Books like 'Elmer'
Readers who enjoyed Elmer by Gerry Alanguilan also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
fantasy alternate history animals dystopia family magical-realism friendship low-fantasy
-
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsA publishing event: Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume.With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie...Categorized as:
dystopia family low-fantasy magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens -
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsMitch Albom creates a magical world through his love of music in this remarkable new novel about the power of talent to change our livesThis is the epic story of Frankie Presto—the greatest guitar player who ever lived—and the six lives he changed with his six magical blue stringsFrankie, born in a burning church, abandoned as an infant, and raised by a music teacher in a small Spanish town,...Categorized as:
family friendship magical-realism action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop returns to her world of the Others, as humans struggle to survive in the shadow of shapeshifters and vampires far more powerful than themselves… After a human uprising was brutally put down by the Elders—a primitive and lethal form of the Others—the few cities left under human control are far-flung...Categorized as:
dystopia family friendship action-adventure alpha-mc alternate-history audiobook book -
Inherited Luck by Mel Todd
Rated: 4.54 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMagical house, insane killer, and life altering decisions—being an adult sucks.I did it, I've graduated and no more pressure. And I've got a house, me a house! Road trip time for Jo, Sable, and me up to Albany, New York. The house both is and isn't what I expected. Beautiful-yes. Locked rooms with mysterious stuff-yes. But it also seems alive, which isn't possible...Categorized as:
animals low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult alternate-history book cats -
-
The Lost Future of Pepperharrow by Natasha Pulley
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 29 ratings1888. Five years after they met in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Thaniel Steepleton, an unassuming translator, and Keita Mori, the watchmaker who remembers the future, are traveling to Japan. Thaniel has received an unexpected posting to the British legation in Tokyo, and Mori has business that is taking him to Yokohama...Categorized as:
family friendship magical-realism action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsMatt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies...Categorized as:
animals dystopia friendship action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children -
You Only Live Once by Heide Goody, Iain Grant
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe earth has been invaded by unfathomable terrors from another dimension and international governments are doing their best to pretend nothing is happening. But you can’t keep an alien invasion hidden forever. A Hollywood production company is filming in the city: a spy thriller blockbuster that will introduce the Venislarn monsters to the viewing public... -
Spellmaker by Charlie N. Holmberg
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsDead wizards, stolen enchantments, and broken promises force a young spellbreaker out of the shadows in the next thrilling installment of the Spellbreaker series by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician.England, 1895. An unsolved series of magician murders and opus thefts isn’t a puzzle to Elsie Camden...Categorized as:
family friendship magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book coming-of-age -
La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsMalcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed himself. And so perhaps it was inevitable that he would become a spy...Malcolm's father runs an inn called the Trout, on the banks of the river Thames, and all of Oxford passes through its doors...Categorized as:
animals friendship magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book -
The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djèlí Clark
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFireside MagazineFebruary 2018Nebula Winner, Best Short Story in... -
Unawakened by R.J. Blain, Trillian Anderson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsUpon discovering the unawakened are a primary source of sustenance for dae without a bonded human, Alexa must come to terms with her status as Rob’s lover and provider. To complicate matters, Kenneth and his dae are convinced she belongs only to them. Unless she can rise up from her station and become a player in the games the dae play, she will remain a pawn and a victim... -
Embers of Destruction by J. Scott Savage
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's time to take the battle to the dragons. In the third and final volume of the bestselling Mysteries of Cove series, Trenton and Kallista--along with their friends, Plucky, Simoni, Angus, and Clyde--fly their mechanical dragons south toward San Francisco, looking to rescue any survivors from the battle of Seattle...Categorized as:
animals dystopia low-fantasy action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children-books -
The Sand Sea by Michael McClellan
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"An astounding epic novel of J.R.R. Tolkien proportions!"— Steven Pressfield, Bestselling author of Gates of Fire and The War of ArtRaiders of the Lost Ark playing A Game of ThronesThe Sand Sea takes place on an alternative Earth roiled by war and conquest that mirrors our own Gilded Age...Categorized as:
dystopia low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult alternate-history book epic -
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOuter Space, Inner Lands includes many of the best known Ursula K. Le Guin nonrealistic stories (such as "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," "Semley’s Necklace," and "She Unnames Them") which have shaped the way many readers see the world. She gives voice to the voiceless, hope to the outsider, and speaks truth to power—all the time maintaining her independence and sense of humor...Categorized as:
animals low-fantasy magical-realism adult alternate-history anthologies audiobook classics -
-
Sisters' Fate by Jessica Spotswood
