powers... -
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The Tricksters by Margaret Mahy
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhile gathered together for the Christmas holiday, a large New Zealand family and their various guests find their lives suddenly invaded by three fascinating, but sinister brothers... -
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... -
Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days by Jeanette Winterson
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" comes an enchanting collection of stories for the holiday season.For years Jeanette Winterson has loved writing a new story at Christmas time and here she brings together twelve of her brilliantly imaginative, funny and bold tales...Categorized as:
gothic lgbtq literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal 21st-century adult -
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIn this gripping debut tinged with supernatural horror, a young Cree woman's dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow's head in her hands, she panics... -
The Panic Hand: Stories by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCompared frequently to Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carroll is, in the worlds of Pat Conroy, an absolute original. The Panic Hand assembles in one volume the shorter works of this master, including the World Fantasy Award-winning tale Friend's Best Man and the short novels Uh-Oh and Black Cocktail... -
The Woman Who Married a Cloud by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThirty-eight extraordinary stories from award-winning author Jonathan CarrollFor more than thirty years, Jonathan Carroll’s writing has defied genre conventions. Known for his novels—including The Land of Laughs, Bones of the Moon, Sleeping in Flame,and many other compelling and often surreal stories—Carroll has also created an eloquent body of short fiction...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror supernatural -
A Phoenix First Must Burn by Patrice Caldwell, Elizabeth Acevedo
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSixteen tales by bestselling and award-winning authors that explore the Black experience through fantasy, science fiction, and magic.Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals...Categorized as:
family lgbtq low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal afrofuturism anthologies audiobook -
The Gravedigger by Peter Grandbois
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a small, whitewashed village, indistinguishable from any other in Andalusia, Juan Rodrigo is a gravedigger. The job was handed down to him by his father, as was the ability to hear the voices of the dead and to tell their stories to the living...Categorized as:
family literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal book coming-of-age contemporary -
The Gone Away Place by Christopher Barzak
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Stonewall Honor author Christopher Barzak comes a haunting novel of love and loss, in which a series of tornadoes rips through a small midwest town, forever altering the lives of those who live there.Ellie heads up her high school yearbook, and until the tornadoes come, her biggest worry is how to raise enough money to print them... -
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... -
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From The Teeth Of Angels by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFour strangers’ lives are turned upside down when death comes for a visitAt first it seems like an ordinary dream. Talkative Englishman Ian McGann meets a long-dead acquaintance and asks him questions about the afterlife. But when he awakes, a thick pink scar stretches across his chest...Categorized as:
gothic literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century book contemporary death -
The Hike by Drew Magary
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFrom the author of The Postmortal, a fantasy saga unlike any you’ve read before, weaving elements of folk tale and video game into a riveting, unforgettable adventure of what a man will endure to return to his family When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike... -
A Natural History of Hell by Jeffrey Ford
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEmily Dickinson takes a carriage ride with Death. A couple are invited over to a neighbor's daughter's exorcism. A country witch with a sea-captain's head in a glass globe intercedes on behalf of abused and abandoned children. In July of 1915, in Hardin County, Ohio, a boy sees ghosts. Explore contemporary natural history in a baker's dozen of exhilarating visions...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal adult anthologies contemporary fiction ghosts -
Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCullen James is a young woman whose life dictates her dreams-and whose dreams control her life.In her first dream, she found the perfect man-and the same thing promptly happened in life. Now, she has begun to dream dreams set in Rondua, a fantasy world of high adventure, full of tests of her courage and strength...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult book contemporary dark -
Expiration Date by Tim Powers
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLos Angeles is filled with ghosts -- and half-ghosts, and ghost hunters, and ghost junkies -- chasing each other in a mad quest for immortality. As a series of disasters strikes Los Angeles, a young boy inhales the last breath of Thomas Edison, and becomes a precious prize in a deadly hunt for the elusive vital spark... -
A Lush and Seething Hell: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror by John Hornor Jacobs
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe award-winning and critically-acclaimed master of horror returns with a pair of chilling tales--both never-before-published in print--that examine the violence and depravity of the human condition...Categorized as:
gothic lgbtq literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal adult anthologies audiobook
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