Books like 'The Shortest Day'
Readers who enjoyed The Shortest Day by Colm Tóibín also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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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... -
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. . .Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism myths 21st-century abuse adult -
What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsGhost hunter, fox whisperer, troublemaker.It is the summer of 2013 and Abigail Kamara has been left to her own devices. This might, by those who know her, be considered a mistake. While her cousin, police constable and apprentice wizard Peter Grant, is off in the sticks, chasing unicorns, Abigail is chasing her own mystery...Categorized as:
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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 paranormal historical-fiction mystery fiction horror classics -
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The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsThe complete volume of Robertson Davies's acclaimed trilogy, featuring Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders, with a new foreword by Kelly Link Fifth Business Ramsay is a man twice born, a man who has returned from the hell of the battle-grave at Passchendaele in World War I decorated with the Victoria Cross and destined to be caught in a no man's land where memory, history, and... -
Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe seventh book of the bestselling Rivers of London urban fantasy series returns to the adventures of Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, as he solves magical crimes in the city of London.The Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud, and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run...Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings 21st-century -
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...Categorized as:
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Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIn Tufnell Park, North London, a pair of railway tracks diver under a school, taking train to and from Kings Cross. Wet, filthy, dangerous. Lovely place. And one Sunday before Christmas a sweet (sort of) kid called Abigail took me and my long suffering colleague Lesley May down there to look for a ghost.We found one...Categorized as:
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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... -
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:
historical-fiction magical-realism paranormal ghosts fiction mystery contemporary fantasy -
Charleston Green by Stephanie Alexander
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIf Tipsy Collins learned one thing from her divorce, it's that everyone in Charleston is a little crazy--even if they're already dead.Tipsy, a gifted artist, cannot ignore her nutty friends or her vindictive ex-husband, but as a lifelong reluctant clairvoyant, she's always avoided dead people... -
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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal adult angels audiobook -
Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford, Jaime Zollars
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsWelcome back to the irresistible world of Greenglass House where thirteen-year-old Milo is, once again, spending the winter holidays stuck in a house full of strange guests who are not what they seem. There are fresh clues to uncover as friends old and new join in his search for a mysterious map and a famous smuggler’s lost haul...Categorized as:
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The Red House by Tony Abbott
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCould the road to the afterlife be a two-way street? After diving into Derek's world in books #1 and #2, readers are in for more spooky, sinister adventure in this latest installment.Derek didn't ask for this.It's bad enough that his brother's body is hosting a dead soul. Then there's that whole business of the evil dead waging war... -
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Just South of Home by Karen Strong
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCousins Sarah and Janie unearth a tragic event in their small Southern town’s history in this witty middle grade novel that’s perfect for fans of Stella by Starlight, The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, and As Brave as You.Twelve-year-old Sarah is finally in charge...Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism paranormal action-adventure black-mc book -
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'...Categorized as:
ghosts literary-fiction magical-realism myths paranormal retellings adult anthologies -
The Raconteur's Commonplace Book by Kate Milford, Jaime Zollars
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNothing is what it seems and there's always more than one side to the story as a group of strangers trapped in an inn slowly reveal their secrets...The rain hasn't stopped for a week, and the twelve guests of the Blue Vein Tavern are trapped by flooded roads and the rising Skidwrack River. Among them are a ship’s captain, tattooed twins, a musician, and a young girl traveling on her own... -
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:
ghosts literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary -
The Man in the Moss by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPerfectly preserved in black peat, the Man in the Moss is one of the most fascinating finds of the century. But for the isolated community of Bridelow, his removal is a sinister sign—a danger to the ancient spiritual tradition. In the weeks approaching the Celtic feast of the dead, tragedy strikes again and again in Bridelow...Categorized as:
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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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings adult audiobook -
The Nurse by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Twenty years ago, something very bad happened in this house. But it's over now. I promise.” When Rachel moves to a new house with her mother, she immediately realizes that something isn't quite right. Although she's blind, Rachel can tell that the stories about the house's past don't add up. And slowly, she starts to worry that someone or something from that past might still be around... -
Spouse on Haunted Hill by E.J. Copperman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAlison’s shady ex needs to use her haunted guesthouse as a hideout in the latest from the national bestselling author of Ghost in the Wind.Where Alison Kerby’s ex-husband goes, trouble follows. This time, unfortunately, he’s brought that trouble right to her doorstep. On the run from a business deal gone bad, Steven, aka “the Swine,” owes some scary people a staggering sum of money... -
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... -
The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yovanoff
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom acclaimed YA authors Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff comes The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories.- A vampire locked in a cage in the basement, for good luck.- Bad guys, clever girls, and the various reasons why the guys have to stop breathing.- A world where fires never go out (with references to vanilla ice cream)... -
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The Eagle's Gift by Carlos Castaneda