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA fever ravages New London, but with the Brotherhood sending suspected witches straight to the gallows, the Sisters are powerless against the disease. They can’t help without revealing their powers—as Cate learns when a potent display of magic turns her into the most wanted witch in all of New England. To make matters worse, Cate has been erased from the memory of her beloved Finn...Categorized as:
dystopia family friendship low-fantasy action-adventure alpha-mc alternate-history book -
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:
dystopia family friendship 20th-century action-adventure alpha-mc alternate-history boarding-school -
The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThey are each other's fiercest love, greatest danger, and only hope. Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost -- one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long lost artifact rumoured to grant its possessor the power of God...Categorized as:
friendship low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history asian-mc audiobook book -
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAlone on a desert island — everything and everyone he knows and loves has been washed away in a storm — Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He’s completely alone — or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird, and gives him a stick that can make fire... -
The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton's Lair by S.S. Taylor, Katherine Roy
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsKit, Zander, and M. K. West are settling into their new lives as students at the Academy for the Exploratory Sciences when Kit finds another mysterious map left for him by their father, the brilliant, famous — and presumed dead — explorer Alexander West...Categorized as:
animals dystopia action-adventure alternate-history alternate-universe book children children-books -
Word of Honour by Michael Pryor
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSinister plots, schemes within schemes, magical upheavals, and a world to save from evil. As always, Aubrey goes looking for trouble--and finds it, in spades.Magical genius Aubrey Fitzwilliam, along with his loyal friend George, is trying to immerse himself in his new life at university. But for Aubrey life is never straightforward...Categorized as:
family low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history book children-books fiction -
The Cecelia and Kate Novels: Sorcery & Cecelia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician by Patricia C. Wrede
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsCourageous cousins are forced to do battle with magical foes in this series, collected here in a single volume In Sorcery & Cecelia, cousins Kate and Cecelia have been inseparable since childhood. But in 1817, as they approach adulthood, their families force them to spend a summer apart...Categorized as:
family friendship magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history book female-author fiction -
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 -
Interesting Places by Matthew Storm
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOliver Jones, a man who once discovered he had the power to change reality itself, used to be called the most dangerous man in the world. Now he's joined The Araneae Group, a team of paranormal investigators under the command of Artemis, a seemingly immortal ten-year-old girl...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure adult alternate-history book contemporary fiction -
Tyger by S.F. Said
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn a strange alternate world, where the British Empire has never ended, a young boy called Adam has uncovered something incredible in a rubbish dump in London – a mysterious, mythical, magical animal... -
-
The Fog Diver by Joel N. Ross
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA deadly white mist has cloaked the earth for hundreds of years. Humanity clings to the highest mountain peaks, where the wealthy Five Families rule over the teeming lower slopes and rambling junkyards. As the ruthless Lord Kodoc patrols the skies to enforce order, thirteen-year-old Chess and his crew scavenge in the Fog-shrouded ruins for anything they can sell to survive...Categorized as:
dystopia family friendship action-adventure alternate-history book children children-books -
The After-Room by Maile Meloy
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt’s 1955, and Benjamin Burrows and Janie Scott are trying to live a safe, normal life in America. It’s not easy, when they have the power to prevent nuclear disaster, and sinister forces are circling. Soon the advice of a mysterious, unscrupulous magician propels Janie and Benjamin into danger, and toward the land of the dead...Categorized as:
family friendship magical-realism action-adventure alchemy alternate-history audiobook book -
Bright Ruin by Vic James
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsMagically gifted aristocrats rule--and commoners are doomed to serve. But a rebellion threatens the old order. The dystopian trilogy that began with Gilded Cage and Tarnished City concludes...Categorized as:
dystopia magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book coming-of-age dark -
Eli by Bill Myers
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat If Jesus Had Not Come Until Today?Who Would Follow Him?Who Would Kill Him?A fiery car crash hurls TV journalist Conrad Davis into another world exactly like ours except for one detail—Jesus Christ did not come 2,000 years ago, but today...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism alternate-history audiobook book christian drama fiction -
Crossfire by Blackman Malorie
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratings'The Noughts & Crosses series are still my favourite books of all time and showed me just how amazing story-telling could be' STORMZY'I grew up reading her. It was one of the few books about black people, so I felt seen.' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS'The most original book I've ever read' BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH"Malorie Blackman is absolutely amazing .. -
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe BookWorld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following an assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation. If only life were that simple... -
