Books like 'Darling'
Readers who enjoyed Darling by K. Ancrum also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary fantasy mystery urban fantasy horror action / adventure retellings lgbtq wlw poc-mc
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War Hammer by Shayne Silvers
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.Two old dudes want to kill me. Oh, and one of them is my ancestor…And after centuries of practice, they’re pretty good at the whole murder thing. But at least they want to kill each other just as badly.Now, I’ve taken down a Greek Goddess, worn a Horseman’s Mask, and I ride a homicidal unicorn who hates rainbows with a passion... -
The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe last member of a murdered House tries to protect his ward from forced marriage to a monster while uncovering clues to his own tortured past. The Tarot Sequence imagines a modern-day Atlantis off the coast of Massachusetts, governed by powerful Courts based on the traditional Tarot deck... -
Wild Side by Shayne Silvers
Rated: 4.59 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsTo become a Godkiller you have to awaken the monster inside you… Almost a year has passed since Nate’s ex-fiancée woke up a Greek god intent on world domination and war. The problem? He doesn’t know which god. And the promised war hasn’t started yet... -
The One Who Eats Monsters by Casey Matthews
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLong ago, before history broke in half, elder gods exiled the vengeful deity Erynis to a far corner of Earth. When Ryn is found weakened after saving the life of an innocent villager, the U.S. military mistakes the battered immortal for a feral teenager and places her in New Petersburg, a decaying city full of monsters... -
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Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 52 ratingsYadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free... -
Tales from the Gas Station: Volume Two by Jack Townsend
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNightshift clerk and high-functioning insomniac Jack is back to work, trying his best to keep out of trouble. But when his chain-smoking coworker discovers a mysterious radio signal revealing the guarded secrets of their town, Jack will learn that an annoying new dayshift manager is far from the worst of his problems... -
Jon and Mack's Terrifying Tree Troubles by A.J. Sherwood
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsIt’s like a bad game of Telephone.Grant locates a murdered teen in McMinnville. He calls Jon.Jon locates the girl’s ghost. He calls Mack.Mack talks to the ghost who leads them to more ghosts. Who lead them to even more ghosts.And why are all the murder victims buried under trees?The boys are ready for this game to end, please. (Donovan especially... -
Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsThe twelfth installment of the Hugo-nominated, New York Times-bestselling Toby Daye urban fantasy series!Things are not okay.In the aftermath of Amandine's latest betrayal, October "Toby" Daye's fragile self-made family is on the verge of coming apart at the seams... -
Lies Ripped Open by Steve McHugh
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsOver a hundred years have passed since a group of violent killers went on the rampage, murdering innocent victims for fun. But even back then, sorcerer Nate Garrett, aka Hellequin, knew there was more to it than simple savage pleasure—souls were being stolen.Nate’s discovery of the souls’ use, and of those supporting the group’s plan, made him question everything he believed... -
Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Schaeffer
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsAfter escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market.There’s only one way to keep herself safe... -
Daddy Duty by Shayne Silvers
Rated: 4.42 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTwo teenaged weredragons. Two terrible dads. A nest of vampires… Nate Temple and his pal Alucard just want a little piece and quiet after the events of TINY GODS, but it just isn't in the cards for them. Tory leaves town and asks them to watch over the rebellious Reds. But they have other plans.When love is in the air, there is nothing a teenager wouldn't do...Categorized as:
dark myths retellings action-adventure adult alternate-universe anthologies anti-hero -
The Quiet House by Lily Morton
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLevi Black has mostly recovered from the events of a year ago. The only lingering effects are that he’s much more well known in York than he’d like to be, and he’s a lot more cautious about walking around his house naked. However, those events brought him the capricious and fascinating Blue, so he’s not complaining... -
Blood is Thicker by Orlando A. Sanchez
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA Broken Pact. An Ancient Enemy. A Bitter Betrayal. What does a vampire fear more than sunlight? The Cazadoras Sangrientas-Blood Hunters. Michiko Nakatomi has led the Dark Council for over a century, maintaining the uneasy truce between humanity and the supernatural. But when an ancient enemy returns the delicate balance is shattered and vampires start dying... -
A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsWhen October is informed that Simon Torquill—legally her father, due to Faerie's archaic marriage traditions—must be invited to her wedding or risk the ceremony throwing the Kingdom in the Mists into political turmoil, she finds herself setting out on a quest she was not yet prepared to undertake for the sake of her future.... and the man who represents her family's past... -
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When Villains Rise by Rebecca Schaeffer
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsDexter meets Victoria Schwab in this dark and compelling fantasy about a girl who is determined to take down the black market once and for all in the conclusion to the trilogy that started with the critically acclaimed Not Even Bones.Nita finally has Fabricio, the boy who betrayed her to the black market, within her grasp... -
