Books like 'The Worst Witch'
Readers who enjoyed The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy action / adventure 20th century supernatural urban fantasy magic paranormal witches-wizards classics
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Warbound by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsNew York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author's gritty urban fantasy set in an alternate noir 1930s. A tough P.I. battles an interdimensional monster that wants to suck magic power out of the world. Sequel to Hard Magic and Spellbound. Book Three in the Grimnoir Chronicles... -
A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows by Diana Gabaldon
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAvailable for the first time as an exclusive eBook in this original Outlander novella, Diana Gabaldon reveals what really happened to Roger MacKenzie Wakefield’s parents. Orphaned during World War II, Roger believed that his mother died during the London Blitz, and that his father, an RAF pilot, was killed in combat. But in An Echo in the Bone, Roger discovers that this may not be the whole story... -
The Lady Has a Past by Amanda Quick
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBeauty and glamour meet deception and revenge in this electrifying novel by New York Times bestselling author Amanda Quick.Investigative apprentice Lyra Brazier, the newest resident of Burning Cove, is unsettled when her boss suddenly goes on a health retreat at an exclusive spa and disappears without another word... -
Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDon’t miss this spin-off from Allie Therin's acclaimed Magic in Manhattan universe! Their scandalous pasts have left them wounded and unworthy—and hopelessly perfect together. London, 1925Sebastian de Leon is adjusting to life after three years spent enthralled by blood magic...Categorized as:
humor magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
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The Long Chain by Dan Willis
Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsWhen New York is blanketed in an unnatural fog, Private Detective Alex Lockerby finds himself on the trail of a missing scientist, a stolen military secret, and a merciless killer leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.In a city the size of New York, things go missing all the time. When a Nobel-Prize winning Chemist vanishes without a trace, his granddaughter taps Alex to find him...Categorized as:
paranormal witches-wizards 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book dieselpunk -
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsDoro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex--or design. He fears no one--until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu has also died many times. She can absorb bullets and make medicine with a kiss, give birth to tribes, nurture and heal, and savage anyone who threatens those she loves. She fears no one--until she meets Doro... -
Carbonel: The King of the Cats by Barbara Sleigh
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsBack in print in the U.S. for the first time in over 30 years.Rosemary's plan to clean houses during her summer break and surprise her mother with the money hits a snag when an old lady at the market talks her into buying a second-rate broom and a cat she can't even afford to keep. But appearances can be deceiving... -
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsHer story begins on a train.The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor’s Ball in Tokyo...Categorized as:
paranormal 20th-century action-adventure alpha-mc alternate-history assassins audiobook book -
Nevernever by Will Shetterly
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWitty, gritty, heart-felt and action-packed, the companion to Elsewhere is a deft fantasy about what it means to be human... -
The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsChava is a golem, a woman made of clay, able to hear the thoughts and longings of the people around her and compelled by her nature to help them. Ahmad is a jinni, a perpetually restless and free-spirited creature of fire, imprisoned in the shape of a man...Categorized as:
magic myths paranormal 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWith the Brotherhood persecuting witches like never before, a divided Sisterhood desperately needs Cate to come into her Prophesied powers. And after Cate's friend Sachi is arrested for using magic, a war-thirsty Sister offers to help her find answers—if Cate is willing to endanger everyone she loves...Categorized as:
boarding-school family friendship magic paranormal witches-wizards 20th-century action-adventure -
Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 54 ratingsFifteen-year-old Oscar Drai meets the strange Marina while he's exploring an old quarter of Barcelona. She leads Oscar to a cemetery, where they watch a macabre ritual that occurs on the last Sunday of each month. At exactly ten o'clock in the morning, a woman shrouded in a black velvet cloak descends from her carriage to place a single rose on an unmarked grave...Categorized as:
classics coming-of-age friendship paranormal 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book -
The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsNicola Marter was born with a gift. When she touches an object, she sometimes glimpses those who have owned it before. When a woman arrives with a small wooden carving at the gallery Nicola works at, she can see the object’s history and knows that it was named after the Firebird—the mythical creature from an old Russian fable... -