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 61 ratingsIn 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box...Categorized as:
family low-fantasy magical-realism alternate-history audiobook book fairy-tale female-author -
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsPeter Knox lives quietly in one of those small country villages that's up for the Village Garden of the Year award...Categorized as:
animals dystopia family friendship magical-realism 21st-century action-adventure adult -
Black Heart by Holly Black
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsIn a world where magic is illegal, Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all. With one touch, he can transform any object--including a person--into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he'll only leave his con artist family behind and go straight... -
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 47 ratingsEdward (long live the king) is the King of England. He’s also dying, which is inconvenient, as he’s only sixteen and he’d much rather be planning for his first kiss than considering who will inherit his crown…Jane (reads too many books) is Edward’s cousin, and far more interested in books than romance. Unfortunately for Jane, Edward has arranged to marry her off to secure the line of succession...Categorized as:
animals family friendship low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
-
The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsStop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future.In modern-day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power—and often their lives...Categorized as:
dystopia friendship low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book -
The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsThree ordinary children are brought together by extraordinary events...Giuseppe is an orphaned street musician from Italy, who was sold by his uncle to work as a slave for an evil padrone in the U.S. But when a mysterious green violin enters his life he begins to imagine a life of freedom...Categorized as:
dystopia friendship low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book -
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:
animals family friendship low-fantasy magical-realism action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsLong ago, magic began to fade, and the underemployed magicians of Kazam Mystical Arts Management have been forced to take any work their sixteen-year-old acting manager, Jennifer Strange, can scare up. But things are about to change. Magical power is finally on the rise, and King Snodd IV, of the Ununited Kingdoms knows that he who controls magic controls everything... -
The Thief by Claire North, Michel Pagel
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Gameshouse is an unusual institution. Many know it as the place where fortunes can be made and lost through games of chess, backgammon - every game under the sun.But a select few, who are picked to compete in the higher league, know that some games are played for higher stakes - those of politics and empires, of economics and kings . .Categorized as:
magical-realism low-fantasy fantasy fiction historical-fiction audiobook urban-fantasy historical -
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 Map of Stars by Laura Ruby
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAfter the events of The Clockwork Ghost, Tess, Theo, and Jaime don’t know what to think about their legacy—both past and present. They have only one choice: to follow the Old York Cipher to the end.Doing so reveals the plans for a machine invented over 150 years ago but never built. Its purpose is a mystery, but Tess, Theo, and Jaime know that they must construct it...Categorized as:
dystopia friendship action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book children children-books -
The Broken Lands by Kate Milford
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA crossroads can be a place of great power.So begins this deliciously spine-tingling prequel to Kate Milford’s The Boneshaker, set in the colorful world of nineteenth-century Coney Island and New York City...Categorized as:
family friendship low-fantasy magical-realism 19th-century action-adventure alternate-history book -
Ella: Cinders and Ash by Erik Schubach
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDrawn to Seattle by the pull of black magics, Ella brings her wrath. A trail of blood and violence left in her wake. By chance, Parker Devareau, meets Ella while rushing home to get behind the safety of her Full Moon Bars on a full moon night. Parker can see, hear and feel things that no ordinary person can... -
The Path to Otherwhere: or How I Spent My Summer Vacation by T.S. Paul
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe wait is over! Agatha's vacation is revealed! Her entire life living with her Grandmother, Agatha was told to never, ever, go into the Garden alone. But there are secrets never discussed and she believes the key is through the garden gate. Join Agatha and Fergus as they travel to the realm of the Mystical Library and discover who and what they were meant to be... -
-
Scorn of Angels by John Patrick Kennedy
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNyx, Queen of Hell, lies broken and burning in a box at the bottom of the Lake of Fire, put there but her lover Tribunal, who is God’s Son. Nyx’s daughter Epiphenia, has been slaughtered by Tribunal and Lucifer. Her companions, Persephone and Ishtar, were captured and are now suffering unspeakable torture... -
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:
dystopia low-fantasy magical-realism alternate-history book children-books fiction gothic -
The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsThe Cruel Prince meets The Selection in this captivating duology opener brimming with heart-pounding romance, vicious competition, and beautiful, cruel fae, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Haven, Sasha Peyton Smith.Every citizen of England is granted one bargain from their immortal fae queen... -
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 -
Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLiz Ziemska has fashioned a beautiful story about one famous survivor and the magic and mathematics he's brought to the world...Categorized as:
low-fantasy magical-realism 20th-century adult alternate-history book female-author fiction -
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...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.