Books like 'Reconstruction'
Readers who enjoyed Reconstruction by Alaya Dawn Johnson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Book of Fantasy by Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Book of Fantasy began one night when three friends fell to talking about fantasies and ghost stories...Categorized as:
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Malevolence by Smauggy
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Pretty princess who lives in tall towers built by slaves she calls 'monsters' thinks she knows what it's like to live in fear..."~Every young faerie girl fantasizes about her dream wedding.The beautiful gown with the lace train that trails behind her as she walks barefoot across the soft grass, holding a bouquet of daffodils and baby's breath...Categorized as:
black-mc poc-mc reverse-harem enemies-to-lovers poc-author fantasy harem sexual-assault -
Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature by Alberto Manguel, Julio Cortázar
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThis huge anthology offers a kaleidoscope of brilliant writing from the Magi of the imagination. Alberto Manguel has selected 72 fantastic tales from life on the edge of the twilight zone, with stories from Marguerite Yourcenar, Herman Hesse, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, and many, many more...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century absurdism adult anthologies audiobook -
Three Times Removed by M.K. Jones
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMaggie Gilbert and her children, Jack and Alice, live a pretty normal life. That is, until Maggie starts looking into her family tree. In doing so, she uncovers a dark mystery that endangers her children. She has to solve a mystery in the past, if she is to save her family in the present... -
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The Overcoat and Other Short Stories by Nikolai Gogol
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFour works by great 19th-century Russian author - "The Nose," a savage satire of Russia's incompetent bureaucrats; "Old-Fashioned Farmers," a pleasant depiction of an elderly couple living in rustic seclusion; "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan Nikiforovich," one of Gogol's most famous comic stories; and "The Overcoat," widely considered a masterpiece of form...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism adult anthologies audiobook classics comedy fiction -
The Forgotten Witch by Jessica Dodge
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHelen Kent never dares to step outside her comfort zone. She lives a lonely mundane life in the city, grinding through her uninspiring marketing job. That is, until a spontaneous online purchase brings her to the little bay town of Oban, Scotland, where a 500-year-old cottage full of secrets and stories awaits her...Categorized as:
magical-realism low-fantasy fantasy fiction witches-wizards urban-fantasy dark-fantasy horror -
Blood Gifts by Becca Andre
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Ian is used to pressure. Born into a necromancer family, he and his twin brother Lex exhibited uncommon magical potential at an early age that led their father to expect great things—from them both. That is until Lex’s blood gift fails to manifest. Or so everyone believes. For the past five years, Ian has been keeping a secret... -
Apex Magazine Issue 56, January 2014 by Sigrid Ellis, Ursula Vernon
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsApex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month. We are a 2013 Hugo Award nominee for Best Semiprozine! FICTION Pale Skin, Gray Eyes by Gene O'Neill Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon [pseudonym: T... -
The Girl with No Face by M.H. Boroson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe adventures of Li-lin, a Daoist priestess with the unique ability to see the spirit world, continue in the thrilling follow-up to the critically-acclaimed historical urban fantasy The Girl with Ghost Eyes.It’s the end of the Nineteenth Century. San Francisco’s cobblestone streets are haunted, but Chinatown has an unlikely protector in a young Daoist priestess named Li-lin... -
Apex Magazine Issue 80 by Jason Sizemore, Ursula Vernon
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsApex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month... -
The Secrets Of Dr Taverner (Ash Tree Press Occult Detectives Library) by Dion Fortune
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOf the many authors who have turned their hands to the creation of 'supernatural sleuths', few have been so colourful, and as contradictory, as Dion Fortune...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies dark-fantasy fiction historical -
Smoke City by Keith Rosson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsMarvin Deitz has some serious problems. His mob-connected landlord is strong-arming him out of his storefront. His therapist has concerns about his stability. He’s compelled to volunteer at the local Children’s Hospital even though it breaks his heart every week.Oh, and he’s also the guilt-ridden reincarnation of Geoffroy Thérage, the French executioner who lit Joan of Arc’s pyre in 1431... -
The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic by Nick Joaquín, Gina Apostol
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but he has remained little-known outside his home country despite writing in English. With the post-colonial sensibilities of Junot Diaz, Teju Cole, and Jhumpa Lahiri and an ironic perspective of colonial history resonant with Marques and Llosa, Joaquin is a long-neglected writer ready to join the ranks of the world classics...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and the Practical Magic series comes an enchanting novel about love, heartbreak, self-discovery, and the enduring magic of books. One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her... -
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Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers.Montserrat has always been overlooked... -
The Kindred of Darkness by Barbara Hambly
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen James Asher and his wife Lydia's baby daughter Miranda is kidnapped by the Master Vampire of London, the stakes are high: blindly follow the Master Vampire's instructions, keep out of the way of the human networks that serves the vampires, destroy the interloper who seeks to seize control of the London Nest, and find the key to the Nest's tortuous inner workings: The Book of the Kindred of... -
Somewhere Beneath Those Waves by Sarah Monette
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMonette's diverse collection delves deeply into the mythic and reaches far beyond everyday reality. Readers cannot resist journeying with her into realms-dangerously dark or illuminatingly revelatory-they could never imagine without her as their guide. From ghost stories in the tradition of M. R...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism adult alternate-history anthologies female-author fiction gothic -
Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier, Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJohn Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics fiction -
Grandmother Spider: A Charlie Moon Mystery by James D. Doss
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA lawman with a hardy appetite for life and an unshakable faith in the explicable, Southern Ute Acting Chief of Police Charlie Moon is not prepared to accept a purely supernatural explanation for the recent strange events of April 1... -
The Between by Tananarive Due
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Hilton was just a boy, his aged grandmother saved him from drowning by pulling him out of a treacherous ocean current, sacrificing her life for his. Now, thirty years later, Hilton begins to think his borrowed time is running out...Categorized as:
black-mc literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century adult afrofuturism audiobook -
Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the author of Borne and Annihilation comes the paperback reissue of his cult classic Shriek: An Afterword... -
The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSurrealist writer and painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a master of the macabre, of gorgeous tableaus, biting satire, roguish comedy, and brilliant, effortless flights of the imagination. Nowhere are these qualities more ingeniously brought together than in the works of short fiction she wrote throughout her life...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics -
Jilo by J.D. Horn
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAged Mother Jilo is wise in the ways of magic…but once upon a time, she was just a girl.1950s Georgia: King Cotton has fallen. Savannah is known as the “beautiful woman with a dirty face,” its stately elegance faded by neglect, its soul withering from racial injustice and political corruption... -
The City of Mist: Stories by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsReturn to the mythical Barcelona library known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in this posthumous collection of stories from the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind and The Labyrinth of the Spirits...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook dark drama -
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The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, Mikolaj Dutsch
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsThe Street of Crocodiles in the Polish city of Drogobych is a street of memories and dreams where recollections of Bruno Schulz's uncommon boyhood and of the eerie side of his merchant family's life are evoked in a startling blend of the real and the fantastic... -
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories: The Great Short Works of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka, Anne Rice
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsTranslated by PEN translation award-winner Joachim Neugroschel, The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and Other Stories has garnered critical acclaim and is widely recognized as the preeminent English-language anthology of Kafka's stories. These translations illuminate one of this century's most controversial writers and have made Kafka's work accessible to a whole new generation...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics -
Three Souls by Janie Chang
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAn absorbing novel of romance and revolution, loyalty and family, sacrifice and undying loveWe have three souls, or so I'd been told. But only in death could I confirm this ... So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife...Categorized as:
literary-fiction magical-realism poc-mc 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult afterlife -
Lost Acre by Andrew Caldecott
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWynter is here . . .Geryon Wynter has returned to Rotherweird and has not only taken over the town but is busy destroying the countrysiders' life too. Can our small band of heroes find a way to outwit a genius whose master plan is five centuries in the making? Watch this space . .Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book epic -
The Erstwhile by Brian Catling
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn London and Germany, strange beings are reanimating themselves. They are the Erstwhile, the angels that failed to protect the Tree of Knowledge, and their reawakening will have major consequences. In Africa, the colonial town of Essenwald has fallen into disarray because the timber workforce has disappeared into the Vorrh. Now a team of specialists are dispatched to find them... -
Angel of the West Window by Gustav Meyrink
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsnovel of Elizabethan magus John Dee, tr M... -
Lungdon: Book Three by Edward Carey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe delightfully macabre, astonishingly original trilogy reaches its thrilling conclusionThe dirt town of Foulsham has been destroyed, its ashes still smoldering. Darkness lies heavily over the city, the sun has not come up for days, and inside the houses of people throughout the capital, ordinary objects have begun to move. Strange new people run through the darkened streets...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism alternate-history book children-books dystopia fiction gothic -
The Paper Grail by James P. Blaylock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCurator Howard Barton goes to Mendocino, California, to get a 19th-century woodcut sketch for his museum back home. But other, rather strange, people want the sketch for their own dubious purposes. Now Howard's caught in the middle of a secret war that somehow involves a piece of paper that is much more than it seems... -
The Dragon Coin by Aiden James
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsASIN B00DPVP5ME moved to the most recent edition with new title Immortal DragonFree of the threat of Viktor Kaslow, William Barrow (aka Judas Iscariot) is tantalizingly close to finally having the life he has dreamed of with Beatrice and Alistair. A life blessed with youthful optimism and renewed companionship—things he once feared were forever lost. But such optimism is short lived... -
Rootwork by Tracy Cross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSet in a small parish in Louisiana in 1889, Rootwork follows sisters, Betty, Ann and Pee Wee. When school lets out for the summer, the girls head off to stay with their hoodoo-practicing aunt, Theodora, an empowered woman equally feared and revered by the local townspeople. They learn how to make “hot foot powder” and the secrets of a good “black cat bone”...Categorized as:
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The Arrival of Missives by Aliya Whiteley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsThe Arrival of Missives is a genre-defying story of fate, free-will and the choices we make in life. In the aftermath of the Great War, Shirley Fearn dreams of challenging the conventions of rural England, where life is as predictable as the changing of the seasons. The scarred veteran Mr...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism adult anthologies coming-of-age female-mc feminism -
The Third Section by Jasper Kent
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRussia 1855. After forty years of peace in Europe, war rages. In the Crimea, the city of Sevastopol is besieged. In the north, Saint Petersburg is blockaded. But in Moscow there is one who needs only to sit and wait - wait for the death of an aging tsar, and for the curse upon his blood to be passed to a new generation...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism adult alternate-history book dark dark-fantasy espionage -
Jasmine Nights by S.P. Somtow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSet in 1963, this kaleidoscopic boy's-eye-view of a turbulent time in history is a story about the American civil rights movement, the Kennedy assassination, growing up in the '60s, the Thai aristocracy--and a 12-year-old boy's search for his place in a modern world. His adventure is a joyous testament to the resiliency and implicit goodness of the human spirit...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure book coming-of-age fiction historical -
The Goat Foot God by Dion Fortune
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe mediaeval mind of the man returned from the dead knew no half-lights or compromise in the doctrines of sin and hell. According to all the standards ofhis world, he had sold his soul to the Devil and an eternity of hell-fire awaited him.'She gazed back at him. The minutes were slipping away one after the other. A town clock chimed the hour... -
A Spectral Hue by Craig Laurance Gidney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor generations, the marsh-surrounded town of Shimmer, Maryland has played host to a loose movement of African-American artists, all working in different media, but all utilizing the same haunting color... -
Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams, Not Yet Available
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA thrilling gothic horror novel about biracial twin sisters separated at birth, perfect for fans of Lovecraft Country and The Vanishing Half As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line... -
Armed In Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn 1328, Bruges is under siege by the Chatelaine of Hell and her army of chimeras -- humans mixed with animals or armour, forged in the deep fires of the Hellbeast. At night, revenants crawl over the walls and bring plague and grief to this city of widows.Margriet de Vos learns she's a widow herself when her good-for-nothing husband comes home dead from the war. He didn't come back for her... -
Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor fans of Caraval and The Night Circus, this decadent and darkly enchanting YA fantasy, set against the backdrop of a Belle Époque-inspired hotel, follows seventeen-year-old Jani as she uncovers the deeply disturbing secrets of the legendary Hotel Magnifique. All her life, Jani has dreamed of Elsewhere... -
Where They Burn Books, They Also Burn People by Marcos Antonio Hernandez
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTwo standalone books with alternating chapters—the way the combination is meant to be read.They’re devoted to God. But will doing the Lord’s work lead them into darkness?1549. Convinced he’s destined to fulfill a whispered prophecy, Friar Diego de Landa labors to convert the Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula...Categorized as:
literary-fiction poc-mc magical-realism historical-fiction fiction horror historical latinx-mc -
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNot Wanted on the Voyage is the story of the great flood and the first time the world ended, filed with an extraordinary cast of remarkable characters. With pathos and pageantry, desperation and hope, magic and mythology, this acclaimed novel weaves its unforgettable spell...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult animals book classics -
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Anima Rising by Christopher Moore
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom New York Times bestselling author Christopher Moore comes a hilariously deranged tale of a mad scientist, a famous painter, and an undead woman’s electrifying journey of self-discovery.Vienna, 1911. Gustav Klimt, the most famous painter in the Austrian Empire, the darling of Viennese society, spots a woman’s nude body in the Danube canal...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction low-fantasy fantasy fiction historical-fiction humor audiobook -
House Taken Over by Julio Cortázar
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratings"Casa Tomada" (English: "House Taken Over") is a 1946 short story by Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. It was originally published in Los anales de Buenos Aires, a literary magazine edited by Jorge Luis Borges, and later included in his volume of stories, Bestiario.It tells the story of a brother and sister living together in their ancestral home which is being "taken over" by unknown entities...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction fiction classics horror politics university fantasy -
The Book of Lost Saints: A Cuban American Family Saga of Love, Betrayal, and Revolution by Daniel José Older
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsAn evocative multigenerational Cuban American family story of revolution, loss, violence, and family bondsMarisol vanished during the Cuban Revolution, her fate unknown and lost to time. Now, haunted by atrocities long-forgotten, her foul-mouthed spirit visits her nephew, Ramon, in modern-day New Jersey... -
Descent into Hell by Charles Williams
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe key to Williams' mystically oriented theological thought, Descent into Hell (arguably Williams' greatest novel) is a multidimensional story about human beings who shut themselves up in their own narcissistic projections, so that they are no longer able to love, to 'co-inhere.' The result is a veritable hell...Categorized as:
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Saints and Strangers by Angela Carter
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAn alternate cover edition can be found here.Black Venus (also published as Saints and Strangers), is an anthology of short fiction. Angela Carter takes real people and literary legends - most often women - who have been mythologized or marginalized and recasts them in a new light...Categorized as:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult anthologies classics dark -
The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA girl visits a bazaar in Cairo, seeking a favor from a mysterious angelic being.This story first appeared in the anthology Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt...
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