Books like 'The Erstwhile'
Readers who enjoyed The Erstwhile by Brian Catling also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical fantasy horror dark fantasy historical-fiction magical-realism literary-fiction gothic religion body-horror
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The Raven and Other Poems and Tales by Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe, Daniel Alan Green
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsEdgar Allan Poe shaped the development of both the detective story and science-fiction genres and his poems remain among the favourites of American literature. This illustrated collection contains familiar and popular tales and poems including, The House of Usher and The Pit and the Pendulum...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction animals anthologies audiobook classics -
Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun by Guillermo del Toro, Cornelia Funke
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsFans of dark fairy-tales like The Hazel Wood and The Cruel Prince will relish this atmospheric and absorbing book based on Guillermo del Toro’s critically acclaimed movie...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book -
For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsA Tor.com original, Siobhan Carroll's For He Can Creep is a dark fantasy story of poetry, devilry, and cats in a battle of good vs. evil for the fate of humanity. Nineteenth century poet Christopher Smart has been committed to St. Luke's Hospital for Lunatics believing God has commissioned him to write The Divine Poem...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism religion spirituality adult animals -
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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism adult book cozy dark-fantasy female-mc -
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The Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Shadow over Innsmouth is a horror novella by H. P. Lovecraft. It forms part of the Cthulhu Mythos, using its motif of a malign undersea civilization. It references several shared elements of the Mythos, including place-names, mythical creatures and invocations...Categorized as:
dark gothic literary-fiction religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Bound By Blood: Volume 1 (Bound By Blood, #1) by Shane K.P. O'Neill
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“A war rages on around us every day. The struggle to save all mankind. The ultimate evil.”As his moment of death looms Dracula suffers the ultimate betrayal. The champion of the Catholic faith in Eastern Europe realises it is Lucifer who is coming to claim him. However, Lucifer does not want his soul. Instead he bites into Dracula’s neck and then offers his own blood to drink... -
The People's Will by Jasper Kent
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPart historical adventure, part vampire thriller -- the fourth dark and dazzling novel in Jasper Kent's 'Danilov Quintet'. Turkmenistan 1881: Beneath the citadel of Geok Tepe sits a prisoner. He hasn't moved from his chair for two years, hasn't felt the sun on his face in more than fifty, but he is thankful for that. The city is besieged by Russian troops and soon falls...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction magical-realism action-adventure adult alternate-history book dark-fantasy -
For Whom The Bell Tolls by Shane K.P. O'Neill
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA WAR RAGES AROUND US EVERY DAY. THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE ALL MANKIND. THE ULTIMATE EVIL. The battle for souls has raged since the truce that followed the First Great War of the Angels. God has struck the ultimate blow and sacrifice to gain the advantage and defeat His fallen angel and estranged son, Lucifer... -
Tempting Fate by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEurope 1920s. Fifth [published] in the Saint-Germain series, Tempting Fate finds the count as guardian to a Russian war orphan during the Russian Revolution and the end of World War I... -
The Great Change by Joe Abercrombie
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Great Change (and Other Lies) is a novella-length collection that gathers four short stories related to Joe Abercrombie's The Age of Madness, featuring old friends and new: from smugglers to kings, from diamond-cutters to dress-makers, from the most apparently insignificant of slaves to the most feared man in the Union, Old Sticks himself...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction fantasy fiction high-fantasy anthologies dark-fantasy grim-dark -
Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsBefore Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales. Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. The origins of the first ymbryne... -
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 69 ratingsA boy with extraordinary powers. An army of deadly monsters. An epic battle for the future of peculiardom.The adventure that began with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and continued in Hollow City comes to a thrilling conclusion with Library of Souls...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book children -
A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe #1 bestselling series returns with a thrilling new story arc set in America!Vintage photographs reveal the never-before-seen world of peculiar America with a stunning addition—full-color images.Having defeated the monstrous threat that nearly destroyed the peculiar world, Jacob Portman is back where his story began, in Florida...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book -
The Willows by Algernon Blackwood
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsTwo friends are midway on a canoe trip down the Danube River. Throughout the story Blackwood personifies the surrounding environment—river, sun, wind—and imbues them with a powerful and ultimately threatening character...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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Night Winds by Karl Edward Wagner
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsKANE - The Mystic Swordsman ranges Earth and Time to confront the demons of darknessWhere once the mighty Kane has passed, no one who lives forgets. Now, down the trail of past battles, Kane travels again. To the ruins of a devastated city peopled only with half-men and the waif they call their queen... -
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:
historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism religion spirituality 20th-century adult anthologies -
Providence Girls by Morgan Dante
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsLove changes you. So do the Outer Gods.Now: Alone in a cottage, Lavinia writes to the woman she loved.Fifteen years ago: Middle-aged Lavinia Whateley escapes her hilly Massachusetts town when the townsfolk decide to sacrifice her on Halloween. After almost dying in the woods, she's saved and housed by the stoic and mysterious Asenath Waite, or Azzie... -
Blood Games by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis is a tale of love and horror set during the last chaotic days of Nero's Rome - a time marked by excesses of high living, cruel violence and intricate political intrigue... -
The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack: 40 Modern and Classic Lovecraftian Stories by John Gregory Betancourt, H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThis volume assembles no less than 40 stories set in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Ranging from Lovecraft's own tales (including classics such as the novel At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Colour Out of Space) to works by his friends and contemporaries (Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E... -
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... -
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...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism audiobook black-mc book dark-fantasy -
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratings"The City Beautiful is the haunting, queer Jewish historical thriller of my darkest dreams." —Dahlia Adler, creator of LGBTQ Reads and editor of That Way Madness LiesDeath lurks around every corner in this unforgettable Jewish historical fantasy about a city, a boy, and the shadows of the past that bind them both together. Chicago, 1893... -
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsThe dead of Loraille do not rest.Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living. She would rather deal with the dead than the living, who trade whispers about her scarred hands and troubled past...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction religion spirituality action-adventure audiobook book -
The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsOne of the feature stories of the Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft's 'the Call of Cthulhu' is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world...Categorized as:
dark gothic literary-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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The Best of Robert E. Howard: Crimson Shadows (Volume 1) by Robert E. Howard
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsRobert E. Howard is one of the most famous and influential pulp authors of the twentieth century. Though largely known as the man who invented the sword-and-sorcery genre-and for his iconic hero Conan the Cimmerian-Howard also wrote horror tales, desert adventures, detective yarns, epic poetry, and more...Categorized as:
dark gothic literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies classics dark-fantasy -
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe Night Gardener follows two abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling English manor house. But the house and its family are not quite what they seem. Soon the children are confronted by a mysterious spectre and an ancient curse that threatens their very lives...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book -
The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsPeter Straub called Robert Aickman 'this century's most profound writer of what we call horror stories'. Aickman's 'strange stories' (his preferred term for them) are a subtle exploration of psychological displacement and paranoia. His characters are ordinary people that are gradually drawn into the darker recesses of their own minds...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook -
The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratings"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.The story is narrated by the scion of the Delapore family, who has moved from Massachusetts to his ancestral estate in England, known as Exham Priory. On several occasions, the protagonist and his cats hear the sounds of rats scurrying behind the walls...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction 20th-century adult animals anthologies -
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThis is the story of a bear-hearted girl . . .Sometimes, when a person dies, their spirit goes looking for somewhere to hide. Some people have space within them, perfect for hiding. Twelve-year-old Makepeace has learned to defend herself from the ghosts which try to possess her in the night, desperate for refuge, but one day a dreadful event causes her to drop her guard...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure animals audiobook -
Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman, Steve West
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratings[MP3CD audiobook format in vinyl case.] Another inventive novel of epic terror by the acclaimed author of Those Across the River In the darkest days of the Dark Ages, the people of France faced both the Black Plague and desperate gangs of men who wandered the depopulated countryside looting and raping. Tomas, a disgraced knight, is one of these men... -
The War Hound and the World's Pain by Michael Moorcock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 13 ratings"The forest flourished, a lush and spreading refuge from the Wars, coolly green and welcoming. Beyond its borders the land burned flame red, blood red, ghastly black. Men and women, hacked to death, choked the paths and streams as the Armies of Religion clashed and slaughtered. Carrion-hung gibbets loomed starkly through the smoke and all the land was desolate. The forest was a refuge...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction literary-fiction religion spirituality adult alternate-history book -
Revelator by Daryl Gregory
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of Spoonbenders comes the gripping tale of a family's mysterious religion, and the daughter who turns her back on their god. In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism religion spirituality adult -
The Tale Of The Vampire Bride by Rhiannon Frater