Hard Magic by Larry Correia
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsJake Sullivan is a licensed Private Eye—with a seriously hardboiled attitude. He also possesses raw magical talent and the ability to make objects in his vicinity light as a feather or as heavy as depleted uranium, all with a magical thought. It's no wonder the G-men turn to Jake when they need someone to go after a suspected killer who's been knocking off banks in a magic-enhanced crime spree...Categorized as:
humor magic paranormal witches-wizards 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
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A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsIn this companion volume to A Wrinkle In Time (Newbery Award winner) and A Wind In The Door fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace and the unicorn Gaudior undertake a perilous journey through time in a desperate attempt to stop the destruction of the world by the mad dictator Madog Branzillo. They are not alone in their quest...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age family magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure -
The Mind's Eye by K.C. Finn
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA girl with a telepathic gift finds a boy clinging to his last hope during the war-torn climate of Europe, 1940. At fifteen, Kit Cavendish is one the oldest evacuees to escape London at the start of the Second World War due to a long term illness that sees her stuck in a wheelchair most of the time...Categorized as:
coming-of-age paranormal 20th-century action-adventure book disability fiction historical -
The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSomeone is killing Britain's warlocks.Twenty-two years after the Second World War, a precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Great Britain and the USSR. For decades, the warlocks have been all that stand between the British Empire and the Soviet Union-- a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel...Categorized as:
magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook -
Starcrossed by Allie Therin
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen everything they’ve built is threatened, only their bond remains…New York, 1925Psychometric Rory Brodigan’s life hasn’t been the same since the day he met Arthur Kenzie. Arthur’s continued quest to contain supernatural relics that pose a threat to the world has captured Rory’s imagination—and his heart...Categorized as:
magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure adult age-gap alternate-history audiobook -
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 76 ratingsThis second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age friendship magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
The Wolf's Hour by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsD-Day is threatened, but one man could rip the heart of the Nazis -- with his bare claws....He is Michael Gallatin, master spy, lover -- and werewolf. Able to change shape with lightning speed, to kill silently or with savage, snarling fury, he proved his talents against Rommel in Africa. Now he faces his most delicate, dangerous mission: to unravel the secret Nazi plan known as Iron Fist...Categorized as:
paranormal 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book dark -
The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIt’s 1952 and the Scott family has just moved from Los Angeles to London. Here, fourteen-year-old Janie meets a mysterious apothecary and his son, Benjamin Burrows—a fascinating boy who’s not afraid to stand up to authority and dreams of becoming a spy...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age friendship magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure alchemy -
Wonderstruck by Allie Therin
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsDon’t miss the stunning conclusion to Allie Therin’s Magic in Manhattan series! New York, 1925 Arthur Kenzie is on a mission: to destroy the powerful supernatural relic that threatens Manhattan—and all the nonmagical minds in the world. So far his search has been fruitless. All it has done is keep him from the man he loves... -
The Plastic Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg returns to the enchanting world of The Paper Magician.Alvie Brechenmacher has arrived in London to begin her training in Polymaking—the magical discipline of bespelling plastic. Polymaking is the newest form of magic, and in a field where there is so much left to learn, every Polymaker dreams of making the next big discovery... -
Duncton Wood by William Horwood
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBracken was born on an April night in a warm dark burrow deep in the historic system of Duncton Wood, six moleyears after Rebecca. This is the story of their love, and their epic struggle to find it.The moles of Duncton Wood are a varied lot. There are the aggressive Westsiders, the secretive and sickly Marchenders and the independent Eastsiders... -
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Declare by Tim Powers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAs a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, in 1963, he will be forced to confront again the nightmare that has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named Declare...Categorized as:
magic myths paranormal retellings 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history -
The Witch’s Lens by Luanne G. Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsAs World War I rages, there are evils—both living and dead—that only a witch can see in a spellbinding novel by the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of The Raven Spell.With her husband off fighting at World War I’s eastern front, Petra Kurková embraces her fleeting freedom, roaming the city at night with her camera...Categorized as:
paranormal witches-wizards magic myths retellings fantasy historical-fiction fiction -
Necessary Evil by Ian Tregillis
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings12 May 1940. Westminster, London, England: the early days of World War II.Again.Raybould Marsh, one of "our" Britain's best spies, has travelled to another Earth in a desperate attempt to save at least one timeline from the Cthulhu-like monsters who have been observing our species from space and have already destroyed Marsh's timeline...Categorized as:
paranormal 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book -
The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJohnny Dixon doesn't believe that the ghost of mad Father Baart haunts the town church. But then he takes an old scroll and a seemingly harmless figurine from the church basement, accepts a magic ring from a mysterious stranger--and is plunged into a terrifying adventure that may cost him his life...Categorized as:
children classics magic paranormal witches-wizards 20th-century action-adventure book -
Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsUpon discovering that she has the gift of Second Sight, Blossom also learns that whether glimpsing the future or traveling into the past, one is powerless to alter history... -
The Angel Chronicles, Vol. 1 by Nancy Holder
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAfter a century of killing without a care, the vampire Angelus was cursed with a conscience and eventually fled to Sunnydale, where he restricted his feeding to blood banks.Until 16-year-old Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer, arrived in town to battle vampires, demons and the Forces of Darkness. First, he has to convince her not to kill him... -
Dagger Magic by Katherine Kurtz, Deborah Turner Harris
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAdam Sinclair, the Adept, faces mankind's most dire threat--a cult older than Christianity, with the power to resurrect a new, demonic Third Reich... -
Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsMercedes Lackey's magical Elemental Masters series recasts familiar fairy tales in a richly-imagined alternate Victorian worldEleanor Robinson’s life had shattered when Father volunteered for the Great War, leaving her alone with a woman he had just married...Categorized as:
family magic paranormal retellings witches-wizards 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history -
The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsNicholas Valiarde is a passionate, embittered nobleman with an enigmatic past. Consumed by thoughts of vengeance, he is consoled only by thoughts of the beautiful, dangerous Madeline. He is also the greatest thief in all of Ile-Rien..Categorized as:
magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book dark -
Spellbound by Allie Therin
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTo save Manhattan, they’ll have to save each other first… 1925New YorkArthur Kenzie’s life’s work is protecting the world from the supernatural relics that could destroy it. When an amulet with the power to control the tides is shipped to New York, he must intercept it before it can be used to devastating effects...Categorized as:
family magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure adult age-gap alternate-history -
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The Serpent's Shadow by Mercedes Lackey
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsMercedes Lackey returns to form in The Serpent's Shadow, the fourth in her sequence of reimagined fairy tales. This story takes place in the London of 1909, and is based on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs...Categorized as:
animals magic myths paranormal retellings 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history -
Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratings“If you build it, he will come.” These mysterious words inspire Ray Kinsella to create a cornfield baseball diamond in honor of his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson. What follows is a rich, nostalgic look at one of our most cherished national pastimes and a remarkable story about fathers and sons, love and family, and the inimitable joy of finding your way home... -
The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBeauty Meets Beast in San FranciscoAccepting employment as a governess after hard times hit her family, medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins is surprised when she learns that her mysterious employer has no children, no wife, and she is not to meet with him face to face. Instead, her duties are to read to him, through a speaking tube, from ancient manuscripts in obscure, nearly-forgotten dialects... -
Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsArriving in the English countryside to live with her mother and new stepfather, Jenny has no interest in her surroundings, until she meets Tamsin. Since her death over 300 years ago, Tamsin has haunted the lonely estate without rest, trapped by a hidden trauma she can't remember, and a powerful evil even the spirits of night cannot name... -