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThe dreamers walk among us . . . and so do the dreamed. Those who dream cannot stop dreaming – they can only try to control it. Those who are dreamed cannot have their own lives – they will sleep forever if their dreamers die.And then there are those who are drawn to the dreamers. To use them. To trap them. To kill them before their dreams destroy us all.Ronan Lynch is a dreamer...Categorized as:
found-family lgbtq poc-mc action-adventure audiobook book contemporary dark-academia -
The Order of Brigid's Cross by Terri Reid
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDetective Sean O’Reilly is called in to interrogate a young boy who is the only witness to a massacre during a gang war. The child’s story is too far-fetched for most of the Chicago Police Force to believe – claims of an army of other-worldly creatures who attacked and dismembered the rival gangs. But Sean O’Reilly believes him, because he’s seen them himself... -
Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsThe great city of Alt Coulumb is in crisis. The moon goddess Seril, long thought dead, is back—and the people of Alt Coulumb aren't happy. Protests rock the city, and Kos Everburning's creditors attempt a hostile takeover of the fire god's church... -
Silver Clouds Dirty Sky by Orlando A. Sanchez
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsLondon Bridge is falling...but it's not their fault...mostly. Montague and Strong have left the building-in fact, they’ve left the continent. When a teleportation circle sends them to London, The Penumbra Consortium-and older, darker version of the Dark Council requests Montague & Strong look into the murder of the leading demonologist, Mage Nigel Warrenton... -
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:
fairy-tale myths retellings action-adventure anthologies audiobook classics contemporary -
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...Categorized as:
dark myths retellings 21st-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook contemporary -
Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsPeter Grant—cop, magical apprentice, and Londoner to the core—is being forced out of his comfort zone and into the English countryside. His latest case involves the disappearance of children in the small village of Herefordshire, and the local police are unwilling to admit there might be a supernatural element involved... -
The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI am a dark spirit, the ghost announced grandly. I am your inheritance, your grandmother’s legacy. I am yours to command.Suraya is delighted when her witch grandmother gifts her a pelesit. She names her ghostly companion Pink, and the two quickly become inseparable... -
In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsThis fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she's found her paradise... -
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An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsChangeling knight in the court of the Duke of Shadowed Hills, October "Toby" Daye has survived numerous challenges that would destroy fae and mortal alike. Now Toby must take on a nightmarish new assignment. Someone is stealing both fae and mortal children—and all signs point to Blind Michael... -
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe second book in the Ghost Roads series returns to the highways of America, where hitchhiking ghost Rose Marshall continues her battle with her killer--the immortal Bobby Cross.Once and twice and thrice around, Put your heart into the ground. Four and five and six tears shed, Give your love unto the dead... -
Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsTwin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.This is the story of what happened first…Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline... -
Imajica by Clive Barker
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsImajica is an epic beyond compare: vast in conception, obsessively detailed in execution, and apocalyptic in its resolution. At its heart lies the sensualist and master art forger, Gentle, whose life unravels when he encounters Judith Odell, whose power to influence the destinies of men is vaster than she knows, and Pie 'oh' pah, an alien assassin who comes from a hidden dimension... -
Cyclops Road by Jeff Strand
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsEvan Portin is at a sad, scary place in his life. While taking a long walk to compose himself and figure out where to go from here, he encounters a young woman being mugged in a park. When he tries to intervene, he discovers that she doesn't need his help. At all. Her name is Harriett. She is very, very good at defending herself. Everything she owns is in a large backpack... -
Slashback by Rob Thurman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsI stopped and let them circle me, first because it was intriguing and, second, because, honestly, what could they do? Only knives, but all armed, and that made them even more interesting. Interesting. Fun.Playtime…Taking on bloodthirsty supernatural monsters is how Caliban and Niko Leandros make a living... -
Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA deliciously dark bubblegum-gothic fairytale from a stunning new Australian talent.‘He's gone the same way as those little birds that bothered me with their awful songs! And you will too, you and your horrible heart-music, because you won't stay out of my woods!'There's a dead girl in a birdcage in the woods. That's not unusual. Isola Wilde sees a lot of things other people don't... -
The Suffering by Rin Chupeco
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSeventeen-year-old Tark knows what it is to be powerless. But Okiku changed that. A restless spirit who ended life as a victim and started death as an avenger, she’s groomed Tark to destroy the wicked... -