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAll I ever wanted was the freedom to live life as I pleased, despite my aristocratic parents’ hopes I’d secure a prestigious husband. But my fate was far more terrible than an arranged marriage when my family became prisoners to one of the most fearsome and powerful vampires of all time, Count Vlad Dracula... -
Hellmouth by Giles Kristian
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBohemia. 1370. A lost soul named Galien leads a band of hardened mercenaries on a mission for Mother Church. But in the dark forests of central Europe, a darker secret awaits. Bestselling author Giles Kristian (Lancelot, The Raven Viking Trilogy) takes us on an unnerving ride into fear and paranoia, bloodshed and redemption... -
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The Palace by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrancesco Ragoczy da San Germano, the immortal vampire, seeks only to hide himself in his Florentine palace. But after falling for Estasia, a cousin of Botticelli, the wealthy foreigner loses all his desire for isolation. Her unquenchable passion more than matches his -- and San Germano must have her. While happiness seems imminent, danger lurks around the corner... -
Dracula the Undead by Freda Warrington
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe legend returns . . . - It is seven years since a stake was driven through the heart of the infamous Count Dracula. Seven years which have not eradicated the terrible memories for Jonathan and Mina Harker, who now have a young son. To lay their memories to rest they return to Transylvania, and can find no trace of the horrific events... -
The Delicate Dependency: A Novel of the Vampire Life by Michael Talbot, Thomas Walker
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEver since Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire has evolved from the ferocious blood-sucking fiend as portrayed in the penny dreadfuls such as Varney the Vampyre into a strangely alluring, erotic figure promising eternal life. But, it’s eternal life with a horrifying price attached, the overwhelming need to feast on the blood of the living... -
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsIn America, demons wear white hoods.In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction literary-fiction magical-realism adult alternate-history audiobook -
To Charles Fort, with Love by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTo Charles Fort, with Love is award-winning fantasist Caitlín R. Kiernan's third collection of short fiction, a haunting parade of the terrible things which may lie beyond the boundaries of science, the minds which may exist beyond psychology, and the forbidden places which will never be located in any orthodox globe... -
Before the Devil Knows You're Here by Autumn Krause
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA deliciously dark folk horror for fans of Maggie Stiefvater and Erin Craig, blending the tall tales of Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan with Faustian elements, and centering a fierce Mexican-American poet on a quest to rescue her brother.1836. Wisconsin Territory. All Catalina has left is her little brother—Mama died years ago, and Papa was buried just yesterday...Categorized as:
historical-fiction gothic magical-realism dark horror fantasy young-adult historical -
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:
dark historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism adult alternate-history book dark-fantasy -
Boy in Darkness and Other Stories by Mervyn Peake, Joanne Harris
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA must-have for fans of the Gormenghast books, this anthology constitutes a chapter in the life of Titus Groan that unfolds beyond the pages of the author's monumental trilogy. Disturbingly atmospheric, these stories are told with the force and simplicity of allegory. This special volume includes rare stories as well as some never-before-seen illustrations... -
A Rope of Thorns by Gemma Files
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsYOU MUST LET BLOOD TO GET BLOODNew Mexico, 1867. As consort to resurrected Mayan goddess Ixchel, hexslinger Reverend Asher Rook has founded Hex City, the first place in all of human history where magicians can live and work together safely...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism adult alternate-history audiobook book -
Better in the Dark by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHere at last is a long-hinted-at chapter in the undead existence of the immortal Count Saint-Germain: the story of Ranegonda of Saxony, one of the three great loves of Saint-Germian's life.937 A.D. The Saxon fortress of Leosan is under the almost unheard-of rule of a woman... -
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All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLong ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the Mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book -
All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLong ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the Mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book -
Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThey took his daughter, so Micah comes to take their kingdom. Fifty thousand gun-toting paladins march behind him, all baptized in angel blood, thirsty to burn unbelievers.Only the janissaries can stand against them. Their living legend, Kevah, once beheaded a magus amid a hail of ice daggers. But ever since his wife disappeared, he spends his days in a haze of hashish and poetry...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction literary-fiction action-adventure adult book dark-fantasy epic -
The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsTwo sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found--but she's still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book -
Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry, her sister seems scared of her, and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out...Categorized as:
dark gothic historical-fiction low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure audiobook book -
Children of the Vampire by Jeanne Kalogridis
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is Amsterdam, 1871, twenty-five years before the start of Stoker's novel, and twenty-five years following Arkady Tsepesh's flight from his family's ancestral castle with his wife and young son, Stefan, after learning that he and his family are bound by an ancient covenant to serve their ancestor, Prince Vlad Tsepesh, who is also known as Dracula...
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