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCarlos Castaneda takes the reader into the very heart of sorcery, challenging both imagination and reason, shaking the very foundations of our belief in what is "natural" and "logical... -
Malamander by Thomas Taylor
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNobody visits Eerie-on-Sea in the winter...Categorized as:
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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:
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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... -
Hell's Horizon by D.B. Shan, Darren Shan
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsWhen Al Jeery is seconded by The Cardinal from guard duties at Party Central to investigate the murder of a woman at a hotel he little suspects that the dead woman will turn out to be his girlfriend. Soon he is involved in a terrifying mystery...Categorized as:
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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:
ghosts low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings season-winter action-adventure -
Tales From the Hinterland by Melissa Albert
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales by the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country!Journey into the Hinterland, a brutal and beautiful world where a young woman spends a night with Death, brides are wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and an enchantress is killed twice―and still lives... -
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...Categorized as:
paranormal myths magical-realism ghosts historical-fiction retellings low-fantasy mystery -
Last Call by Tim Powers
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsTwenty years ago Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player and went into hiding, after a weird high-stakes game played with Tarot cards. But now the cards - and the supernatural powers behind them - have found him again.Crane's father killed gangster Bugsy Siegel in 1948 to become the Fisher King, and to keep that power he is determined to kill his son...Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings 20th-century -
North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNathan Ballingrud's Shirley Jackson Award winning debut collection is a shattering and luminous experience not to be missed by those who love to explore the darker parts of the human psyche. Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.These are love stories...Categorized as:
ghosts literary-fiction magical-realism myths paranormal retellings 21st-century adult -
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Aunt Dimity: Snowbound by Nancy Atherton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLori Shepherd has been overtaken by the blizzard of the century. Fortunately, she's soon safe and dry in Ladythorne Abbey, the fabulous home of the late Lucasta DeClerke. Or is she? In the abbey's cloisters and passages there still lingers the haunting presence of a mysterious madwoman - not to mention the danger posed by an unstable caretaker... -
Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsLisamarie Hill, the protagonist of Eden Robinson's coming-of-age novel Monkey Beach, is a terror. She'll run out of an evacuating car to get a better view of a tidal wave. She'll drag you unconscious to a deserted island with nothing but cigarettes, marshmallows, and the need to get you talking. Whatever her age, she'll ask awkward questions... -
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:
literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism myths paranormal retellings action-adventure adult -
Tangled Web by Gail Z. Martin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCassidy Kincaide runs Trifles & Folly in modern-day Charleston, an antiques and curios shop with a dangerous secret. Cassidy can read the history of objects by touching them and along with her business partners Teag, who has Weaver magic and Sorren, a 600-year-old vampire, they get rid of cursed objects and keep Charleston and the world safe from supernatural threats... -
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...Categorized as:
ghosts historical-fiction magical-realism paranormal adult audiobook book contemporary -
The Shadow Pavilion by Liz Williams
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDetective Inspector Chen is back! The Snake Agent returns in The Shadow Pavilion, the fourth Detective Inspector Chen novel from Liz Williams. When Chen’s partner, the demon Seneschal Zhu Irzh, disappears, Chen must enlist all of his allies and assets in order to locate him... -
Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsSpace-obsessed 12-year-old Paola Santiago and her two best friends, Emma and Dante, know the rule: Stay away from the river. It's all they've heard since a schoolmate of theirs drowned a year ago...Categorized as:
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Mothman’s Curse by Christine Hayes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Josie and her brothers uncover a haunted camera, the Mothman legend becomes a terrifying reality that threatens their entire town in this spooky and action-filled novel. Josie may live in the most haunted town in America, but the only strange thing she ever sees is the parade of oddball customers that comes through her family's auction house each week...Categorized as:
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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:
ghosts literary-fiction magical-realism paranormal adult anthologies classics contemporary -
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsThe Sentence asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book.A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store...Categorized as:
magical-realism literary-fiction paranormal ghosts historical-fiction low-fantasy north-america usa -
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The Fisherman by John Langan
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true...Categorized as:
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The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsTrier is famous for wine, Romans and for being Germany’s oldest city. So when a man is found dead with his body impossibly covered in a fungal rot, the local authorities know they are out of their depth.Fortunately this is Germany, where there are procedures for everything...Categorized as:
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Winterhouse by Ben Guterson
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAn enchanting urban fantasy middle-grade debut―the first book in a trilogy―set in a magical hotel full of secrets.Orphan Elizabeth Somers’s malevolent aunt and uncle ship her off to the ominous Winterhouse Hotel, owned by the peculiar Norbridge Falls. Upon arrival, Elizabeth quickly discovers that Winterhouse has many charms―most notably its massive library... -
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... -
Ironhand by Charlie Fletcher
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsGeorge makes a promise to Edie that anything and anyone trying to get her will have to get past him first. But George is unaware that high on the rooftops an unseen gargoyle is watching them hungrily. The thing on the roof knows that nothing is over, nothing is finished... -
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:
ghosts literary-fiction magical-realism myths paranormal retellings adult anthologies
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