The Apprentices by Maile Meloy
Rated: 4.02 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsTwo years have passed since Janie Scott last saw Benjamin Burrows, the mysterious apothecary’s defiant son who stole her heart. On the other side of the world, Benjamin and his father are treating the sick and wounded in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. But Benjamin has also been experimenting with a magical new formula that allows him to communicate with Janie across the globe...Categorized as:
boarding-school children coming-of-age family friendship magic paranormal 20th-century -
Arcadia by Iain Pears
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn Cold War England, Professor Henry Lytten, having renounced a career in espionage, is writing a fantasy novel that dares to imagine a world less fraught than his own...Categorized as:
magic paranormal 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
Silence for the Dead by Simone St. James
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1919, Kitty Weekes, pretty, resourceful, and on the run, falsifies her background to obtain a nursing position at Portis House, a remote hospital for soldiers left shell-shocked by the horrors of the Great War. Hiding the shame of their mental instability in what was once a magnificent private estate, the patients suffer from nervous attacks and tormenting dreams... -
The Secret Horses of Briar Hill by Megan Shepherd
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThere are winged horses that live in the mirrors of Briar Hill hospital. In the mirrors that line its grand hallways, which once belonged to a princess. In those that reflect the elegant rooms, now filled with sick children. It is her secret... -
Half Magic by Edward Eager
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsFour children wish on a Half Magic coin that gets their mother Alison half-way home, rescued by Mr Smith. Mark's wish zaps them to a desert without island, where half-talking cat Carrie gabbles to a camel. Romantic Katherine battles Launcelot. Eldest Jane rejects siblings for another family. Stubborn youngest, Martha, causes a riot downtown... -
The Woven Path by Robin Jarvis
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Woven Path is the first book in the compelling Wyrd Museum trilogy. All readers will be drawn in by the gripping storytelling of Robin Jarvis, where the fantastical elements combine with the seriously chilling. In a grimy alley in the East End of London stands the Wyrd Museum, cared for by the stranger Webster sisters -- and scene of even stranger events...Categorized as:
children coming-of-age myths retellings 20th-century action-adventure book children-books -
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The Satanic Mill: Evil Lurks Within by Otfried Preußler
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn seventeenth-century Germany, a boy desperately wants to escape from a school for Black Magic where he is held captive by demonic forces...Categorized as:
children classics coming-of-age magic paranormal 20th-century action-adventure audiobook -
Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsMeet Fritti Tailchaser, a ginger tom cat of rare courage and curiosity, a born survivor in a world of heroes and villains, of powerful feline gods and whiskery legends about those strange furless, erect creatures called M’an.“The hour of Unfolding Dark had begun, and the rooftop where Tailchaser lay was smothered in shadow... -
Written in the Blood by Stephen Lloyd Jones
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Chilling . . . A neo-gothic treat; original, richly imagined, and powerfully told." --The Guardian (UK) for The String Diaries See the girl. Leah Wilde is twenty-four, a runaway on a black motorbike, hunting for answers while changing her identity with each new Central European town... -
Ten Little Wizards: A Lord Darcy Novel by Michael Kurland
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLord Darcy and Master Wizard Sean O Lauchlainn return in this authorized sequel to the stories of Randall Garrett. In 1988, in an alternate universe in which the Plantagenets still rule Britain, France, and the New World, and where magic has displaced science, King John IV's chief detectives are called in to investigate a series of impossible murders of accomplished sorcerers...Categorized as:
paranormal 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book espionage fiction -
Jovah's Angel by Sharon Shinn
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThis is a standalone sequel to Archangel, set 150 years later in proverbially interesting times. Samaria is industrialized; the Manadavvi and Jansai are wealthier; the Edori are marginalized, their roaming lifestyle disrupted; and Jovah seems to be turning a deaf ear to his angels' prayers for abatement of increasingly destructive storms... -
Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn 1910, in an alternate London, a penniless young dancer is visited by a cat who communicates with her mind to mind. Though she is certain she must be going mad, she is desperate enough to follow the cat's advice and impersonates a famous Russian ballerina. The cat, it turns out, is actually an Elemental Earth Spirit, and leads her to minor stardom...Categorized as:
animals cats magic paranormal retellings 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history
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