Tombyards & Butterflies by Orlando A. Sanchez
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA Missing Ferryman. An Undead Dilemma. An Immortal Detective. An emissary from the Dark Council has just materialized in the office of the Montague & Strong Detective Agency, and makes Simon Strong an offer he can’t refuse. Charon is missing. The legendary ferryman responsible for transporting sorcerer souls across the river Styx hasn’t been seen in days... -
Reflections by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 26 ratings“For her to love me, she had to be willing to kill me. Anything else would show that her heart was untrue.”The struggle against not-so-charming storybook narratives isn’t the only complicating factor in Henrietta “Henry” Marchen’s life... -
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Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsWelcome to the Whitethorn Institute. The first step is always admitting you need help, and you've already taken that step by requesting a transfer into our company.There is another school for children who fall through doors and fall back out again. It isn't as friendly as Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. And it isn't as safe...Categorized as:
dark fairy-tale found-family lgbtq retellings action-adventure audiobook boarding-school -
The Wonderful Adventures of Geoffrey Scrutinous by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA short story written by Derek Landy dedicated to the winner of the character competition, Charlie Smith, containing the winning entry of "Geoffrey Scrutinous"... -
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsThe third novel set in the addictive and compelling fantasy world of Three Parts Dead.On the island of Kavekana, Kai builds gods to order, then hands them to others to maintain... -
Night Owls by A.R. Vishny
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this thrilling paranormal YA romance debut steeped in folklore, two estries—owl-shifting female vampires from Jewish tradition—face New York's monstrous underworld to save the girl one of them loves with help from the boy one of them fears before they are, all of them, lost forever.Clara loves rules... -
Lesser Known Monsters by Rory Michaelson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsBeing the chosen one isn’t always a good thing...Oscar Tundale is not a hero. Anxious, indecisive, and awkward, he can barely get through a normal day. Now he’s about to find out monsters are real. Oscar’s friends: brave, stubborn Zara, and hyperactive, paranoid Marcus, might help discover what hunts him, and unravel the truth about the handsome doctor he pines for... -
The Curse of Eelgrass Bog by Mary Averling
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsDark secrets and unnatural magic abound when a twelve-year-old girl ventures into a bog full of monsters to break a mysterious curse.Nothing about Kess Pedrock’s life is normal. Not her home (she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum), not her interests (hunting for megafauna fossils and skeletons), and not her best friend (a talking demon’s head in a jar named Shrunken Jim)... -
The Key by Mats Strandberg, Sara Bergmark Elfgren
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe final installment of the Engelsfors Trilogy—an international sensation with rights sold in 29 countries—The Key combines thrilling action and dark magic with all the passion and drama of teen life. The result is nothing less than explosive... -
The Little Country by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhen folk musician Janey Little finds a mysterious manuscript in an old trunk in her grandfather's cottage, she is swept into a dangerous realm both strange and familiar. But true magic lurks within the pages of The Little Country, drawing genuine danger from across the oceans into Janey's life, impelling her--armed only with her music--toward a terrifying confrontation... -
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 85 ratingsSussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother... -
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... -
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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...Categorized as:
dark fairy-tale myths retellings action-adventure anthologies audiobook children-books -
Demon Road by Derek Landy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe mind-blowing new supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.Full of Landy’s trademark wit, action and razor-sharp dialogue, DEMON ROAD kicks off with a shocking opener and never lets up the pace in an epic road-trip across the supernatural landscape of America... -
Moonheart by Charles de Lint
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsWhen Sara and Jamie discovered the seemingly ordinary artifacts, they sensed the pull of a dim and distant place. A world of mists and forests, of ancient magics, mythical beings, ageless bards...and restless evil... -
Sleeping Late on Judgement Day by Tad Williams
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe conclusion of Tad Williams' brilliant Bobby Dollar series.Bobby Dollar thinks he's seen it all - after all, he's been to Hell and back again. Literally.But he has another thing coming. Sleeping Late on Judgement Day will find Bobby back in his adopted hometown of San Judas, California, trying to stay out of trouble... and failing... -
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Proboscis" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story... -
Carniepunk: The Demon Barker of Wheat Street by Kevin Hearne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratings(This story takes place six years after Tricked, the fourth book of the Iron Druid Chronicles, and two weeks after the events of the novella Two Ravens and One Crow.)The ancient Druid Atticus O’Sullivan gets more than greasy corn dogs and flat soda when he visits a carnival in Kansas to which his apprentice, Granuaile, drags him...
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